Pittsburgh Post-Gazette from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania • Page 136

Hit IMUJKlilt I VVt.DM.MMY, AHKIL 7, IW FOCUS ON WESTMORELAND EXPORT End of the line for Turtle Creek caboose npar By Ernie Hoffman Post-Gazette Stall Writer The bright green and yellow caboose sits on railroad tracks that end abruptly a couple of yards from Old Route 22 in Export. It has caused more than one passing mo- i W- ir; 1 John BeaiePost-Gazette Jim Norris, left, and his brother, Wayne, stand in front of one of the train engines at Dura-Bond in Export. From Small Sizes To Wall-To-Wall Remnant City Has It All ggj mm -m mm. mm. mm at mm installation mas celebration.

"You can't believe the amount of people that come here and take pictures of our locomotives and ask me for railroad memorabilia," Norris said. "There's a person that made a complete video of our railroad operation." Interest in the Turtle Creek Industrial Railroad is international. A British journalist, Peter Paye, wrote a lengthy story complete with color pictures that appeared in the October 1998 edition of Continental Modeler, a British magazine. After Congress passed the 1980 Staggers Act, which allowed railroads to divest themselves of unprofitable lines, Conrail chose to close its Turtle Creek branch, Norris said. "We used the rail quite extensively in those days, and it would have been a serious blow to our operation if the railroad was not here," Norris said.

"I just took it upon myself, since I was the last guy on the line, to buy the line and operate it as a railroad. "We were the first company to buy an abandoned railroad under St All 1st Quality We Buy Mill Direct Although most of the time the caboose sits alongside the two-lane highway, it and the locomotive are part of a thriving shortline railroad: the Turtle Creek Industrial Railroad. "It was a 'two-for' deal," Wayne Norris said of the transaction that brought the locomotive and caboose to Dura-Bond Industries. Norris, Dura-Bond president, said he needed a locomotive to operate the 11-mile rail line that he bought in 1982 from Conrail. The Johnstown Stony Creek Railroad was being disbanded, and the locomotive was for sale for $44,000 on the condition that the buyer also take the caboose.

The caboose, which has a cupola on top and a wood-burning stove inside, was used for a while on the railroad, but now it serves more as a monument to times past in its post at the very end of the line. Norris calls the caboose "a symbol of days gone by" because cabooses have been replaced by safety-lighting devices that signal the end of a train. When cabooses were used, railroad workers would sit inside the cupola where they could observe the length of the train. If a problem arose that the engineer in the locomotive couldn't see, they could stop the train from controls in the caboose. Norris keeps the caboose painted and looking good.

It's moved occasionally to keep the bearings oiled Last Christmas, Santa Claus rode in it during the Export Christ- 2855 Saw Mill Run Blvd. 885-1445 M-W-Th-Frl. 1 0-9 Tues tV Sat 10-5 Those who haven't stopped probably would be surprised to learn that people from across the country have come by to look at and photograph the caboose and the 1947 diesel locomotive that came with it to Export. raaaing Avanaoie $0000 Starting At 371-5800 mrfin mm Weyerhaeuser, National Aluminum and Beckwith Machinery, besides Dura-Bond. The railroad is used every day, Norris said.

It now has two locomotives that haul about 700 cars a year. The typical train has four cars. With about 200 employees, Dura-Bond is a family-owned company that was founded in Export by Norris' father, the late J.M. Norris, in 1960. It includes Dura-Bond Steel, Dura-Bond Coatings and Dura-Bond Development Corp.

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3564 Blue Rock Road, Cincinnati. Ohio COME CELEBRATE OUR ALL MEW HUSH PUPPS ES Specialty Shoe Store ON THE UPPER LEVEL. NEXT TO KAUFMANNS Flnd out what keeps businesses In business. Sunday Business fttttaburgrj loat-5aicttr tun PnM. ENTIRE STOCK 1 2 DIG SALE DAYS April 7th 1 8th ENTIRE STOCK SOFT GIPOG By Melissa Schofield Scott Sobota of Charlotte, N.C., recently got the shock of his life when he picked up a copy of USA Today.

