Trolleyology: West Penn Railways

Join PTM staff, volunteers, members, and friends of the Museum for our Zoom series, Trolleyology! These programs feature Pennsylvania transit history topics, stories of our collection, and tales of the Trolley Era that you can experience from home. Registration is required but free of charge. Donations support our programming and are welcome and encouraged.

RUNTIME: 105 Minutes

At its peak, West Penn Railways had 237 miles of electric railway trackage. It operated in the well populated coal mining and coking region of rugged, mountainous western Pennsylvania. West Penn Railways was a vibrant transportation system playing a key role in the pre automobile, unpaved, poor road era, and was an important factor in the Coking region’s economy.

This program combines Harvey Laner’s West Penn Railways video files of railfans Ed Miller and Gene Schmidt’s movies with Harvey’s conversational narration with West Penn Railways historian Ed Lybarger. Ed meticulously describes the route as Ed Millers’ movies take us from Uniontown to Greensburg. Ed Lybarger details West Penn’s LCL freight service, an in-depth description of the Company’s passenger and work car equipment, a whimsical look at West Penn’s creative advertising program and an overview of the management people that guided the Company through the good and the difficult years.

This complete story of West Penn Railways includes a look at the web of public utilities that connect it to West Virginia’s Monongahela & West Penn and Wheeling Traction Company properties as well as the Hagerstown & Frederick Railway in Maryland. Historic movie scenes of those traction properties are also included in this far reaching, comprehensive program.

NOTE: This program will not be recorded at the request of the presenter.

When: Tuesday, October 29, 2024 at 7 PM ET

A Zoom link will be sent to you in a confirmation email after registration. For those who have registered by 12 PM on the day of the program, a reminder email will also be sent with an easy-to-click link to join the Zoom.

If you do not receive a confirmation email with the Zoom link, please reach out to Kristen Fredriksen at kfred@patrolley.org.