Waynesburg and Washington Railroad

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Waynesburg and Washington Railroad
Map
standard gauge
Previous gaugeOriginally 3 ft (914 mm) gauge

The Waynesburg and Washington Railroad was a twenty-eight-mile, three-foot gauge subsidiary of the

oil and gas, helped all of the natural resource industries to grow and spurred an increase in population in Waynesburg, Pennsylvania. Coal was already being mined
on the eastern end of the county near the river.

From the 1870s through the 1920s, this line (often referred to as the Wayynie) served its namesake towns in

Southwestern Pennsylvania. After the 1930s, the line struggled on, mostly on paper. Today, all that remains from the railroad's heyday is one locomotive, a few stations
and a few images.

History

The Waynesburg and Washington Railroad ran between the county seats of

narrow gauge line, because of the current inclination toward the building of those types of lines and because they were cheaper to build. The line ran independently until the Pennsylvania Railroad acquired it in 1885.[2]

The former station depot at Iams in April 2022

The line had fallen by the wayside around the time of the

Moguls
on the line in later times, but these had to have the center drivers blind. This made for an interesting rolling stock and mainline.

The former station depot at West Amity in April 2022

Waynesburg was the southern terminus. This was the main yard for the line and had a

turntable, freight house, stockyard, all the associated yard structures for locomotives - and of course the station. The station was built in 1885 and the two track train shed was built in 1893. By 1904, the station had a long freight room, waiting room
, ticket office, and the railroad's offices. The Downey House and the Walton House both had porters that met every train and shouted the name of their respective hotels. They toted luggage the several blocks uptown to the hotels.

When war broke, Company K would all pile into the coaches at the station to ride to Washington and then on to Pittsburgh. After the line started failing, the yard was torn up and the station was passed on to a local wool dealer and then to the county road department. The yard was completely gone by the 1980s, and the station was near collapse. In the late 1980s, the station was torn down; Conrail now has an office and a siding in this spot. In 2023 it was announced a surviving locomotive will be featured at the 44th National Narrow Gauge Convention. The locomotive is currently housed at the Greene County Historical Society and will be displayed at a museum in the 2024.[4]

References

  1. ^ Cumberledge, Matt. "Greene Artifacts: Charles Alexander Black". greenescenemagazine.com. Retrieved 19 February 2024.
  2. ^ "W&W Railroad History – Greene County Historical Society".
  3. ^ "Last Narrow Gauge Railroad Ends". The Pittsburgh Press. July 7, 1929. pp. 13, 15. Retrieved April 19, 2022 – via Newspapers.com. Open access icon
  4. ^ "Waynesburg & Washington Railroad". 44th National Narrow Gauge Convention. 15 July 2021.

External links