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Pennsylvania Railroad Beaver Falls to Conway

In this view taken on a sunny weekend afternoon, we see the last of Pennsylvania Railroad’s Beaver Falls to Pittsburgh commuter trains, consisting of an Alco RS3 (Class AS16ms) and five P70 coaches. These RS3’s replaced the G5s 4-6-0’s that formerly laid over here with their trains, but the diesel-electrics would last in this service only until November 1964, when all of PRR’s Pittsburgh commuter service would be eliminated. Note the freshly painted whistle post warning of the road crossing ahead and the mail crane, where mail bags would be hung to be snagged by a passing Railway Post Office mail car clerk. The company service tank car, to the left of the locomotive, is equipped with a pump and delivery pipe to supply the commuter locomotive either diesel fuel or treated water for the train’s steam heating boiler.

Pennsylvania Railroad Beaver Falls to Conway

TRP 2022-04by Gale E. Treiber/photos by the author

Mention “Beaver Falls” to most people my age, and their first response is, “Ah, Joe Namath country!” And it’s true that “Broadway Joe” was a native of Beaver Falls and probably the most famous of the many football players that worked their way out of the valley towns around Pittsburgh via college football scholarships. Most of those that stayed behind worked in the hundreds of mills and factories that lined the shores of Pittsburgh’s three rivers: the Allegheny, the Monongahela and the Ohio. To support these industries, three major railroads – the Pennsylvania, the Pittsburgh & Lake Erie and the Baltimore & Ohio – ran along those riverbanks, hauling raw materials in and finished goods out, plus food, fuel and household goods to support a population of about two and one-half million in the Greater Pittsburgh area. Beyond the suburbs, those three railroads connected the valley towns to downtown Pittsburgh with a network of commuter lines.

I was born in Beaver Falls in 1942, and although my Dad had left for Pittsburgh via the aforementioned football scholarship route, it was our ancestral homeland, with both sets of my grandparents and numerous aunts, uncles and cousins still living there. Since Beaver Falls was about an hour from Pittsburgh via a convenient and fun train ride, we went there often and as far as I was concerned, it was a railroad paradise.

Pennsylvania Railroad

ABOVE: Of all the streamlined cabs on the A-units from the four major builders, the Baldwin “Sharks” designed by Raymond Loewy for the PRR, were the most interesting. He adapted the angular nose of this diesel-electric from the front end of his memorable T-1 4-4-4-4 steam locomotive design. This close-up view shows some interesting details, including the train-phone (radio) antenna. And take a look at the vertical climb crewmembers had to negotiate to get in and out of the cab!

The Pennsylvania Railroad’s main line between Pittsburgh and Chicago crossed the Beaver River and the Pittsburgh & Lake Erie tracks just south of P&LE’s Beaver Falls-New Brighton Station, and then turned due north and climbed a grade up and out of the Beaver River Valley along the hillside on the western edge of town. Pennsy’s station was located at the end of Eleventh Street on the west side of Beaver Falls, and just north of the station was a small coach yard where their Beaver Falls to Pittsburgh commuter trains bedded down overnight. Below the mainline grade, and just east of the passenger station, was the PRR’s freight station, a small freight yard and the beginning of Pennsy’s Marginal Branch that diagonally crossed the mid-level portion of Beaver Falls to service the industries in that part of town and ending at the Armstrong Cork Works and the P&LE interchange at College Yard.

I must admit that I was not much of a steam fan back then. Steam locomotives were just too loud and scary, belching smoke and steam as they rattled through town. I much preferred the colorful diesels that seemed to glide so effortlessly, especially on the P&LE’s Water Level Route. There was one exception though – Pennsy’s big T-1 4-4-4-4s. In the late 1940s, they still held down a morning west-bound mail train that roared upgrade as it accelerated through Beaver Falls after negotiating the curve at the end of the Beaver River bridge, with the clerk in the railway post office car grabbing the mail pouch from the crane as it passed through Penn Station. My grandfather took me to watch this awesome display several times, and it is still one of my most vivid memories from childhood.

Pennsylvania Railroad

ABOVE: Here is Conway Yard – always my favorite highlight on family drives between Pittsburgh and Beaver Falls. Located between the Ohio River and the Ohio River Boulevard, this was PRR’s largest freight classification yard and there were always a lot of locomotives to see. Unfortunately, it was difficult to photograph them from a moving car, although I tried every trip after I got my first camera. Here is one of my few decent shots, showing a pair of EMD F-units bringing a westbound freight into one of Conway’s receiving yards. The imprint on the slide says “JUN 1960.”

The above tribute to my grandfather is not meant to play down the influence that my father had in my early interest in railroads. Although I would not call my father a railfan, he, like most men and boys who lived in the period before World War II, had grown up knowing the importance of the local railroads to their hometown, and he had watched with interest the changing rail scene, including bigger, faster locomotives and more luxurious passenger trains. Railroads were leaders in technology back then and new trains, stronger locomotives and speed records were often featured in movie theater newsreels.

I can remember my Dad taking me to downtown Pittsburgh for special railroad events on at least two occasions – one for what I believe is my earliest memory, watching a Pennsy T-1 4-4-4-4 Duplex being tested for clearances, etc., rounding the curve beyond Federal Street Station and crossing the PRR Allegheny River “Fort Wayne” bridge into Penn Station. This was in late 1945 or early 1946. He also took me to see General Motor’s “Train of Tomorrow” that was touring the country when it was displayed at the B&O Station in downtown Pittsburgh in June of 1947…


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This article was posted on: November 28, 2022