He was surprised to see his little sister, Jen, listed as one of the top high school basketball players in the United States. He immediately phoned home. "We had no idea it was going to be in the paper," a shocked Jen Sobota said. "I was in school and my mom called and told me my brother, who is 23, had read it. My mom said he was bragging to all his friend and co-workers about me." Thel7-year-old senior at Greater Latrobe High School and other outstanding Westmoreland County female athletes will be honored at 6 p.m.

today during the fifth annual Greensburg YWCA Sportswomen of the Year banquet at the Pour Points Hotel in Greensburg. Sobota, daughter of Robert and Jane Sobota, is one of two outstanding high school sportswomen. She has been a four-year starter in basketball and soccer. In basketball, she has been a four-year All Section player in Section I. Last year she was named to the Quad A All-WPIAL team and was one of the Post-Gazette's WPIAL FAB 5 players.

She will play in the RoundbalJ Classic Saturday with top Pennsylvania players against Ohio. She has led the lady Wildcats to the semifinals the past two years, setting school records, and holds all-time leading assist records for both her career and single season. She broke the single-season record as a freshman and has continued to break it every year since. The last game of the regular season, she reached 2,000 career points and finished with 2,012 points. With a 3.6 grade-point aver AND CLaQCZErS mrt lit I Includes Special Order 1 'V 31 the Staggers Act and operate it as a private enterprise.

We paid $125,000 for it That got us the land and the rail." Norris said that when he formed a new company for it, he chose the name Turtle Creek Industrial Railroad because of the stream it runs beside and because when the line was started in 1890 it was called the Turtle Creek Valley Railroad. It was a popular line because of the coal mines and at one time stretched as far as Saltsburg, Indiana County. Today, the line serves Westmoreland County industrial sites such as GREENSBURG age, she accepted a full NCAA Division I basketball scholarship to William and Mary College in Williamsburg, Va. Sobota was nominated for the sportswomen award when she was an eighth-grader. To her disappointment, she didn't win.

"So I'm really looking forward to this I haven't been to a banquet since. This will be great," said Sobota. Another senior from a neighboring high school will also be feted as an outstanding high school athlete. Katie Bruzda, 17, daughter of John and Mary Bruzda, will be honored for records set as outstanding swimmer at Deny Area High School. She started swimming when she was 11 and has been in and out of the water ever since.

"But I wasn't very good when I started swimming. In fact, I was pretty bad," said Bruzda, who agrees she has come a long way. And, her record tells the tale. Sne holds eight of 12 high school records at Deny, three WPIAL titles in the 100-yard backstroke, and is a 1998 PIAA champion in the 100-yard backstroke. Her coaches, the motherdaughter team of Barbara and Laurel Highlands, will also be recognized during the banquet They were named coach of the year for their dual efforts and long-term contributions to the sport of swimming with the Laurel Highlands Regional YMCA in Scottdale.

Barbara Highlands has been swimming for 22 years; her daughter joined her in 1995. They coach swimmers 5-18 years of age. Katie Miller might not spend her time in the water achieving her goals, but on the golf course, basketball court and on the track is where she excels. She, too, will be honored for her outstanding achievements as middle school sports girl of the year. for local facilities 1 and 2 is based on their 4 ll OFF FUEE HUSH PUPPIES STUFFED DOG WITH EVERY PURCHASE Miller, 14, an eighth-grader at Harrold Middle School in the Hempfield Area School District is a daughter of Dean and Terry Miller.

She won the International Junior Golf Tour at Kawah Island in South Carolina and the Keystone State Games in Hershey. On the basketball court, her team finished the regular season undefeated. Miller says she started golfing when she was 8 years old in the back yard of her Hempfield home, while watching her dad, who used to be on Juniata College's golf team. And, she's been hitting the links ever since. As for the award she'll receive tonight, she admits it's a bit overwhelming.

She found out she won in a note written by her parents and tucked away in her track shoes. Her parents had received a call at home from YWCA officials. "I'm looking forward to the banquet It's kind of neat being honored My goal is always to be the best I can be, whatever sport I am participating in," said Miller. Others to be honored include: Sara J. Morrison, 18, daughter of John and Karyl Morrison, who will receive the college sportswoman award as the first recruit for women's soccer at Westminster College in New Wilmington.

She started every game as a freshman, helping lead the team to a 15-3 record in only their first season as a NCAA Division II team in the Great Lakes Inter-Collegiate Athletic Conference. As a goalkeeper, she recorded seven shutouts during the season and is ranked seventh in the nation in saves per game average by NCAA Division II. During her high school years, she was the goalkeeper and captain for the Norwin High School soccer team, both in 1996, SEE YWCA, PAGE EAST-7 3 most recently published materials. Int. and Citizen General Hospital FLORSHEIMV 1 nccocTflrc FAMOUS AIRSPREE COMFORT CASUAL REGISTER mPREE SHOES.

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