Woods near the former Pitcairn rail yards
Trails near former baseball fields, Pitcairn Borough, Pitcairn, PA 15140
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Informal public trails behind the former baseball fields in Pitcairn Borough. Daytime visiting only is recommended.
Access
Limited Access
Wooded trails, uneven footing
Equipment
Photos OK
The Trails sit behind the former Pitcairn Borough baseball fields, in a wooded area along Turtle Creek Valley adjacent to what was once one of the largest rail yards in the United States. The Pitcairn rail yard opened in 1892 under the Pennsylvania Railroad, named for Pittsburgh-division superintendent Robert Pitcairn. During World War II more than 200 trains passed through Pitcairn daily, and approximately 7,000 valley residents drew paychecks from the yard.
Pitcairn Borough itself was incorporated in 1894 as the rail-worker town that grew up around the yard. The yard is now owned by Norfolk Southern Railway. Local writing including the Monroeville Historical Society's Memories of Pitcairn describes the wooded trails as carrying echoes of the steam-era yard.
Sources
Local Pitcairn tradition holds that the wooded trails behind the former Pitcairn Borough baseball fields are haunted by Pennsylvania Railroad workers from the late nineteenth century who died in various accidents in service to the yard. The accounts are described in Pittsburgh paranormal writing including Pennsylvania Oddities and Haunted Pennsylvania.
Reported phenomena are atmospheric rather than dramatic: faint locomotive sounds in the trees, the felt presence of late-nineteenth-century rail workers, and occasional shadow movement among the trees. The tradition reflects the area's century-plus identity as a Pennsylvania Railroad town more than any specific documented incident.
Walk the informal wooded trails behind the former Pitcairn Borough baseball fields. The area is near the historic Pitcairn rail yards, opened in 1892 by the Pennsylvania Railroad and once one of the largest rail yards in the country.
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