01
Connection
It moved materials and finished goods among a network of Westinghouse plants.
Pennsylvania industrial heritage
A railroad name with a remarkable story.
WIWR preserves and presents the story of the Westinghouse Inter-Works Railway name—its place in western Pennsylvania history and its unusual modern revival.
Explore the historyMeet WIWR todayThe original railway
Five miles that connected an industrial world.
Chartered in 1902, the historic Westinghouse Interworks Railway served the lower Turtle Creek valley east of Pittsburgh. It carried freight among Westinghouse plants and provided a working line for the testing and demonstration of electric railway equipment.
The railway linked Trafford, Wilmerding, and East Pittsburgh—communities whose identity was shaped by the companies and inventions of George Westinghouse. Its operating story continued until 1962, when flood-control work severed part of the route.
What the line represented
More than tracks and freight cars.
The Inter-Works Railway sat at the intersection of manufacturing, transportation, invention, and the lives of the people who built western Pennsylvania's industrial age.
02
Experiment
Its tracks helped demonstrate emerging electric-railway technology in a real industrial setting.
03
Community
Its story belongs to Trafford, Wilmerding, East Pittsburgh, and the generations shaped by those factories.
A modern revival
WIWR, Inc. today.
Richard Shumaker formed the modern Westinghouse Inter-Works Railway Co., Inc. and, for simplicity, adopted the corporate name WIWR, Inc. in 2003—bringing a personally meaningful Pennsylvania railroad name into a new chapter.
The modern WIWR story grew from Shumaker's connection to Wilmerding and his interest in George Westinghouse, industrial history, and the original Inter-Works Railway. The name appeared on a limited collection of custom Lionel freight cars and became the center of an archive that now includes corporate records, railway-related material, and the original WIWR stock ledger.
An important distinction: WIWR, Inc. is a modern, independently formed Pennsylvania corporation. It does not claim to be the historic railroad corporation and is not affiliated with Westinghouse Electric Company, Wabtec, or other present-day Westinghouse-branded businesses.
The WIWR collection
A small archive of a very large story.
Model freight cars
Approximately 150 WIWR Lionel freight cars, retained largely in their original boxes.
Original stock ledger
A surviving corporate artifact documenting the ownership structure of the modern WIWR, Inc.
Wilmerding connection
A personal hometown link to the community most closely associated with the Westinghouse Air Brake legacy.
Historical overview informed by contemporary records and published histories. Explore the Library of Congress Westinghouse Works collection. Header photograph: “Arrival of the Workmen,” 1904, Library of Congress.
The name survived. The story continues.
WIWR.net is being developed as a permanent home for this history, the surviving collection, and Richard Shumaker's account of how the name returned more than forty years after the original railway ceased operation.
About Richard Shumaker