I’m a new guy here to these forums. I hope I put this in the right place. I have been doing as much research as I can on the Ligonier Valley Railroad. This was a shortline railroad in Western Pennsylvania. It was in operation from 1879 till 1952. It started out as a narrow gauge and was converted to standard gauge in 1903. It connected with the Pennsylvania Railroad at Latrobe, Pennsylvania. I was just wondering if anyone else had heard of it and had any other information that maybe I don’t have. I hope to enjoy myself here. Great forums!
You hit a subject right down my alley…! I went back the 5 years and looked at the comments {referred to above}, that I had written then.
The LVRR was{is}, the love of my {railfan life}…I will be glad to “talk” to you about my experience being around it a lot as I was growing up. I even have a {newspaper clipping of the farewell trip}, that was sent to me from the wife of the engineer on the last run…from her place in Florida, several years ago.
And I was in that beautiful station P Z included in his post…back when there was a WWII airplane spotting post on the top of the station.
The ROW can still be seen in quite a few locations. And on and on the story goes. There are pic’s of both doodlebugs on the internet as well as a pic {taken in 1940}, of one of their steam engines. I believe none of them survive. {the steam engines}…I do not know about the doodlebugs.
By the way, rt. 30 west, west of Long Bridge, is on the LVRR ROW down to Kingston. {I believe it is called…}.
Welcome to the forum, Tim. As you can see, a lot of people have a lot of information and are willing to share. Especially that site Poppa Zit gave you.
I wish I could find that much info for the short line I was researching a few years ago, but there aren’t many railfans in the Ozarks and I’ve never even seen it mentioned anywhere, but in some old records in Jeff City.
I don’t know your age, which would lead me to believe that you are possibly post 1950’s in birth. Which really does not matter, except to explain your question.
During the WWII era, the War Dept utilized the Civil Air Patrol as ground observers, and they were located in observation posts in all parts of the Contnental US. The stations would normally be manned by civilian volunteers who were organized as part of the Ground Obse
…Sorry I didn’t get back with an answer quicker but Sam sure did an excellent job of explaining what the “posts” and towers were all about.
Our tower in my small home town of {pop. 450} in Pennsylvania, was located at a high elevation point and it had the large cards with the silhouettes of enemy aircraft.
…Many, many times I was in Ligonier visiting family and would try to be at that depot there and wait for the doodlebug to arrive from Latrobe and drop off the afternoon papers…along with any passengers riding the line coming in to Ligonier.
That large building north across the space from the Depot and across Main st…was originally the “roundhouse”…{It is now and has been for years a Catholic School complex}. Of course they used to house and service their engines and doodlebugs there. In that space was a "yard that included a watering stand pipe, {for the steam engines}, and a coal bunker tower for the same reason. The yard extended beyond the street behind the roundhouse and was 3 or 4 tracks for coal car storage, etc…Believe there is a lumber yard located on some of that area now.
I remember LVRR had at least one passenger car back in the '40’s. Probably more early in the century. Back in {I believe it was the 'teens}, there was a terrible wreck involving a passenger train and it killed {I believe the figure was around 23 people}…At that time, one of the worst RR accidents.
The doodlebugs used to stop right in the middle of Idlewild Park at a tiny station to take on and discharge passengers. If you know where to look, you might still see the remnants of where the ROW was. I haven’t been there now for some years so changes probably have removed some of the evidence.
Special Passenger trains would come in from Pittsburgh to Idelwild Park for the day with a load of special folks, etc…There were several sidings large enough to hold several trains. The route would be Pennsy to Latrobe, and then the LVRR on to Idlewild Park.
Sam, thanks for the explanation. But this seems like wartime hysteria and not a serious military threat. Did any German bombers have the capability to fly across the Atlantic?
Dave
[quote user=“samfp1943”]
Dave:
I don’t know your age, which would lead me to believe that you are possibly post 1950’s in birth. Which really does not matter, except to explain your question.
…The threat was great enough that we had black-out drills quite often in our communities. Turn out all the lights or have “black-out” curtains up at the windows to keep the area dark as the air raid sirens would blow…
We didn’t have instant communication with every facet of life then and perhaps we didn’t know exactly what we were facing at any time…The potential seemed to be always there, and our nation took precautions against it.
…A little bit of trivia: I have a “regulator” clock right here {and it works}, that is reported to have come out of the Ligonier station. I have a picture of the inside of the waiting room and it shows the clock on the wall, but it is not the one I have.
So…I’m assuming it came from one of the LVRR company offices that were on the 2nd floor of the station. There used to be a green light on the 2nd floor pointed out towards the roundhouse track, more towards the north track to Wilpen and the light would always be green if the track was clear there at the station where the track went on both the east and west side of the station, which connected to the line to Latrobe…and in the past, east to Somerset via the PW&S RR.
I don’t know if that was in operation way back when the PW&S RR connected there to the east end of the LVRR or not…and headed up and over Laurel Hill Mountain and down the other side and {thru Quemahoning tunnel}, to Somerset. It was a logging RR and it did have passenger operations for about 10 or so years back in the 'teens of the 20th century.
Sam, thanks for the explanation. But this seems like wartime hysteria and not a serious military threat. Did any German bombers have the capability to fly across the Atlantic?
Dave
[quote user=“samfp1943”]
Dave:
I don’t know your age, which would lead me to believe that you are possibly post 1950’s in birth. Which really does not matter, except to explain your question.
Unfortunately, wartime hysteria led to the internment of Japanese Americans. Clearly, there was no threat of German bombers attacking the United States.
Dave
[quote user=“samfp1943”]
[quote user=“dsktc”]
Sam, thanks for the explanation. But this seems like wartime hysteria and not a serious military threat. Did any German bombers have the capability to fly across the Atlantic?
Clearly, you are correct. But during those times, there were in hindsight many decisions were made that could be considered questionable with current social thinking, knowing of history what we now know.
Specifically, the internment of the Japanese-Americans. When that decision was made it was probably viewed then as a perfecty rationa and logical step,l in light of the Pearl Harbor attack and the destruction of most of the Pacific Fleet. I don’t want to argue the politics of 60+ years ago, as this is not the time and/or place. The historical facts are known to all and can be researched fairly easily, what we might now view as rational or politically correct.
Nevertheless, man’s history is dotted with events that at the time seemed to be perfectly logical and explicable, but after time and social change, would be considered in a far different light.
…Dave: I was a bit on the young side during all the period of discussion, but old enough to be quite aware of what was happening in the world…
I wouldn’t call the preparations like “black out drills”, and “airplane spotting”, and guards and rotating flood lights at a large dam near my home…{Quemahoning Dam}, that supplied water for the steel mills {then a major supplier of steel}, in Johnstown…hysteria…
I feel much of it was justified and cautious actions during the time anything such as sabotage at any important place was possible. Even over at Horseshoe curve and tunnels near Altoona.
Again, I would like to comment concerning communication capability in that era. No comparison to what current systems offer…A very large difference.