The First streetcars to serve Follansbee were supplied by the Tri-State Railway Company, later known as the Steubenville, Wellsburg & Weirton Railway Company. The line extended from Wellsburg through Follansbee to Steubenville, and several years later to Weirton. In 1917 the West Penn Eailways Company of Pittsburgh took ownership of the trolley transportation through Follansbee. In the 1920s the latter companies were operated under leases by the Wheeling Traction Company. The power to operate the streetcars was supplied from the Windsor Power Plant located at Beech Bottom, WV. The Wheeling Traction Company kept up with electric railway industry standards and had on its lines the double truck steel passenger cars of the most recent design. “On the interurban lines large center entrance steel type cars were used.” Additionally, Freight and express cars were operated daily between Wheeling and Steubenville, stopping in Follansbee for postal delivery. Follansbee began using the Star Bus Route for its mail delivery, replacing the trolley freight cars in 1930.
Follansbee-Steubenville Trolley operated a year before the route to Wellsburg was completed in 1906. Photo Courtesy of James Piccirllio
The company had a corps of about 600 employees. One of the Wheeling Traction Company car barns where repairs and inspections were made was located just north of Follansbee.
Streetcar Service to Wellsburg in 1908.
Workman laying trolley tracks to Follansbee, Circa 1904. Photo Courtesy of West Virginia Archives.
Streetcar on Bates Bridge once located over ravine where Archer Heights & Route 2 intersection is today.
1907 Streetcar near crossing at Market Street Bridge. Notice only a dirt road continued to Weirton. Photo: Richard A. Boyd.
Rugged cliffs always posed danger for rock slides.
Rockslide near Market Street Bridge Rt. 2 showing track damage, circa 1910. Richard A. Boyd Collection.
- History of West Virginia, Old and New, in one volume. (New York: American Historical Society, 1923), p. 460.