Nostalgia & History > Somerset, PA, Mystery Depot (B&O)??

I'm hoping somebody can help me identify a building that appears to be a B&O depot.  When I photographed this building in November 1982, it was close to the B&O's Boswell Subdivision on the north side of Somerset, near the PA Turnpike exit and plainly visible from the Turnpike.  This was not the depot for Somerset.  The Somerset depot, now gone, was a brick structure along the Somerset & Cambria (S&C) Subdivision line between Rockwood and Johnstown, and closer to the center of town.  I don't see any reason B&O would have had another depot on the Boswell Sub just a short distance away.  There was not a depot listed in this location on B&O's Form 6, their Official List of Stations.  The Boswell Subdivision was a branch that junctioned with the S&C Subdivision near the PA Turnpike on the north side of Somerset.  The Boswell Subdivision went underneath the PA Turnpike and extended to the coal mining town of Boswell.  This building was just to the north of the Turnpike when I photographed it, but I suspect that may not have been its original location.  The building is no longer there, I don't know what happened to it.  It sure looks like a depot, and I would like to know its history, and if it still survives somewhere.  Thanks in advance to anyone who could provide some information about it.  



 



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/27/20 06:51 by cr7998.

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I found this postcard pic that seems to be the depot in question. What the "LM" stands for is a mystery to me. The B&O owned Somerset and surrounding area - but a bit of research reveals another line reached Somerset from Ligonier, PA - the short-lived Pittsburgh, Westmoreland and Somerset Railroad. The architecture of the station does not seem to be B&O to my eyes - so a guess would be that this may be the PW&S Somerset Depot where that line interchanged with the B&O. But just a guess.

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Here's another photo of a similar station at Stoyestown clearly marked as B&O. So the mystery station is most likely a B&O station. Perhaps this type of station was the norm on the Somerset and Cambria Railroad that the B&O financed to reach Johnstown from Somerset.

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Here's a Wikipedia article about the Pittsburgh, Westmoreland & Somerset Railroad.  It only operated from 1906 to 1916.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pittsburgh,_Westmoreland_and_Somerset_Railroad

Thanks to bigkidpgh and RuleG for the responses that helped shed light on this matter.  The depot I photographed at Somerset in 1982 looks remarkably like the Stoystown depot in the pic provided by bigkidpgh.  The other pic provided by bigkidpgh shows a very similar structure at Somerset, labelled "LM Station".  That is the same structure that I photographed in 1982, at the same location.  I suspect this mystery depot is the old Stoystown depot, and here is why.  In the early 1960's there was a short-lived tourist railroad that operated out of Somerset, called the Laurel Mountain.  I suspect the depot was moved from Stoystown to Somerset about that time for use by the Laurel Mountain.  The location in Somerset would have made sense for the tourist railroad, right next to the PA Turnpike Exit and PA Route 601, and close to the B&O's Boswell Subdivision.  Using the search function, I found some old threads here on Trainorders about this operation.  The Laurel Mountain apparently had authority to use the Boswell Subdivision between Somerset and Sipesville, but it was apparently unsuccessful, as it lasted only a year or so.  The threads were mostly about the steam engine used by the LM, ex-Buffalo Creek & Gauley 2-8-0 #13 (now at the Age of Steam Roundhouse in Sugarcreek OH).  Unfortunately there were no pictures of the station on those threads.  A study of aerial photos on Historic Aerials shows that the depot at Stoystown was there in 1955 and gone in 1964, corresponding to the time when the Laurel Mountain would have been operating.  

Some further research revealed that the Stoystown depot has been restored and is now the home of the Stoystown Historical Society.  It is in the American Legion Park, just east of Stoystown off of U.S. Route 30, on North Club Road.  The restored building has a dormer with a peaked roof over the bay window that does not appear in the photos on this thread.  However, in looking at Charles Roberts book "Sand Patch", there is a chapter on the S&C Subdivision, and on Page 112 there is a picture of the Stoystown depot, circa 1890, showing the dormer over the bay window.  That dormer and its peaked roof were apparently removed sometime after that, as it does not appear in the photo provided by bigkidpgh showing the depot at Stoystown when in use by B&O.  The dormer was obviously part of the restoration effort.  The sign on the restored depot says Stoyestown, as does the B&O Form 6 Listing of Stations.  But the offical name of the town appears to be Stoystown, named after Daniel Stoy, one of the first settlers in the area, and an officer in the Revolutionary War under George Washington.  The next time I'm driving the PA Turnpike through that area, it would be worth a short side trip.  If anyone has further information, please speak up.  Thanks.  

 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/26/20 10:58 by cr7998.

In Sept. 1952, the Somerset American, run a series, on Franklin J. Langsdales Story Of A Mountian
Railroad. The Somerset Newspaper or Somerset Library might have this on film.
 

