Not sure how far out of the way that is for you.

Great set!

The only thing left in Centralia is referred to as the Penis Highway where people go and spray paint penis' on the road. I think there are a handful of residents there too but not much left in the way of structures... they were razed in the late 80's/early 90's if I recall correctly. From what I've heard the roads aren't smoking that much any longer either which tells me the fire is moving on to somewhere else or burning itself out.

Love Trolley Farm.

The trolley farm was a pain to get to, let me tell ya, but worth the effort. I should have taken a picture of the mountain (it was really a hill but it felt like a mountain since it was darn near a vertical descent/ascent) we had to climb down/up to get there.

The gas station mannequin reminds me of a thrift shop in Dania, FL (Hollywood area). They always have a female mannequin sitting in a chair on the lawn outside the shop. She looks different every day - new wig, new clothes, new accessories. It's a hoot to see what they do to her.

on the way to our location. It took a moment to figure out he wasn't real. That's why I had to get an image of him on our way back.

Love the photos, and the subject matter. The trolley farm must have been there forever, so many trees all around the trolleys. You amaze me, finding all these extraordinary sites, and it always makes me wonder at how things end up where they are, just left there.

I got a laugh out of the sign inside the church showing the collections (I think that is what it says). I am also impressed that 20 members of the church can bring that much in----must be a wealthy congregation.

I have a great group of folks I explore with and we all are always on the lookout for locations. The big thing is keeping them private so bad people don't go and destroy stuff, which happens more than I'd care to admit. The cars themselves have been sitting there for 20+ years but they're much older than that.

As far as the church, I'm pretty sure he made those figures up. There were 9 people in there and we could barely move.

pursued. Great photos…great chronology!

They are a wonderful assemblage of photographs, and presented with great style. I keep finding new favorites especially in the photographs of the trains. I highly and happily recommend this, and I'm so glad you brought this to us.

There are more (if you didn't wander over) on my Flickr account.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/justice_is_cheap/

I haven't travelled that far in my adventures yet.

I wonder if any other city does...or if MA sends its old trains elsewhere to die.

I saw those green boys and said to myself "Those are from Beantown!"

Last edited Fri May 2, 2014, 10:47 AM - Edit history (1)

There are somewhere around here the last time I check. The owner came up with a "Plan" to tear up the asphalt covering up the old streetcar tracks and run them as a tourist item, never went anywhere but a short article on the local newspaper (I am familiar with the PCCs, it would have required a LOT of work not just removing the asphalt and that is if the PCCs themselves were in good shape, and they were NOT).

He had PCCs from Boston and other cities. Unlike Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Greensburg, Altoona and most of the other streetcar lines in Pennsylvania, Johnstown Streetcars were 4 foot 8 1/2 inches standard gauge (1435mm). Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Greensburg, Altoona and the rest of the State used 5 Foot, 2 1/2 inches Pennsylvania gauge. This caused some problems when Johnstown closed down their Streetcars. The Johnstown PCCs were torn down to their parts, and the parts shipped to Belgium for use in a PCC type Streetcar in Belgium (The Johnstown Car bodies were six inches to wide for use on the Belgium line).

The non-PCC streetcars were taken to various Trolley Museum. The Rockville Museum and the Pennsylvania Museum (in Washington PA) had started with Pittsburgh and Philadelphia streetcars, so the Johnstown Streetcars had to have their tracks widen.

Back to the person who mentioned setting up such a Museum in Johnstown. He purchased most of his PCCs from Boston, as Boston retired them, so they are somewhere in the area of Johnstown.

I had to check out google earth, and it looks like the PCC are still outside Johnstown (The picture is to grainy for me to be 100% certain, but they look like they are PCCs from the top). These are on a railroad line that extends from Windber Pa. As I mentioned above, none of these are Johnstown's own PCC, which were all cut up in the early 1960s. These appear to be 4 foot 8 1/2 inch Standard Gauge, so are NOT some Pittsburgh or Philadelphia PCCs (Through the one without any wheels, has a number consisted with Pittsburgh's last set of PCCs).

