CERA's 2nd Friday, April 11, 2025 Zoom Presentation: Harvey Laner, West Penn Railways

CERA’s April Zoom Programs

Friday, April 11, 2025, at 7:00 p.m. CT

Zoom Presentation

https://tinyurl.com/CERAthe2ndFriday

Easy Link to Zoom

Meeting Number 814 9251 7167  Passcode  880028

Harvey Laner

West Penn Railways

Run Time: 1h05m

At its peak, West Penn Railways had 237 miles of electric railway trackage.

It operated in the well populated coal mining and coking region of rugged,

mountainous western Pennsylvania. West Penn Railways was a vibrant

transportation system playing a key role in the pre automobile, unpaved,

poor road era, and was an important factor in the Coking region's economy.

This program combines Harvey Laner’s West Penn Railways video files of

railfans Ed Miller and Gene Schmidt’s movies with Harvey’s conversational

narration with West Penn Railways historian Ed Lybarger. Ed meticulously

describes the route as Ed Millers’ movies take us from Uniontown to

Greensburg. Ed Lybarger details West Penn’s LCL freight service, an in-

depth description of the Companies passenger and work car equipment, a

whimsical look at West Penn’s creative advertising program and an

overview of the management people that guided the Company through the

good and the difficult years.

This complete story of West Penn Railways includes a look at the web of

public utilities that connect it to West Virginia’s Monongahela & West Penn

and Wheeling Traction Company properties as well as the Hagerstown &

Frederick Railway in Maryland. Historic movie scenes of those traction

properties are also included in this far reaching, comprehensive program.

We will also have a short newscast preceding the regular program.

This program is open to all CERA members and guests. Mark this date on your calendar!