Exhibit explores Blairsville's place in railroading history

For more than a century, the Pennsylvania Railroad had been a major fixture in Blairsville.

These days, only the occasional train passes through the borough, and the Pennsylvania Railroad and its steam locomotives are long gone. However, there is now an opportunity for people to relive the local glory days of the railroad.

An exhibit that includes railroad-related memorabilia and artifacts is currently on display at the Historical Society of the Blairsville Area.

The "Railroadiana" exhibit features photos and signage from past years that were donated to the historical society as well as items from the private collections of two area enthusiasts: Cos Stasio of Blairsville and Mark Thomas, who resides in the nearby village of Torrance.

Many of the items displayed by Stasio and Thomas are related to the Pennsylvania Railroad, which was founded in 1846 and transported passengers and freight across Pennsylvania and other states stretching from the East Coast to Illinois.

Blairsville was tied into the Pennsylvania Railroad system in 1851 when a branch line was constructed from the company's main line at Torrance.

In December of that year, the Henry Clay was the first locomotive to arrive in the borough.

By 1878, Blairsville had also made rail connections to Indiana and Saltsburg, and the town had become a major railroad center with a station, a roundhouse accommodating seven locomotives, two repair shops and offices.

"The railroad in all the little towns was a big industry at one time," Thomas said. "It supported a lot of the local people. In Blairsville, I bet 20 or 30 percent of the people worked there in one way or another."

"Railroads are very labor-intensive," Stasio said, indicating PRR operations would have spawned hundreds of local jobs during the company's heyday in Blairsville. Positions that were needed to keep trains moving included engineers, firemen, clerks, track maintenance workers and engine house workers.

Starting with the Great Depression, railroad traffic in the area began to decline, with the last passenger run from Blairsville to Saltsburg occurring in 1947. In 1954, the last steam locomotive pulled out of Blairsville, and all operations at the borough's railroad yards were terminated in 1967.

In 1968, with railroad use declining nationwide, the Pennsylvania Railroad merged with the New York Central Railroad to form the Penn Central Railroad. The company filed for bankruptcy just two years later.

Stasio and Thomas, who both grew up in the area, started their collections as young boys during the final years of railroad activities in Blairsville. The two already had family connections to the rail industry: Thomas' father worked for the PRR as did Stasio's father, grandfather and three of his great uncles.

Stasio began his collection in 1953. He would buy model trains when he went shopping with his family at a Pittsburgh department store.

"It was 99 cents a car, and that was big bucks," Stasio said, recalling his purchases. "I'd always get a car when I went down there."

Thomas bought his first train set in 1964.

"I still have parts of it," he said. "It was about six cars. I still have three of them left, and I still have the engine."

Stasio and Thomas stuck with their childhood hobbies through the years. The items they've collected form the bulk of the display at the historical society.

Among the collectors' favorite items on view are several models of locomotives used by the Pennsylvania Railroad, including examples of S1 and T1 classes, made during the latter years of steam trains.

The S1 was an experimental locomotive that was completed in the late 1930s and was shown at a World's Fair. It was extremely long, measuring about 140 feet.

"They were looking for a locomotive that could do 120 miles per hour on a level, tangent track pulling 1,200 tons, and do it safely," Stasio said. "That engine accomplished that.... The problem was it was too darn long to try to run."

The locomotive's length made it difficult to run on turns. As a result, the S1 was not considered successful, and its last run came in 1945.

Shortly after the S1 made its debut, the T1 was completed. Another long locomotive, the T1 measured about 120 feet, and it turned out to be the Pennsylvania Railroad's final steam engine.

The T1 was very fast, but it had problems with wheels slipping, and, by the late 1940s, the Pennsylvania Railroad decided to switch to diesel locomotives.

Stasio said he'd been told that T1s occasionally passed through Blairsville, and one that supposedly came through in the early 1940s was a locomotive with a POTUS (President of the United States) designation.

Unsubstantiated rumors have persisted that the mysterious train was linked to the nation's first atom bomb missions.

"It came through in the middle of the night and there was a 'T' on it," Stasio said of the engine. "A POTUS would get people's attention because it's something out of the ordinary for this area. I guess it would be like Air Force One landing in Johnstown."

Stasio and Thomas expressed fascination with the meticulous detail of the train models, which include several brass replicas made in Japan.

"If you appreciate detail, that's what these are for," Stasio said. "Every one's hand-made. They're authentic to scale, they're a replica of the original locomotives, and they have a following now."

In addition to the Pennsylvania models, the exhibit includes a scaled-down version of the Aerotrain passenger train, yet another example of rolling stock that was meant to be ground-breaking but saw limited use. Introduced by General Motors in the 1950s, the Aerotrain was placed into service by the Pennsylvania Railroad for a relatively short time.

"It was an experimental train," Thomas explained. "They actually took GM bus bodies and widened them to make it lightweight and easy to produce, and it lasted only about three years. A couple railroads used it, but the ride was too rough. The public didn't like it."

Other memorabilia

Also included in the exhibit from the collections of Stasio and Thomas are an official railway pass that belonged to Thomas' father, a car inspector's lantern from the 1920s, several train pamphlets and schedules and an original sign that reads "Railway Express Agency."

The Railway Express Agency was an office where people could have their items shipped via the railroad. Passengers could also go there to put their baggage on a rail car before they caught their own train.

There is an assortment of items in the display that bear the official emblem of the Pennsylvania Railroad --"PRR" initials inside a keystone shape. One of those items is a blanket given to soldiers during World War II while they were riding Pennsylvania Railroad trains.

One of the luckiest finds for Thomas was a group of original waybills from 1897. They detail a shipment of apples, corn and beans from Johnstown to Derry.

"When they tore down the old Derry freight station, the guy who picked up (the waybills) knew I collected that stuff, and he sent it to my house" Thomas said. "They had just fallen down in the wall, and, luckily, the weather didn't beat them up too badly."

Included from the historical society's collection is an original sign that reads "Alum Bank," referring to an area along the Conemaugh River on the southeastern outskirts of Blairsville. The sign apparently was once posted to designate an interlocking point along the PRR line where trains could be switched among parallel tracks and a siding.

The historical society also has a collection of several photos taken about 100 years ago at the Blairsville Intersection, the name then used for the junction of the PRR's Blairsville branch line and the main line in what is now Torrance.

The Alum Bank sign and the photos were donated to the historical society by James Burd, a former area resident who now lives in the state of Indiana.

A 1955 PRR calendar was added to the exhibit at the last minute. The collectible item promoted special passenger trains the rail company put into service to bring fans to the annual Army-Navy football game in Philadelphia. In 1953, some 30,000 boarded more than 30 trains for the ride to Philly's Municipal Stadium from New York, New Jersey, Baltimore and Washington, D.C.

Stasio and Thomas are encouraging others to consider donating their own railroad memorabilia that could become part of a permanent exhibit.

The time to make such donations, Thomas added, is "before your kids throw it away."

He recalled he'd completed electrical work for a man who had a garage filled with railroad artifacts. The man didn't know what he would do with the items once he died because his kids weren't interested in keeping them.

"A lot of it just gets lost that way as the older people pass away," Thomas said. "It meant something to them, but the kids had no clue what it was."

The Railroadiana exhibit is set to run through March 15. The historical society is open 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday at 116 E. Campbell St., Blairsville.

"It's a nice representation of the locomotives the railroad used to have," Stasio said of the show. "How often do you see a display of railroadiana• You can do it, but you might have to travel to do it. This is a little piece of it, right here."