Thank you for following up with your additional research.
I don't think there's anything on the following site that you haven't already discovered, but it is an interesting reference:
Pennsylvania Railroad Stations: Past and Present
/Ted

cr7998 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Thanks to bigkidpgh and RuleG for the responses
> that helped shed light on this matter.  The depot
> I photographed at Somerset in 1982 looks
> remarkably like the Stoystown depot in the pic
> provided by bigkidpgh.  The other pic provided by
> bigkidpgh shows a very similar structure at
> Somerset, labelled "LM Station".  That is the
> same structure that I photographed in 1982, at the
> same location.  I suspect this mystery depot is
> the old Stoystown depot, and here is why.  In the
> early 1960's there was a short-lived tourist
> railroad that operated out of Somerset, called the
> Laurel Mountain.  I suspect the depot was moved
> from Stoystown to Somerset about that time for use
> by the Laurel Mountain.  The location in Somerset
> would have made sense for the tourist railroad,
> right next to the PA Turnpike Exit and PA Route
> 601, and close to the B&O's Boswell Subdivision. 
> Using the search function, I found some old
> threads here on Trainorders about this
> operation.  The Laurel Mountain apparently had
> authority to use the Boswell Subdivision between
> Somerset and Sipesville, but it was apparently
> unsuccessful, as it lasted only a year or so. 
> The threads were mostly about the steam engine
> used by the LM, ex-Buffalo Creek & Gauley 2-8-0
> #13 (now at the Age of Steam Roundhouse in
> Sugarcreek OH).  Unfortunately there were no
> pictures of the station on those threads.  A
> study of aerial photos on Historic Aerials shows
> that the depot at Stoystown was there in 1955 and
> gone in 1964, corresponding to the time when the
> Laurel Mountain would have been operating.  
>
> Some further research revealed that the Stoystown
> depot has been restored and is now the home of the
> Stoystown Historical Society.  It is in the
> American Legion Park, just east of Stoystown off
> of U.S. Route 30, on North Club Road.  The
> restored building has a dormer with a peaked roof
> over the bay window that does not appear in the
> photos on this thread.  However, in looking at
> Charles Roberts book "Sand Patch", there is a
> chapter on the S&C Subdivision, and on Page 112
> there is a picture of the Stoystown depot, circa
> 1890, showing the dormer over the bay window. 
> That dormer and its peaked roof were apparently
> removed sometime after that, as it does not appear
> in the photo provided by bigkidpgh showing the
> depot at Stoystown when in use by B&O.  The
> dormer was obviously part of the restoration
> effort.  The sign on the restored depot says
> Stoyestown, as does the B&O Form 6 Listing of
> Stations.  But the offical name of the town
> appears to be Stoystown, named after Daniel Stoy,
> one of the first settlers in the area, and an
> officer in the Revolutionary War under George
> Washington.  The next time I'm driving the PA
> Turnpike through that area, it would be worth a
> short side trip.  If anyone has further
> information, please speak up.  Thanks.  
>
>  

Some additional items:
Using a combination of Historic Aerials, Penn Pilot, Sand Patch book, and Harwood's South Penn book, along with Russell Love's South Penn research (pg. 143-144 in the Harwood book), one can see that PW&S Jct. consisted of 3 routes.
1. The S&C to Johnstown through Geiger, Friedens, Stoy(e)stown, etc.
2. B&O Boswell or Quemahoning branch (also used by WM), this route once formed a circular route back to the S&C at Friedens.
3. PW&S route west to Husband,PA., where it picked up the South Penn roadbed (through Quemahoning Tunnel) to Gillette, and then split off over Laurel MT. to Ligonier. The turnpike route from Somerset to Husband was built directly on the PW&S roadbed in 1939-40.
It certainly seems reasonable that the Stoyestown B&O depot was moved between 1958-1965 to the location where you shot it in 1982. The original location in Stoyestown was actually in Kantner,PA. on the east bank of Stony Creek and very close to the original route of the Lincoln Highway.
The "Laurel Mtn" sounds like more of a hard-luck operation than the equally ill-fated (1965-71) tourist operations of the original Everett RR about 35 miles east of Somerset.
The Sand Patch book also has reference to this buildings use as an insurance office, so I again surmise that it was moved again between 1993-2005, when it disappeared on Historic Aerials from the location you shot it. However Charlie Roberts got sloppy and did not pursue the history further.
This was all very interesting, if you make it to Stoystown, check out the Hollsopple depot a few miles further north, an excellent job of restoration.
Unfortunately the former SC tower/yard office in Somerset yard may have been razed.
Hollsopple depot pics: 5/25/2013, by WW Jenkins

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Some how missed this thread the other day. Pretty much everything has been covered up to this point, nice job on the research guys! Only thing I can add at this point is in regards to the Somerset yard office/tower and the Holsopple station. Both are still extant, the Holsopple depot having been restored about a dozen or so years ago. The tower at Somerset, call letters SX, has not fared near as well. It was resided during the CSX era, but has sat unused for well over a decade now. A good many of the windows have been broken, but it still stands. I attached a couple shots of SX and also the Holsopple station.

On a related note, the yard office at Johnstown, DE, also still stands, however is in very bad shape, with the roof having all but dissapeared in the last 5 years. Rockwood's station also still stands, and is in use by CSX crews, inside the wye there. Always good to see some S&C Sub coverage on here! 

Scooter

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