After that great trip on the Kiski Junction Railroad, Randy and I drove to Pittsburgh and stopped at Wendy's for a lunch to go then made our way to McKees Rocks and found something of interest.
Ohio Central SW1500 1545, ex. Pittsburgh and Ohio Central 1545, exxx. Reading, Blue Mountain and Northern 1545, exxxx. Conrail 9502, nee Penn Central 9502 built by Electro-Motive Division in 1971. From here we found the steam engine in town.
Bessemer & Lake Erie Railroad 2-10-4 "Texas Type" 643 built by Baldwin in 1943. We then drove to the parking lot for the Duquesne Incline.
The Duquesne Incline is one of those which follows very closely the tracks of an early coal hoist. Old newspapers indicate the existence of such a conveyance as early as 1854. Residents apparently referred to it as "Kirk Lewis' incline" and located it on the present site of The Duquesne Incline's Upper Station. Grandview Avenue was then the High Street, and the area was just beginning to be converted from farmland to homesites. This pleasantly-situated acreage was an excellent area to absorb some of the expanding population of the city, but the problem of easy access was still to be solved.
Although plans for a freight and passenger incline are known to have existed much earlier, financial backing was exceedingly hard to find--even the modest sum of $47,000--and actual construction was delayed. Eventually, of course, difficulties were overcome and the Incline was built. It was opened to the public May 20, 1877. The Duquesne Incline was the first Pittsburgh incline designed and built by Samuel Diescher, for Kirk Bigham and Associates. Mr. Diescher, an engineer, had become the country's foremost builder of inclines. He was also to design and build most of those that followed.
At the time of its public opening, it was one of four inclined planes serving the summit of Coal Hill, which later came to be known as Mount Washington. The Duquesne Incline was operated, from 1877 until 1962 by The Duquesne Inclined Plane Company. From 1964 until the present, the Incline has been operated by the Society for the Preservation of The Duquesne Heights Incline; it has been owned by the Port Authority of Allegheny County.
The bottom house of the Duquesne Incline. We paid $4.00 for the round trip and a few minutes later we started the trip up this funicular railway, which climbs 400 feet above the Three Rivers, has an angle of 30 degrees and a length of 800 feet.
The trip and views from going up the Duquesne Incline.
The view from the top. We took the second car back down to the bottom.
The view from the bottom, looking up. Next we drove and parked at Station Square then walked over to the Pittsburgh Light Rail to board the next train out of the Station Square station.
The Pittsburgh Light Rail (commonly known as The T) is a 26.2-mile light rail system serving the city and surrounding suburbs. It operates as a deep-level subway in Downtown Pittsburgh, but runs mostly at-grade in the suburbs south of the city. The system is largely linear in a north-south direction, with one terminus near Pittsburgh's central business district and two termini in the South Hills. The system is owned and operated by Pittsburgh Regional Transit. The T is one of the surviving first-generation streetcar systems in North America, with the oldest portions of the network dating back to 1903 and the Pittsburgh Railways. It is also one of only three light rail systems in the United States that continues to use the broad 5 foot two-and-a-half inch Pennsylvania Trolley Gauge on its lines instead of the regular standard gauge.
There are three lines that make up the T; namely Red, Silver and Blue.
Pictures of the Light Rail at the Station Square station. This Blue Line train took us out to Library and we departed, went through the joint bus/light rail Transit Tunnel out to south Hills Junction. Here we left the bus' Orange Line and stopped or passed through stations at Boggs, Bon Air, Denise, South Bank, McNeilly, Killarney, Memorial Hall, Willow, Martin Villa, St. Anne's, Smith Road, Washington Junction, Mine 3, Hillcrest, Lindermer, Center, Lyle, Mesta, South Park Road, Monroe, Latimer, Sarah, Logan Road, King's Smith Road, Beagle, Sandy Creek, West Library and the final stop of Library. The operator then nicely told me that no photographs of the Light Rail are allowed on Port Authority property. I thanked him, letting him know I was from California and would stop taking pictures. Randy and I then had to go and find dollar bills as there is no day pass.
After visiting a bar and pizza shop, we returned to the station with this picture of the Library Station from the grade crossing. We reboarded and paid for a ticket with a transfer for our next trip, heading back to Washington Junction and crossed over to the other platform to board a train to South Hills Village.
