Derry, PA

Derry is a Westmoreland County borough on the northwest side of Chestnut Ridge, about 45 miles east of Pittsburgh. McGee Run passes through town toward the Conemaugh River, and the streets follow the route of Derry Station, the railroad community created in 1852 to serve the Pennsylvania Railroad. That history is still legible at Derry Station Railroad Heritage Park, where the station and cabooses keep the rail corridor in the town's current map. The station grounds also give the borough a place for rail history outside the festival season each year.

Derry Railroad Days returns each September with a parade and festival built around that railroad past. Borough streets also connect to churches, small businesses, and community services around the old station area, while nearby Latrobe and the Pittsburgh region provide the larger western Pennsylvania orbit. Derry began as a rail stop, grew as a goods-and-people hub, and still uses a recurring festival to bring the railroad story back into the present.