McCandless museum hosts 'Trolley Trails' event

Seats are filling up quickly for two sessions of Trolley Trails through the North Hills to be held on Sept. 26 at the McCandless/Northern Allegheny Heritage and Cultural Center.

Sessions will be held at both 5 and 7 p.m. Registration must be completed online via the www.townofmccandless.org.

Scott Becker, executive director and chief executive officer at the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum in Washington, Washington County, will be presenting along with Bill Fronczek, a retired eye surgeon, who is president emeritus of the trolley museum. Fronczek has volunteered at the museum since 1955 and has spent much time researching the interurban trolley lines that connected Pittsburgh to the North Hills, Becker said.

People may not realize that before trolley lines closed, Southwestern Pennsylvania literally had trolley lines all over the landscape.

“That’s how people got around,” Becker said. Going to work, church, shopping, and visiting usually required a trip on the trolley.

“Trolleys provided all-weather transportation. Their lives revolve around the trolley lines,” said Becker, who has been at the museum for 30 years.

Becker and Fronczek will explore the history of the trolley trails that once operated throughout the North Hills and the relocation of the Wexford Station building. The trolley trails session will be presented on the Pittsburgh, Harmony, Butler, and New Castle railway, or commonly known as the Harmony Line, which ceased operations in 1931, Becker said.

This line was one of the many interurban trolley lines that connected Pittsburgh to Butler and New Castle, Harmony and Evans City, Becker said.

The presentation will include photos and information about the Wexford Station, which was located on Wexford Bayne Road, closing in 1931.

A Wexford resident connected to the station, Willy Brooker, bought the building and moved it using draft horses and logs along Interstate 79 to the area to known as Old Wexford in Pine Township. It then operated as the Wexford Post Office, an antique store and finally the Wexford Post Office Deli, which closed in 2014, Becker said.

The Trolley Museum moved it in 2016 to its location in Washington, where it was restored and available to see.

Becker said the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum’s second-largest number of visitors are from the North Hills.

Visit www.patrolley.org or call 724-228-9256.