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Station Square Station
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Westfield Stop in 2001 and 2024
Almost 24 years ago, old Pa Pitt had occasion to wait on the inbound platform of the Westfield stop on what was then the Route 42 streetcar line. The picture above was taken in March of 2001. The other day Father Pitt found himself at the same spot and took a similar picture, with sun instead of snow.
Not much is different, because Beechview is a neighborhood that changes slowly. A few trees along Rockland Avenue in the background have grown. The automobiles are more recent models. The most obvious difference is the stop itself, where the sodium-vapor lights have been replaced with LEDs and the old brown sign has been replaced with a blue one. The destination no longer mentions Library, because Library cars no longer run on this route (they go through Overbrook instead).
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Monongahela Incline
The Monongahela Incline on a rainy day. The incline opened in 1870, but the ornate lower station was built in 1904; it was designed by MacClure & Spahr.
Fujifilm FinePix HS10; Kodak EasyShare Z1285. -
Abstract Forms in Gateway Station
Is this the oddest subway station in North America? It’s in the race, at least.
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Potomac Station, Dormont
Kodak Retinette with Kentmere Pan 100 film. Potomac gives Red Line riders easy access to the Dormont business district, which is full of odd little shops and restaurants that make it well worth a visit. Some of the houses in streets nearby are architecturally significant, and a walk through the back streets of Dormont is always pleasant.
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Arlington Streetcar Loop
This odd little building in the middle of a gravel lot is a remnant of the largest streetcar system in the United States.
Arlington Avenue on March 30, 1968, with Route 48 streetcar coming out of the streetcar loop, by David Wilson from Oak Park, Illinois, USA, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. We’ve already seen this picture of Arlington Avenue with the Route 48 streetcar poking its head out of the streetcar loop. That loop is still there, though the tracks have been taken up. You can see this little shelter right behind the trolley in the 1968 picture.
In the 1960s. Pittsburgh had the largest remaining streetcar system in the country. We had lagged behind other cities in converting to bus transit, but the Port Authority, newly responsible for the transit system, was canceling streetcar lines right and left. (Some lines have survived—the lines that had their own right-of-way for most of the route, and thus would have been expensive or impossible to convert to buses.) The Arlington line would not survive long after that picture; the Route 48 streetcar became the Route 48 bus.
Here the Route 48 bus passes a mural with a picture of its predecessor, the Route 48 streetcar. The “Arlington Memories” murals are fading and will soon be memories themselves. The Route 48 streetcar line used to make a loop around the shelter and head back inbound on Arlington Avenue.
Canon PowerShot SX150 IS. -
Stevenson Stop on the Red Line, Dormont
In the terminology of Pittsburgh Regional Transit, Stevenson is a “stop” rather than a “station,” meaning that you board from the low-level door—the one old Pa Pitt calls the “Pittsburgh door”—and walk up three steps, whereas at a “station” you enter by one of the platform-level doors.
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Rebuilding the Red Line
The Red Line has been closed between South Hills Junction and Potomac for extensive reconstruction. The workers did not dally: as soon as the line was closed, it was covered with construction equipment, and Pittsburgh Regional Transit has posted signs at all the shuttle-bus stops informing us that the line will reopen on schedule September 1. Here we see the Hampshire Avenue grade crossing under reconstruction.
This road looks about as closed as it can get.
Newly laid track at the Westfield stop, whose platforms have also had extensive work. The track is Pennsylvania Broad Gauge, a relic of the laws that prohibited streetcar companies from using standard-gauge track out of well-founded fear that a secret deal with the railroad companies would send freight trains down the middle of city streets.
New track along Suburban Avenue.
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Mount Lebanon Station
A two-car train enters Mount Lebanon station from the subway tunnel that goes under part of Dormont and Uptown Mount Lebanon. Part of the platform is under reconstruction at the moment, so only the front car will open its doors.
The Red Line is partly closed for the next two months as Pittsburgh Regional Transit sorts out an accumulated backlog of construction projects. The section from Potomac south to Overbrook Junction is still open.
Kodak EasyShare Z981. -
Trolleys at Penn Station
Although the subway spur to Penn Station is not in regular use, it is kept in working order for emergencies and special events. The subway downtown has been interrupted at Wood Street for track reconstruction, so trolleys are diverted to Penn Station, with a shuttle bus to Gateway.
Fujifilm FinePix HS10.
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