Beaver Valley Traction Company
The Beaver Valley Traction Company was an interurban tram company in the US state of Pennsylvania . The total of 56 kilometers long network connected the places Rochester , Beaver , Freedom , Ambridge , Leetsdale , New Brighton and Monaca .
On September 17, 1884, the Beaver Valley Street Railway Company was founded, which opened a horse-drawn railway from Beaver Falls to New Brighton on July 4, 1885 . The Beaver Valley Traction Company was founded on June 29, 1891, bought the horse-drawn tram and electrified it. On December 5, 1891, electrical operation was started and the line extended to Beaver. Meanwhile, in 1891, the People's Electric Street Railway was founded, which opened an electric tram from Rochester to Freedom on August 13 of that year. The Riverview Electric Street Railway built a line from central New Brighton to Beaver Falls. This route lay on the east bank of the Beaver River , while the Beaver Valley Street Railway ran on the west bank. A short branch line to Monaca was opened on July 31, 1893 by the College and Grandview Electric Street Railway Company . All of these tram companies merged on October 1, 1900 to form the Beaver Valley Traction Company . The network was built in the Pennsylvania widely used 5 foot 2½ inch (1588 millimeter) gauge and operated on 550 volts DC. The depot, headquarters and workshop of the railway were in Rochester.
The railway company operated the following lines:
- Beaver Falls – Patterson Heights – New Brighton – Rochester – Beaver – Vanport (5 miles, every 30 minutes)
- Beaver – Rochester – Freedom – Ambridge – Leetsdale (14 miles, every 20 minutes)
- Rochester – Monaca (2.5 km, every 10 minutes)
- Beaver Falls – New Brighton Downtown (2.2 miles, every 20 minutes)
- Rochester – New Brighton – Patterson Heights – Beaver Falls – Morado (12 km, every 20 minutes)
In Vanport, the Steubenville – Beaver tram connected , which, unlike the Beaver Valley, was built in standard gauge . The Pittsburgh, Harmony, Butler and New Castle Railway had a branch line to Morado, which was the northern continuation of the Beaver Valley route. There was no continuous traffic despite the same gauge. In Freedom there was a transition to the Freedom – Leetsdale tram line, which was built in 1908 by the Pittsburgh and Beaver Street Railway Company . The trams on the line to Freedom ran through to Leetsdale when this line opened. The company founded two subsidiaries for the construction. In Beaver County this was the Ambridge and Baden Street Railway Company and in Allegheny County , in which the last stretch to Leetsdale was, this was the Ambridge, Leetsdale and Edgewood Street Railway . The depot of this train was in Ambridge. In 1921, these two companies merged with Pittsburgh & Beaver, which was owned by the Philadelphia Company . The Philadelphia Company also bought the Beaver Valley Traction Company in 1922.
The branch line to downtown New Brighton was closed on September 1, 1924, followed by the line from Ambridge to Leetsdale in April 1925. In 1933 tram traffic between Rochester and Ambridge and in 1935 between Junction Park and Rochester ended. On August 10, 1937, operations on the last line, namely the Morado – Beaver Falls – Junction Park line, were suspended.
literature
- Benson W. Rohrbeck (1997): Pennsylvania's Street Railways West Chester PA: Traction Publications. Page 252.
- Benson W. Rohrbeck (2007): Pennsylvania Street Railway Atlas West Chester PA: Ben Rohrbeck Traction Publications. Page 61.