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<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>For the record, I was born in 1943, not 1942-I am
not an old geezer like FWS3-am MUCH younger!! And my father did not do
residential construction-he did commercial and industrial electrical
construction and some apartment houses. He did King of Prussia Mall, a project
that changed the face of the region w/ ultimately more square footage of retail
space than downtown Philadelphia. Re: Westage Hills, that is where I grew up (or
came of age-have never grown up!). It was at the end of double track on West
Chester Pike-from there to West Chester (16 miles), there were maybe 7 sidings,
the longest being in Broomall @ Brookthorpe Hills. Service every 1/2 hour to
West Chester, with every other car turning back @ Larchmont in Newtown Twp.,
around 8 miles from 69th St. Sundays the service was through to West Chester
every 15 minutes.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>Westgate Hills was a rush hour cutback. the
development in Haverford Twp. was built by Warner West Builders in 1940. My
parents bought their house in 1940 for $5000 w/ $5 down and a 3% mortgage-go
figure! The houses are now 76 years old, brick construction and had maybe
1400-1600 sq. ft of living space. Now they sell for more than
$250K-ouch!</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>West of Westgate Hills there was some development
around Broomall (another Warner West development), some homes around Newtown
Square then wide open spaces to West Chester.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>Then came the GI Bill and the post-war
boom.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>Unlike most other trolley lines, when the West
Chester line was converted in 1954, ridership was still expanding due to
population growth, even with the car-ification underway-too much
information!</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>RICH</FONT></DIV></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="FONT: 10pt arial; BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=fwschneider@comcast.net href="mailto:fwschneider@comcast.net">Fred
Schneider</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=shadow@gmail.com
href="mailto:shadow@gmail.com">Daria Phoebe Brashear</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Cc:</B> <A
title=pittsburgh-railways@mailman.dementix.org
href="mailto:pittsburgh-railways@mailman.dementix.org">Western PA Trolley
discussion</A> ; <A title=allmanr@verizon.net
href="mailto:allmanr@verizon.net">Richard Allman</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Tuesday, May 03, 2016 11:48
AM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Re: [PRCo] offtopic: red
arrow</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>I should act surprised Brashear?</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>Those flicks were taken right after the war. The city population
officially peaked in the 1950 census but it probably really reached its high
point about 1947 when the kids were home from the military, were marrying an
having kids of their own and before the suburbs began to swell.
</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>The the 1950 census showed Philadelphia in 1950 had 2.07 million people
and the four surrounding counties had 1.07 million. Sixty-six percent
of the Pennsylvania portion of the metro area was inside Philadelphia city.
There were still farms all the way from Newtown Square out to West
Chester when the car line was torn up in 1954. </DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>Today? The city has about 1.56 million people and those same
surrounding counties are home to 2.53 million blokes. The suburbs are
now home to 62% of the Pennsylvania portion. The city lost about half a
million people but the suburbs gained almost one and a half million
people.</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>Put that suburban gain into a context that yins can appreciate … the gain
in Philly's Pennsylvania suburbs since 1950 is 19% higher than the entire
population of Allegheny County today!!!!!</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>But D. P. B. … that uses the old definition of the MSA. It has
also been expanded to include half of the state of Delaware and Cecil County
Maryland and all of Southern New Jersey.</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>All that B. S. aside, there was suburban growth before the war just like
there was in Pittsburgh but it really mushroomed after the war. Before
the war it was largely near public transit and close in to the city line.
You will notice that I added a name … Rich Allman. Dr. Allman's
father supported his family by building those suburban homes and he may have
been doing it before the war. Rich is two years younger than I am … he
would have been hatched about 1942 and I remember the stories about his dad
building houses in the Westgate Hills area. </DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>Like so many of our metropolitan areas today, it's a humongous suburb
looking for an anchor. Perhaps a decade ago … maybe more … one of
the guys at the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum said to me, "Oh you come from that
Amish farm country." I shot back, "Yup, where the commuter trains leave
for Philadelphia every 30 minutes in the morning rush hour." The person
admitted he had no clue that it had changed. My wife will not get in
her car and go out after 2:00 (14 hours) because of our traffic.</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV><BR>
<DIV>
<DIV>On May 3, 2016, at 12:11 AM, Daria Phoebe Brashear wrote:</DIV><BR
class=Apple-interchange-newline>
<BLOCKQUOTE type="cite">
<DIV dir=ltr><BR>
<DIV class=gmail_extra><BR>
<DIV class=gmail_quote>On Mon, May 2, 2016 at 3:33 PM, Fred Schneider <SPAN
dir=ltr><<A href="mailto:fwschneider@comcast.net"
target=_blank>fwschneider@comcast.net</A>></SPAN> wrote:<BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; PADDING-LEFT: 1ex"
class=gmail_quote><BR>My god … must be 4 mm instead of fuzzy 8 mm home
movies. Either that or I'm used to those new hi-def
digital.<BR><BR>Does bring back memories of when the West Chester Pike was
a relatively empty two lane country highway instead of today's four lane
parking lot through the suburbs. Back then you could drive for
miles without seeing a traffic light.<BR>
<DIV>
<DIV class=h5><BR></DIV></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE>how about the piece of
construction equipment rolling by on the route 202 bypass overpass which was
not yet finished?<BR><BR></DIV>
<DIV class=gmail_quote>i hadn't considered how busy route 202 was until i
saw, when trying to find traffic counts for business 22/pa 48 that us202/us1
is the 2nd busiest in the state. i bicycled up 48, across business 22, and
under the parkway a few days ago en route to an inbound afternoon Holiday
Park bus, so it was on my mind<BR></DIV>
<DIV class=gmail_quote>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; PADDING-LEFT: 1ex"
class=gmail_quote>
<DIV>
<DIV class=h5><BR>On May 2, 2016, at 12:33 AM, Daria Phoebe Brashear via
Pittsburgh-railways wrote:<BR><BR>> found while poking about: the last
days of West Chester Red Arrow service:<BR>> <A
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmBOGgHIbZg" rel=noreferrer
target=_blank>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmBOGgHIbZg</A><BR>><BR>><BR></DIV></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV>--
<BR>
<DIV class=gmail_signature>
<DIV dir=ltr>
<DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr>Daria Phoebe Brashear<BR></DIV>
<DIV>AuriStor, Inc<BR></DIV>
<DIV><A href="http://dariaphoebe.com/"
target=_blank>dariaphoebe.com</A><BR><BR></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV><BR></BLOCKQUOTE>
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