All Aboard The Hoodlebug

In southwestern Pennsylvania, about an hour's drive east of Pittsburgh, there is a hiking trail known as the "Ghost Town Trail" that connects a series of old ghost towns that were once bustling homes to coal mines and mills as recently as the early 1900s. Now the towns of Wehrum, Scott Glen, and Lackawanna, to name a few, are no longer inhabited, and their buildings and roads are slowly being reclaimed by nature. However, their history is forever etched into the landscape, with some impressively large structures still standing. Each movement of this triptych is inspired by a part of this historic area of Pennsylvania's Blacklick Valley. The first movement, All Aboard the Hoodlebug, is inspired by the old passenger train known as the Hoodlebug that was common in the area. The towns relied on railroads that cut through the mountainous and difficult terrain. Listen for the train crossing bells as you take a trip from one town to another.