Ligonier Valley Rail Road Newspaper Articles
We have compiled over 1,400 newspaper articles that mention the Ligonier Valley Railroad, or related subjects. The articles were originally published starting in 1873 and our collection runs through 1995. Enjoy!
Pittsburgh Daily Post
Sunday, November 22, 1903
Westmoreland Get New Road
Line Being Built South From Ligonier Will connect With Through Trunk Lines
Opens Valuable Region.
Under date of November 18 a charter has been granted to an organization known as the Westmoreland Central Railroad Company. The officers of the company are: O. E. Hallam, president; W. G. Cronkright, vice president; R. D. W. Brunner, secretary; John Seger, treasurer. The route of this new road will open many thousand acres of valuable timber and coal lands in Westmoreland and Somerset counties, and will afford excellent shipping facilities for the 6,000 acres of coal property which is now being operated by the Seger Coal and Coke Company.
Anticipating that there would be no opposition to the granting of a charter for this road, surveys were completed and the actual work of construction begun some weeks ago. The building was begun at Ligonier and it is proposed to complete as quickly as possible the north end of this road, touching the Seger Coal and Coke Companys works and thence on to Bolivar station on the main line of the Pennsylvania railroad. For this end of the road a grade is being made and ties are being placed on the ground. The proposed extension will be pushed just as rapidly as possible looking toward a connection with the Baltimore & Ohio, the Wabash and the Pittsburg & Lake Erie on the south, making a total of about 60 miles of road. Most advantageous grades for this extension have been found along Loyalhanna creek to Indian creek, thence along the levels of that stream to Indian Creek Station on the Baltimore & Ohio and thence into New Haven, making connections as above stated on the south and with the main line of the Pennsylvania on the north, thus affording exceptional outlets to the great coal and timber markets in all directions.
It has been conservatively estimated by all who have inspected this route that shipping facilities such as it affords will open up more than 150,000 acres of rich oak, hemlock, chestnut, and poplar timber land, and about the same amount of Pittsburg coal, together with a large field of the famous Somerset county smokeless coal. There is also along the line large quantities of valuable glass rock, building stone, line stone and iron ore, as well as many fertile farms. Work on the northern 14 miles starting in at Ligonier, will be under the supervision of the Seger Coal and Coke Company, which is anxious for shipping facilities for its coal and the output of coke and timber.
O. E. Hallam, of the Seger Coal and Coke Company, and president of the Westmoreland Central Railroad Company, whose office is at 414 Third avenue, this city, is responsible for the statement that the disadvantage contingent upon building roads in winter weather is more than compensated by the present exceptionally low prices of building material. He says that the work of building will go steadily forward regardless of wind and weather.