Restored railroad station now a visitors center in Somerset County
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Tony Tye, Post-Gazette
Contractor Bill Metzger of Confluence shows volunteer Mary Neimiller of Meyersdale some of his photos to be exhibited at the Visitors Center, which will have its grand opening Saturday.
MEYERSDALE, Pa. -- The new Visitors Center at the restored Western Maryland Railway station here invites guests to take a "ride" on a railroad that once carried passengers and freight to and through southern Somerset County.
The railway, which ran from Cumberland, Md., to Connellsville, made a number of stops in Somerset County -- from Colmar near the border of Pennsylvania and Maryland to Confluence along the Youghiogheny River.
PG reporter Lawrence Walsh talks with Mary Neimiller of the Meyersdale Area Historical Society in Somerset County about the new Visitor's Center at the Western Maryland Railway station in Meyersdale.
Signs with the names of all those stops hang from the high ceiling of a hallway that is bordered on one side by simulated sections of two passenger cars with custom-designed interactive windows.
By pressing a small white button on the "door" of each car, visitors will see illuminated photographs of the standard interior of a coach car and the plush interior of a railroad executive's car, complete with a sterling silver tea service.
Activating the buttons under each of the exterior windows of the cars lights up photographs of landmarks passengers once saw when traveling through rural Somerset County on the now defunct railroad. They include the Big Savage Tunnel, Keystone and Salisbury viaducts, and the Pinkerton High and Low bridges over the Casselman River.
Dennis Stahl, president of the Meyersdale Area Historical Society, which was instrumental in the restoration of the station and in the creation of the Visitors Center, said the photos were taken by Bill Metzger, the contractor for the center.
He said Mr. Metzger traveled to the Strasburg Railroad in Lancaster County and the Pennsylvania Railroad Museum, also in Strasburg, to photograph the interior of the passenger cars.
Mr. Stahl said the exhibits in an adjacent room of the center depict the development of the Western Maryland Railway, the manufacturers and industries it served, the architecture of the town and its churches, and the cultural heritage of its residents.
Tony Tye, Post-GazetteThe Meyersdale Area Historical Society has refurbished Meyersdale's Western Maryland Railway station, which adjoins the Great Allegheny Passage bike trail.
Click photo for larger image.
Mary Neimiller, vice president of the historical society, said the framework of a mock barn and silo made of clear maple will be one of the main attractions of the new center which will have its grand opening at 10 a.m. Saturday.
"I think the barn and silo will surprise and delight our visitors," she said. "They're just beautiful."
The railroad's 42-mile right of way through Somerset County now is a part of the Great Allegheny Passage, the crushed limestone bike trail that links Cumberland, Md., to McKeesport and eventually will extend to Pittsburgh.
First Published May 23, 2007 11:03 pm