I went to a blacksmith shop last week, too. Zoar Village, in central Ohio. They have a great smith there who gives these day long seminars. We got to hammer away all afternoon. I gotta get a forge at the farm, I enjoyed the hell out of it. He did the history and everything. Back in the day, the smith was the guy, everything revolved around him. You went there for all your tools and weapons. Probably a great fighter, too. I imagine if I were to take out a town, I'd go for the smithy pretty much at the start.

Great pics. A happy retirement, exploring. The mannequin's a trip.

Last edited Mon May 5, 2014, 01:14 AM - Edit history (1)

Right now, you have three very good rails to trails routes. They are all connected to each other and are part of one overall trail.

The first part, Presently it starts in downtown Johnstown, goes along Clinton Street to Franklin Borough, then pass the Franklin ball field, then it exits the roads and goes on its own along the 36 inch water pipeline from the dams to the old Steel Mills (some are still in operation). Not being a true rails to trails it has some quirks. It flows into the second trail the Staple Bend Tunnel Trail


The Staple Bend Tunnel Trial, except for "Incline #1" is flat, less then 1% grade. The trail is named after the first Railroad Tunnel every made in the US. This is the Staple Bend Tunnel Trail built for the old Pennsylvania Canal. In the days of the Canal, the Canal ended in Johnstown, where the boats were loaded onto rail cars to be hauled over the mountains. This was in the 1830s, and the steam engines of the 1830s were NOT powerful enough to haul themselves, their fuel and their cargo over the mountains. The solution was a series of Inclines that used stationary steam engines (Thus did not have to haul themselves or their fuel) that hauled the rail cars up 30 grades about 1000 feet long. The Rail cars were hauled one at a time, with one car going down while another was going up, thus the cars counterbalanced each other, thus the small steam engines only had to haul the difference in the cargo between the two cars.

There were five inclines going up (all survive to this day, except Incline #3, which is only partially intact, it had been cut in half when the old Pennsylvania Railroad updated its line around 1905), Incline # 7, which the Pennsylvania Department of Highway took out to build the present East bound lanes of what is locally called Old US 22 in the late 1930s, and Incline #8 which was cut in half when the Portage Railway build the "New Portage Railway" in 1854.

Between each incline was a "Plane". These were 1% or less railroads to haul the rail cars between the Inclines. Some of these planes survive as roads, others were destroyed.

One of the plane cut in half in Plane #1, the Plane from the Staple Bend Tunnel to Incline #2 in Portage Pa. This was one of the longest planes and part of it is still in use by the Main Line of the Old Pennsylvania Railroad (now Norfolk and Southern).

Now, the rails to trails gets around this cut, but using the route of the "Southern Cambria Railway" an interurban Streetcar line. This is the third part of the trail. The Southern Cambria nick name was "The Dread of the Timid Traveler". The part presently is use has at least two s curves. What I mean are two curves that first turns HARD left, then HARD right then Hard left again, all in about 100 feet. The Streetcars would take those curves at 50-55 mph. Do NOT try that in you car. On a bicycle it is NOT bad, but that is 20 mph, not 50 mph. This trail goes up and down and it is good to compare it with the other two sections. The Staple Bend Tunnel plane is just flat and a joy to ride on. The Southern Cambria, going downhill, is much more "interesting" (and that is NOT always a good thing). Once you get down Incline #1 and enter the trail along the pipeline, you can see is is something someone bulldozed and that is all they did.

Here is a cite from the Bicycle Forum on the trail. This shows only the Staple Bend and Southern Cambria Trail. The Pipeline trail was NOT done when I posted those pictures (It also includes photos of Johnstown and the proposed extension to Blairsville, which is NOT finished yet):

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1207251

Work on the Pipeline Trail in 2011:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/120726

Photo of the trail BEFORE it was bulldozed:

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I like the contrasts between the Three (you can say four) trails. The highway use from Johntown to Franklin. The Pipeline and its tendency to follow the curves in the mountains. The Staple bend tunnel and plane and its flatness and finally the up and down and curves on the Southern Cambria, not as rough as the pipeline, but no one ever expected to ride on the pipeline trail.

Thank you lots for the photos. I especially liked the Johnstown shots.