Eastern Railroad Discussion > abandoned trolley graveyard of western PA

link to photographs

Follow the above link to my images from the abandoned trolley/streetcar graveyard in western Pennsylvania a few weeks ago.

It amazes and astonishes me that places like this exist, and through the rust and decay the beauty and romance of a better vanished time can be found.
Mother Nature, as well as unfortunately vandalism and graffiti, has been hard on these machines, but glimpses of their former glory days are still evident.
A majority this 70+ piece collection of retired relics are from the tracks in Boston, Cincinnati, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Cleveland.

All photos taken on private property with full permission and consent of the owner.

Enjoy,
Matthew

What a collection - sad to see most of it seems to be junk at this point in time.  There seems to be some restoration taking place inside the shop.  The owners certainly have a source for parts but I can't help wonder how many parts are useless.  Are you able to tell us where in western PA this assortment resides?  I realize it's private property and most of us won't have a desire to visit - even in the jungles of July...

I have been asked not to post address location information, and will honor that request.
Matthew

This may be a stupid question, but, here it goes: is there any scrap value at all in cleaning areas like that up? I love history as much as the next person, but, that's just beyond sad.

mfmalk Wrote:
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> I have been asked not to post address location
> information, and will honor that request.
> Matthew
​Matthew; thanks for this information and the photos.  However, since you know where this is and you cannot tell anyone, has the owner ever contacted any of the many streetcar (trolley) museums in the country that might be able to use some of the parts from some of these cars?  I have heard that the T in Boston could use parts for some of their cars still in operation and I'd wonder about the stuff running in San Francisco.  This is a crime to just continue to allow the stuff to rust away.  I agree that a lot of the cars probably are beyond being restored and should be cut up for scrap; however parts from cars are always needed, otherwise many museums have to have them made at a very high cost.  It is worth the owner of this stuff to be aware that some of this stuff could be sold.
John in White Marsh, Maryland

That place has been on my to do list for the longest time, I doubt I'll ever get up there.
Great shots, thanks for sharing!


Jay

I believe the trolley museum people know of this place and the parts are either too far gone or the owner wants a fortune for them. I've seen photos of the cars he keeps inside the building on his property and they are in much better condition than the ones outside in the weather.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/26/16 11:23 by csxmonsubfan.

I thought the location was fairly well known? I have explored it myself on google and bing satellite. I won't say it here to avoid issues for the OP, but it's fairly common knowledge (in these circles)

Everyone is probably familiar with this photo, but if not, do a search for Pacific Electric Streetcar Graveyard (USA)

reel_smooth Wrote:
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> This may be a stupid question, but, here it goes:
> is there any scrap value at all in cleaning areas
> like that up? I love history as much as the next
> person, but, that's just beyond sad.

I would think scrapping most of the generic PCC hulks would be the best option. Maybe take any usable parts out first and give them to museums and write it off on taxes, then use the money to restore a select number of unique cars. There are more people out there like this around the World that bought a lot of stuff like this at scrap value and then never had the money or time to fix any of it. When it gets to basket case deterioration they don't scrap the stuff, don't part it out. It's their stuff but in the end what was saved?

Jim