Chesco

When Skip Huston was 10, he fell asleep on top of a boxcar in Middletown, Ohio, and woke up in Columbus. He tells the story, which reflects his lifelong passion for trains, with relish. "When the train stopped, my dog, Rusty, a cocker spaniel that I had dragged up on the boxcar with me, was barking. This big guy comes up, he grabs me by the ear, he's holding a club, and he wants to know where I'm from. He called my grandfather. I never forgot the greeting when I got home. " Huston's easygoing and unpretentious personality is part of his charm.

A Chester County man in his 50s was fatally shot in his home Monday night, authorities said. The shooting was reported around 7 p.m. in the 200 block of Seltzer Avenue in Caln Township, a county dispatcher said. Police were unavailable to confirm reports from neighbors about what happened.    -Robert Moran

The horn sounds. Hoofbeats ripple across the field, followed by the thunder of dozens of English foxhounds. Something out of an old British film? No, it's life three days a week in Chester County, near Unionville, where the dogs of Mr. Stewart's Cheshire Foxhounds give chase. And unlike some hunts, these end happily for all concerned: When the pack catches up to its quarry, the fox is left alone.

Eugene Hwang, Chester County spelling champion, receives a school award recognizing his feat from William Mooney, county editor of the (West Chester) Daily Local News. Eugene, 11, who has finished fifth grade at East Goshen Elementary School, placed 39th out of 225 students from across the country who participated in the National Spelling Bee. The bee was held in Washington in May.

A commercial vehicle struck and killed two pedestrians just before 5:30 a.m. Saturday along Route 100 in Chester County, police said. Uwchlan Township Police did not immediately release the names of the pedestrians, who they said were hit by a southbound vehicle between Rutgers and Worthington drives. The victims were pronounced dead at the scene. Anyone with information on the accident was asked to call Uwchlan police at 610-692-5100. - Claudia Vargas

The youngest Chester County contingent ever assembled will open play in the 15th annual Carpenter Cup competition today at Veterans Stadium. The game returns to Philadelphia after a year at Frawley Stadium in Wilmington. With 18 underclassmen on his 29-player squad, Chester County manager Bob Gottschall expects to see more than a few wide eyes when the team first steps on the artificial surface at the Vet. Chesco opens play at 1 p.m. against a combined team from the Bicentennial and Inter-Academic Leagues.

The Williams Co. of Tulsa, Okla., received permission Wednesday from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection to replace a portion of its existing Transco natural gas pipeline in East Brandywine and East Caln Townships, Chester County. The company will be allowed to to use an open-trench method to replace a 30-inch pipeline that crosses the East Branch of the Brandywine Creek and Ludwig's Run with a 42-inch pipeline. The permit addresses runoff and the effects of stream encroachment.

It took 11 innings to determine a Carpenter Cup champion, and it wasn't pretty. The Chester County all-stars beat the Suburban One League's American and Continental Conference all-stars, 6-5, to win the annual showcase of the Philadelphia area's best high school baseball players. But they didn't look like standouts yesterday at Citizens Bank Park. There were almost as many errors (nine) as there were runs (11). The tying run in the ninth inning was scored on a balk. Chester County didn't win as much it survived, considering it was the primary culprit of the fundamental lapses.

State police have released a composite sketch they hope will identify one of two men responsible for an armed robbery at a Chester County market on July 25. Police said two men confronted the 48-year-old owner of Mason's Market on West Baltimore Pike in Penn Township at 10:34 p.m., right after the store had been closed and locked for the night. The men, armed with a shotgun and a handgun, forced the owner back into the store, took money and other items, and bound him before leaving.

Three people were shot, one of them fatally, about 9:30 last night outside a fast-food outlet near the Great Valley Shopping Center in Chester County. The shootings took place outside the Kentucky Fried Chicken near Route 401 and Lancaster Pike in East Whiteland Township. Two of the wounded were taken to Brandywine Hospital. A third person was taken to Paoli Memorial Hospital where he was declared dead. Their names and conditions of the two wounded were unavailable late last night.