Editing Derry, Pennsylvania (section)

==History==

===19th century===
Originally known as Derry Station, the borough was created in 1852 to serve the [[Pennsylvania Railroad]]. It was named after the village on [[Pennsylvania Route 982|PA Route 982]] originally known as Derry and now known as New Derry (even though it is older than the community being discussed here).<ref name="RobertsBook">{{cite book | last = Roberts| first = Charles S. | title = Triumph I: Altoona to Pitcairn: 1846-1996 | publisher = Barnard, Roberts, and Co., Inc. | year = 1997 | location = Baltimore, Maryland | pages = 279–285 | isbn = 0-934118-23-X}}</ref> The original "Derry" in [[Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania|Westmoreland County]], [[Pennsylvania]], was named after the City of [[Derry]] in [[Ulster]], the northern [[Provinces of Ireland|province]] in [[Ireland]], because the area’s first non-[[Native Americans in the United States|Native American]] inhabitants were [[Scotch-Irish American|Scotch-Irish]].

Derry was ideally suited for major railroad facilities because of its ready access to water from McGee Run (essential in the era of steam locomotives) and because it sits atop a slight summit along the railroad right-of-way. In Derry's heyday in the late 1800s, it had four hotels, mainly to serve railroad workers, as well as a roundhouse for locomotive maintenance and a massive railroad yard.<ref name="RobertsBook"/> Derry was incorporated as a borough on October 22, 1881.<ref name="PHMC">{{cite web|url=http://www.phmc.state.pa.us/Bah/dam/counties/pdfs/Westmoreland.pdf |title=Westmoreland County (Dates of incorporation of municipalities) |access-date=2008-08-08 |publisher=Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission |df=mdy-all}}</ref>

===20th century===
[[File:Derry-pennsylvania-downtown.jpg|thumb|Derry downtown business district]]
[[File:Derry Station PA 1900 BEye View.jpg|thumb|An aerial view of Derry Station in 1900]]
Derry served as the terminal for Pittsburgh commuter trains until 1964, when the Pennsylvania Railroad ceased operating its commuter service. Railroad Days Festival, held annually, serves to remind residents of Derry's railroading heritage.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.derryborough.org |title=Borough of Derry |access-date=2008-08-08 |date=2008-07-11 |df=mdy-all}}</ref>

Little remains of Derry's railroading boom, although some might notice an unused railroad right-of-way that extends from Derry westward to [[Pennsylvania Route 981|PA Route 981]], running slightly north but parallel to the currently-used railroad tracks. This was an ill-fated project known as the Derry-Donohoe-[[Jeannette, Pennsylvania|Jeannette]] bypass, in which the Pennsylvania Railroad attempted to build a new main line that would avoid the curves and slopes of the existing main line, bypassing [[Latrobe, Pennsylvania|Latrobe]] and [[Greensburg, Pennsylvania|Greensburg]].<ref name="RobertsBook"/>  Construction of the bypass began in the 1920s, including a large trestle near Bradenville, but the new route was never completed.

Derry and Latrobe were linked by the Westmoreland County Railway Company, which was an [[interurban]] operating from 1904 to 1932.<ref>{{cite book | last = Muller | first = Edward K. |author2=Ronald C. Carlisle |author3=Christine Davis |author4=Carmen DiCiccio |author5=Gary Fitzsimons |author6=Kenneth D. Rose  | title = Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania: An Inventory of Historic Engineering and Industrial Sites | publisher = America's Industrial Heritage Project, [[National Park Service]] | year = 1994 | location = Washington, DC | pages = 331–332}}</ref>

A helicopter crash into a crowd assembled for a festival at St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Derry killed eight people and injured 18 others on Labor Day, 1978.   The railroad crossing in downtown Derry has also been the site of other fatal accidents.