This train stopped at Casswell, Highland, Santa Barbara, Bethel Village and Dorchester then we detrained at South Hills Village. From here we boarded the next train back to Willow, also known as Overbrook Junction, and boarded a waiting Red Line for Downtown Pittsburgh. Our stations on the Red Line were Castle Shannon, Arlington, Poplar and Mt. Lebanon before we passed through the Mt. Lebanon Tunnel. Our next series of stops were at Dormont Junction, Kelton, Potomac, Stevenson, Neeld, Shiras, Boustead, Belasco, Coast, Hampshire, Fallowfield, Westfield, Pennant, Traymore, Dawn and Palm Garden before we rejoined the mainline at South Hills Junction. We travelled back through the Transit Tunnel and stopped at Station Square then crossed the Monongahela River and entered downtown Pittsburgh. We stopped at First Avenue and Steel Plaza then the final stop at Wood Street.
From here we retraced are steps back to the Station Square station, ending a fantastic trip on the Pittsburgh Light Rail and I walked over to the Pittsburgh & Lake Erie station.
The Pittsburgh & Lake Erie station built in 1901 and served as the depot for the passenger rail operations of the Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Railroad and the Pittsburgh depot from 1934 into the 1960's. Many of the trains making stops here were trains of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, which were making their way to Pittsburgh from Baltimore, Washington, Chicago, Detroit and St. Louis. In 1934, the B&O obtained trackage rights on the P&LE from New Castle Junction to McKeesport and, until the discontinuance of its passenger service, used the P&LE station to reduce the amount of heavy-curvature trackage required to reach the original B&O station on the opposite side of the Monongahela River.
The station closed in 1985 after the last commuter train to College Hill station was discontinued but was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.
Pittsburgh and Lake Erie drover's caboose 153 built by the railroad in 1904 with accommodations for both a regular freight train crew and drovers, who handled cattle on their way to market. In its later career it Monongahela Railway 153, and was used as a dining car on a wreck train. It came to Station Square in 1977.
Pittsburgh and Lake Erie combine 15 built by American Car & Foundry in 1904. It was sold to the Monongahela Railway in 1916 and became their 163.
New York Central 70 foot coach 445 built by for Pittsburgh and Lake Erie by Pressed Steel in 1926.
Light Rail on the bridge across the Monongahela River.
The Pittsburgh & Lake Erie station.
CSX C40-8W 7827 West, built by General Electric in 1992, at Station Square.
CSX ES40DC 5343 built by General Electric in 1996. From here we drove to PNC Park and parked across the street.
The Home Plate Entrance of PNC Park, home of the Pittsburgh Pirates baseball team. Oened in spring 2001, it is a classic-style ballpark, an intimate facility that embraces the progressiveness of Pittsburgh while saluting the spirit of early ballpark originals such as Forbes Field, Wrigley Field and Fenway Park. It is the fifth home of the Pittsburgh Pirates since their inception in 1887. This riverfront facility combines the best features of yesterday's ballparks - rhythmic archways, steel trusswork and a natural grass playing field - with the latest in fan and player amenities and comfort. PNC Park's prime location along the shore of the Allegheny River and adjacent to Federal Street takes advantage of scenic vistas of the downtown skyline and riverfront, as well as pedestrian and riverboat access, creating an exciting and dramatic urban sports venue. It also provides easy access for pedestrians crossing the Roberto Clemente bridge from downtown, as well as those arriving from the riverwalk. On game days, the bridge is closed off to vehicular traffic and spectators are met by a dynamic interactive retail/restaurant and sports pavilion beyond right field, with attractions for all ages.
Randy and I went up to the top level to seats behind home plate and I bought a foot long hot dog, which was excellent. The seats had a great view of not only the field but also downtown Pittsburgh.
The Pittsburgh Steelers football stadium, called Heinz Field which opened in 2001 and was designed with the city of Pittsburgh's history of steel production in mind, which led to the inclusion of 12,000 tons of steel into the construction.
The scoreboard of PNC Park.
The views from our seats.
A hedge behind the center field fence spells Pirates.
Pirate Parrot, the team's mascot.
Welcome to PNC Park.
Views during the game.
A riverboat passed by the ballpark during the game.
Ballpark views.
One last view of the field. The Atlanta Braves crushed the Pittsburgh Pirates 7-0, after which we drove to the Super 8 in Uniontown for the night.
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