Remembering the ‘Waynie’
The Waynesburg & Washington Narrow Gauge Railroad Co. offered passenger service between the two county seats for the first time on Oct. 31, 1877. “The Waynie,” as it was affectionately known, steamed around 174 curves, making stops at 21 stations on its 28-mile route. At first, the ride took four hours, one hour of that waiting at the switch for the other train to pass. A round-trip fare was $2.
In January 1878, The Reporter noted, “The road is as yet too crude for fast travel. The people who travel are not, generally speaking, in a hurry. They can move a little faster and far more comfortably than by the old method (stage coach), and they are just “pleased to death” with the change, with the idea of having a railroad of their own, with the sense of it being at last able to go somewhere by the cars like other people.”
By the time the Waynie made its last passenger run on July 9, 1929, the one-way trip was reduced to about 80 minutes, but by then, most passengers had taken to the highway in cars and buses rather than the tracks.
The photo showing Engine No. 6 is from the early days of the railroad. The picture showing an identical engine except for its head lamp was taken sometime after the Pennsylvania Railroad took over the W&W and made it part of its Panhandle division. The station on South Main Street was the railroad’s terminal in Washington, shared with the Pennsylvania Railroad.