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The Bethel Branch is a three-mile spur off the Montour Trail Main Line at Library Junction in Peters Township, running north into Bethel Park to end at Logan and Irishtown Roads. It is the gentlest piece of the whole system: a rail grade on the plateau with no sustained grade over 1 percent. It is crushed limestone after a short asphalt climb from the junction to the Brush Run Road lot. The route passes wooded stretches and backyards, crosses the J.R. Taylor Memorial Bridge over Clifton Road, and serves as the South Hills front door to the Montour Trail. Back at Library Junction the Main Line runs west toward McMurray and east past the PRT Library Station toward Clairton.
Montour Trail: Bethel Branch
Your comfort. Prognosticated.
-Cory
In a typical year the Montour Trail: Bethel Branch has about 112 to 153 days of excellent weather for popular activities such as hiking, dog walking, birding, e-biking, biking, running, and walking, with April, May, and October the best months.
Hourly comfort scores for the next 15 days of weather, tuned to your activity and your own thresholds.
Plan your visit to this trail. Get the best windows for a comfortable outing.
Enjoy the Montour Trail: Bethel Branch!
In half of past years, color along the Montour Trail: Bethel Branch peaks October 19 to 30, typically around October 24. The trail has 32% deciduous coverage, with the majority being black cherry, red maple, white ash, sugar maple, and American elm.
The Montour Railroad hauled its first coal in June 1879, from the Dickson Mine at Cliff Mine to barges on the Ohio River at Coraopolis. The Imperial Coal Company had organized the railroad in 1877 to reach its mines near Imperial. Passenger and mail trains ran the main line from 1879 until 1927. In 1899 the Pittsburgh Coal Company bought Imperial Coal and its railroad. From 1913 to 1914 it laid a 32-mile Mifflin Extension around Pittsburgh's South Hills to Bethel Park. Branches followed: Library in 1918, Muse in 1921, and Westland in 1928. During World War II the Montour shipped more than 300,000 tons of coal a month. The coal market fell in the 1970s, mines closed, and the Pittsburgh and Lake Erie, sole owner by 1976, cut the line back. The last Montour crew was called on November 1, 1984. Full abandonment took effect in May 1986. Volunteers chartered the Montour Trail Council in November 1989. In 1991 it bought 38 miles of right of way from the P&LE for $220,000. The first 4.4 miles of trail opened at Cecil Park in October 1992. The council has built the trail piece by piece since, earning National Recreation Trail status in 2004. The Bethel Branch rides the 1914 Mifflin Extension itself, from Library Junction into Bethel Park, where the last Montour train left Brookside Lumber in December 1980 and the J.R. Taylor Bridge over Clifton Road completed the trail in 2011.
