[From nobody Mon Jan 14 08:18:13 2013 Received: from smtpin-102-6.bryant.webtv.net (209.240.198.43) by storefull-616.iap.bryant.webtv.net with WTV-SMTP; Sat, 7 Oct 2000 13:45:06 -0700 (PDT) Received: by smtpin-102-6.bryant.webtv.net (WebTV_Postfix) id 4AD96156; Sat, 7 Oct 2000 13:45:06 -0700 (PDT) Delivered-To: saturnv@webtv.net Received: from alycia.dementia.org (ALYCIA.DEMENTIA.ORG [128.2.35.149]) by smtpin-102-6.bryant.webtv.net (WebTV_Postfix) with ESMTP id 5426313F; Sat, 7 Oct 2000 13:45:04 -0700 (PDT) Received: (from daemon@localhost) by alycia.dementia.org (8.9.1a/8.9.0) id QAA09465 for pittsburgh-railways-outgoing; Sat, 7 Oct 2000 16:44:39 -0400 (EDT) Received: from mailsorter-105-2.iap.bryant.webtv.net (mailsorter-105-2.iap.bryant.webtv.net [209.240.198.118]) by alycia.dementia.org (8.9.1a/8.9.0) with ESMTP id QAA09461 for <pittsburgh-railways@dementia.org>; Sat, 7 Oct 2000 16:44:34 -0400 (EDT) Received: from storefull-614.iap.bryant.webtv.net (storefull-614.iap.bryant.webtv.net [209.240.198.34]) by mailsorter-105-2.iap.bryant.webtv.net (WebTV_Postfix) with ESMTP id E790E2D50D for <pittsburgh-railways@dementia.org>; Sat, 7 Oct 2000 13:43:44 -0700 (PDT) Received: (from production@localhost) by storefull-614.iap.bryant.webtv.net (8.8.8-wtv-e/mt.gso.26Feb98) id NAA14100; Sat, 7 Oct 2000 13:43:44 -0700 (PDT) X-WebTV-Signature: 1 ETAtAhRBU5WwUhIaKuyeRdDBgkdeFlAKqAIVAITbksSoMS0r17tx28dLxrLoHp3+ From: SaturnV@webtv.net (Bob Schmidt) Date: Sat, 7 Oct 2000 16:43:44 -0400 (EDT) To: pittsburgh-railways@dementia.org Subject: Re: Amusement Parks and West View Park Message-ID: <1290-39DF8B00-4732@storefull-614.iap.bryant.webtv.net> In-Reply-To: brathke@juno.com's message of Sat, 7 Oct 2000 09:51:44 -0500 Content-Disposition: Inline Content-Type: Text/Plain; Charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7Bit MIME-Version: 1.0 (WebTV) Sender: owner-pittsburgh-railways@dementia.org Precedence: bulk Reply-To: pittsburgh-railways@dementia.org That recap of your West View Park days, Bob, really lit up some memory cells. I recall, in particular the years 1946 thru 1950 and St. Justin's Westview Park school picnics in early June. For logical reasons PRC wasn't about to furnish any of their recently acquired PCC rolling stock for charter service especially for a bunch of crazed immorals launching their first day of Summer vacation. Three or four orange low floors showed up picnic day around 10 AM with their roll signs displaying "chartered". They lined up on the inbound track of the 40 Mt. Washington line at Southern Avenue and Lelia St. at 10:30 AM The trip took us downgrade to SHJ, through the tunnel on over the Smithfield St. Bridge, through the city, and onto the Northside via the 6th St. bridge. On up Federal St.we'd go where it became Perrysville, and onto Keating. By this time about twenty choruses of "Three Cheers For Our Conductor" had been spent and we were just getting warmed up. Yes indeed, the straightaway grade up toward Keating was a kind of speed fetish for the motorman. He would always have the controller pulled all the way around until it butted against the limiter stop. I always made sure I got the seat directly behind the motorman so's I could observe him using the controller and the horizontal braking lever. Swing and sway it did as it travelled the PRW at full throttle with a car load of ecstatic, boisterous, kids singing the praises of the motorman. The highpoint of the trip itself fo me was viewing the Keating carhouse/yard and seeing just what they had there. Work equipment had always facinated me, but never saw anything at Keating except a few delapidated Pressed Steel high floors and a McGuire or two. Once past Keating the PRW continued on downgrade towards Westview splitting Center Ave. The chanting continued as the car rocked and rolled right into the Park still on its own PRW. I never experienced the return ride back to Mt. Washington since the return charter was scheduled too early in the evening, and I still had ticket strips to burn. Mom and Dad knowing this would always drive out toward dark and rescue me from a hard days play and any possible promiscuity. My wife and I shop at Westview Park Shopping Center which is located exactly within the boundry of the old amusement park. No traces of anything to remind of those wonderous years except for the occasional haunting sounds of the screaming people on the coasters, and visual reconstructions from well stamped memories. Bob S. ]