Category: default || By jt3y

UPDATE: Hooray! I just saw Bonnijean Adams' story in today's Daily News ... it looks like Wilmerding is on the right track!

Wilmerding Renewed Inc. is going to put its own museum in the Castle, and the planning is already underway. That makes part of this Almanac obsolete, but I'm glad!

Visit WRI's website if you'd like to contact them and help.

. . .

The board of directors of the George Westinghouse Foundation last week voted to move the George Westinghouse Museum from the historic "Castle" in Wilmerding to the Senator John Heinz Pittsburgh History Center in the Strip District.

It leaves the "Castle" --- the former Westinghouse Air Brake Co. general office building, where Westinghouse himself once had an office --- without its most important tenant, and Wilmerding without its only "touristy" attraction.

Stories in the Tribune-Review and Post-Gazette focused on the positives for the History Center. Only Bonnijean Adams' story in last week's Daily News mentioned the impact to Wilmerding, where community activists like Henry Slaczka fought hard to keep the museum.

It's a bitter disappointment for a proud and close-knit town.

From a cold-blooded business perspective, the move makes sense --- hundreds of people visited Wilmerding each year to see the Westinghouse collection, but hundreds of thousands of people are visiting the History Center already.

On the other hand, the Westinghouse materials are arguably going to be lost in the History Center. They're one tiny drop in a big bucket.

And the Westinghouse Museum meant a lot more in a little community like Wilmerding than it ever will to Pittsburgh's Strip District.

. . .

This is the second thumb-in-the-eye that a Westinghouse-related entity has given the Turtle Creek Valley this year. The more important one was Westinghouse Electric's decision to close its Churchill and Monroeville offices and relocate to Cranberry Township.

(Editor's note: No thought was ever given to, say, Keystone Commons in East Pittsburgh. You know, where there are all of those empty buildings that used to be Westinghouse's headquarters?)

The name "Westinghouse Valley" is becoming more and more inappropriate. Westinghouse has turned its back on the "Valley." It's time for the "Valley" to shake Westinghouse's dirt off of its feet, and walk away.

. . .

There is a solution, if Wilmerding is willing to consider it. I was in State College, Pa., on Friday and had some time to kill on the way back, so I drove through Tyrone, Altoona and Bedford. Just off the main street in Tyrone (population 5,500) I came across the old railroad station, which has been converted into a local history museum.



Tyrone was a busy stop on the Pennsylvania Railroad and home to a big Westvaco paper mill. The mill is still there, but it's locally owned and makes mostly recycled products now.

The railroad tracks are still there, though (it's Norfolk Southern's main Philadelphia-Pittsburgh route), and Tyrone has created a park at the museum for train buffs to sit and watch the trains go past. There are two cabooses (cabeese?) parked nearby as well.

. . .

You know, Wilmerding is on the very same railroad track, and is the headquarters of one of the world's largest manufacturers of railroad equipment, Wabtec (formerly Westinghouse Air Brake Co.).

I also suspect that train buffs are willing to drive a lot further for their hobby than people who are interested in Westinghouse's history. And the Pennsylvania Railroad has a large and active group of aficionados around the world.

. . .

Wilmerding has a golden opportunity to create its own tourist attraction and showcase a great little Mon-Yough area town.

There is no train museum in Pittsburgh as far as I know. Wilmerding should capitalize on its WABCO ties and the busy Norfolk Southern tracks.

Down at the railroad tracks, it should create a parklet for trainwatchers, just like Tyrone has done. (Other cities, like Rochelle and Homewood, Ill., also have created dedicated parks just for people to watch trains.)

All of those visitors are going to need snacks and drinks and film, and they're going to want something to visit when they're tired of train watching. So Wilmerding should put a local history museum into the Westinghouse Castle, along with at least one room devoted specifically to the history of the Pennsylvania Railroad. (I'll bet the Pennsylvania Railroad Technical and Historical Society would help.)

I'll also wager that a lot of past and present residents of the Turtle Creek Valley have high school yearbooks, old photos, pop bottles from Wilmerding Botting Co., artifacts from WABCO and Union Switch & Signal, and other items they'd love to display.

. . .

The lobby of the museum should be devoted to "selling" the Turtle Creek Valley to visitors and potential investors. Here's a golden opportunity for the Regional Business Alliance, the East Allegheny Business Association and other groups to show off.

Above all, they'd better have a gift shop stocked with Wilmerding stuff as well as Pennsylvania Railroad T-shirts, books, bumper stickers, toys and videos. It's a fundraising opportunity too good to pass up.

It would be a nice gesture, too, for the Heinz History Center to loan or make copies of any material it has related to Wilmerding, Turtle Creek, and Monroeville.

This may be a short-term loss, but it's also a chance for the community to put a "W" in the "win" column --- and make it stand for "Wilmerding," not "Westinghouse."