I have not read all the comments here, but one thing I would suggest is to start your trip in Greensburg, Pa. which is the first stop just east of Pitt. We took the train a couple of years ago and I did not want to have to deal with city traffic, parking, etc. so we went instead to Greensburg, which is a charming little city with a restored, historic train station. Also, there was a parking garage where we left our vehicle that had extremely reasonable rates.