Ligonier Valley Rail Road Museum seeks funding for repairs

Although the final run for the Ligonier Valley Rail Road was more than 70 years ago, there’s still action at its Darlington Station.

Now home to the historic Ligonier Valley Rail Road Museum, school groups and other visitors enjoy exploring the authentically restored train station and its contents in
Ligonier Township.

But to keep the museum in working order and ready for visitors, it’s going to require between $30,000 to $40,000 in repairs and a successful fundraising campaign to help pay for it.

A former stop along the roughly 10.5-mile train route in operation from 1877-1952, the station built about 1900 has had extensive renovations since it was obtained from the Idlewild Corp. in 2006.

David Byers, president of the Ligonier Valley Rail Road Association, said there has been one main goal:
maintaining the building’s historic authenticity.

Byers, 70, of Latrobe said that process involved working with the same materials that were used in the time period, such as the slate and steel-fabricated roof. The current problem lies on the underside of the red, steel porch roof, where the wood supporting it has rotted.

Darlington Station’s history

During the Ligonier Valley Rail Road’s operating years, travelers could find a store located in Darlington Station, offering food, confections and beverages. The family that operated it lived upstairs.

Although the railroad only ran from Ligonier to Latrobe, travelers could purchase
tickets to Pittsburgh. To venture into the city, riders needed to switch trains at the other end of the line in Latrobe and hop aboard a Pennsylvania Railroad car.

With the help of benefactors such as the Mellon and Scaife families, the initial restoration of Darlington Station was completed at a cost of more than $400,000, said Tom Hunter, who has been on the railroad association’s board for 11 years.

Hunter said he wants to “carry on the history” of the local railroad because his
grandfather worked as an express agent, which he said equates to a FedEx or UPS worker today.

Byers’ father and grandfather also worked for the railroad.

“I do it in honor of them,” he said. “We want to maintain the historic value and … maintain this in honor of the folks that worked so hard to build this railroad.”

Maintaining authenticity

Upkeep of the station has been a “constant project,” according to Byers, similar to how it would’ve been in the early 1900s.

“They didn’t have pressure-treated wood and all that So back then, it would’ve been an ongoing project,” he said. “They would’ve had skilled trade people that could do it.”

Hunter, 72, of Ligonier Township handles the museum’s maintenance. He said the last time the roof was worked on was this year, and before that, it was in 2021.

“It seems like every two years, we see problems, and you know, it has to be fixed,” he said.

The museum has tried numerous times to find a permanent solution to stop wood rot under the metal roof, but the problems return, according to Hunter.

Byers said epoxy treatments injected into the wood and aluminum vent caps for airflow were attempted to no avail, for example.

“Our goal was and still is … trying to find qualified people (who) can repair the roof in the historic atmosphere … to maintain that,” Byers said.

Finding a solution

Through the fundraising campaign, the board hopes to hire an expert to determine the cause of the problem.

“We may have to remove some of this metal roof off back far enough to find out,” he said.

“We’re going to be seeking out qualified roofing contractors to give us somebody that we feel comfortable with, (and they’re) going to give us some sort of guarantee,” Byers said. “I mean, you put a roof on your home, it’s guaranteed for 30 to 50 years … we can’t get two years.”

But the right solution will come with a cost, which Byers said is hard to estimate.

“No contractor will come in and give us a quote … because they don’t know what they’re going to find,” he said.

“We’re not going to do it (partially) — we’re going to do it fully, and we’re going to do it correctly,” Byers said. “That’s why we’re entertaining this campaign … rather than do it minorly with our own funding.”