When retired railroad worker Bill Strickler of Arnold City built a wooden replica of the passenger-baggage railroad car that sits next to the West Newton Station, he was combining his lifelong love of railroads with his passion and skill for woodworking. The intricately-built replica sits on a wooden arched railroad trestle inside the West Newton Station, which is itself a replica of the 1910 Pittsburgh Lake Erie railroad station on West Newton's West Side. The station is the visitors center in West Newton for the Great Allegheny Passage, the recreational trail that connects Pittsburgh with Cumberland, Md. Strickler, whose home is filled with model wooden railroad trains he has built, said he was inspired to build a replica of the 1928 passenger-baggage car when he saw a worker welding on the railroad car. He began the long process of building the wooden train this summer and finished it about a month ago. While the 89-year-old Strickler did not keep track of the many hours he invested in making the railcar in his basement wood shop, he said the work takes “a long, long time.” “It was pretty tedious. It takes a lot of patience. I did it all by hand,” and did not use any model kits, Strickler said. Before he started building the trestle and railcar, Strickler said he took extensive photographs of the refurbished 70-foot passenger-baggage car. He used a variety of wood for the railcar and trestle, including purpleheart, African mahogany, walnut, maple and poplar. Using his router, cold saw, lathe, scroll saw, table saw and band saw, he cut countless small pieces of wood and glued them together to make the wooden masterpiece. The different shades of brown and purple wood on the arched trestle, which is adorned with the tag “ RR,” and the passenger-baggage car are the colors of the wood and not the result of any wood stain, Strickler said. He gave the trestle and railcar a clear coat of varnish, which gives it a gleam in the sun that streams through the windows of the trail station. Strickler estimated he spent more than $60 on the wood he used for the project. The railcar, which moves on the wooden tracks he built, has blinds in the windows and doors, as well as the springs for the wheels. “He wants every little detail on them. He is very proud of his work,” said his daughter, Debbie Russo, also of Arnold City. As for how long he will keep the display it at the train station, Strickler said, “I'm just going to let it be there.” Robert Hand, president of the Westmoreland Yough Trail Chapter, which oversees that section of the recreational trail, could not be reached for comment. RAILROAD WORKER Strickler's fascination with railroads began while growing up near Dickerson Run in Fayette County, when his father worked for the Pittsburgh Lake Erie Railroad. Strickler said he would walk by P's Dickerson Run rail yard, which featured a roundhouse and turntable that moved the locomotives and rail cars. Strickler's father took a job with the Monessen Southwestern Railway Co., a short line that served the former Pittsburgh Steel Co. mill in Monessen. Read more: http://triblive.com/neighborhoods/yourwestnewton/5156798-74/strickler-railroad-wooden#ixzz2n9ANXDF0 Follow us: @triblive on Twitter | triblive on FacebookiTunes com download is a media player and media library application developed by Apple Inc. It is used to play, download, and organize digital audio and video on personal computers running the OS X operating system and the iOS-based iPod, iPhone, and iPad devices, with editions also released for Microsoft Windows.itunes for windows 8