Pittsburgh in San Francisco]

Fri Jul 9 15:25:06 EDT 1999

Jon McGrew is preparing a memorial to Rege, to be presented at the Trolley
Museum's "Old Pittsburgh Days" event July 24-25.
----- Original Message -----
From: Robert E. Rathke <brathke at juno.com>
To: <pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org>
Sent: Tuesday, July 06, 1999 11:19 PM
Subject: Re: Pittsburgh in San Francisco]


> Rege Cordic left Pittsburgh in 1965 for a radio and TV career in Los
> Angeles, but he's still remembered for his antics.  In 1954-55 he had a
> daily 7 PM program ("On the Town") on KDKA on which he phoned people with
> elaborate "put ons".  I recall two of his rail shows:
>
> Once he called PRC and asked about renting a trolley for a party.  The
> PRC person gave him all the information and rates, and then Rege asked
> him if PRC could remove all the seats from the trolley so that his party
> could dance as they rode around town.  PRC wouldn't give in to that
> request.
>
> Another time he called the B&O at Glenwood yard, and asked if he could
> use the services of the railroad's steam crane.  He said he lived under
> the railroad's bridge on the line between Glenwood and Hays, and he was
> getting ready to pour a new concrete floor in his garage.  He wanted the
> B&O to position the crane above his garage and pick it up while they
> poured the concrete floor.  I think the B&O person said their answer
> would depend on how much rail traffic they had that day.
>
> Bob Rathke 7/6
>
> On Tue, 06 Jul 1999 00:09:34 -0700 Jim Holland <pghpcc at pacbell.net>
> writes:
> >This is a multi-part message in MIME format.
> >
> >--------------3E091A361A27
> >Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
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> >
> >Greetings!
> >
> > While searching the web for PRCo, I came across one dance
> >sight where a
> >couple visiting San Francisco thought they rode a Pittsburgh PCC car!
> >This was
> >probably 1704, an ex SF 1100 series car bought second hand from St.
> >Louis and
> >repainted in St. Louis colors.  I wrote to tell them this and here is
> >the reply:
> >
> >--
> >James B. Holland
> >       To e-mail *off-list,* please click here:
> >mailto:pghpcc at pacbell.net
> >              PITTSBURGH RAILWAYS COMPANY (PRCo), June of 1949 -- June
> >of 1953
> >      Pennsylvania Trolley Museum (PTM) member #273;
> >http://www.pa-trolley.org/
> >N.M.R.A.  Life member #2190; http://www.mcs.net:80/~weyand/nmra/
> >
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> >Message-ID: <602d52f7.24b2f82c at aol.com>
> >Date: Tue, 6 Jul 1999 02:11:56 EDT
> >Subject: Re: Pittsburgh  in  San  Francisco
> >To: pghpcc at pacbell.net
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> >
> >Hi!
> >
> >Thanks for setting me straight!  I went to Carnegie Tech (E '65) and
> >the
> >Forbes Avenue cars ran just outside the window of my fraternity house.
> > At
> >that time, you could rent a trolley for a party, which we did about
> >twice a
> >year.  The best part of that was when they went up on Mount Washington
> >and
> >you could see the city at night.
> >
> >At one time (1958, I believe) one of the fraternities (NOT mine!) at
> >Carnegie
> >Tech got a bunch of pledges to board a downtown car using pennies to
> >pay the
> >fare.  Some others applied thermite to the wheels and welded the thing
> >to the
> >track.  The thing sat there for two days and the PRC had to lift the
> >body off
> >the trucks with a crane. The fraternity was banned from campus and we
> >heard
> >that two people actually served jail time for it.  This is an
> >oft-retold
> >legend at Tech.
> >
> >You must be familiar with Rege Cordic's labeling of the 77/54 (I
> >think...)
> >Frankstown car as the "Flying Fractions".
> >
> >I did a lot of dancing by taking the cars to West View and Danceland.
> >
> >Check out our writeup of our recent Pittsburgh Dance Workshop:
> >
> ><A HREF="pitwrk.html">The Pittsburgh Workshop</A>
> >
> >or HTTP://www.jitterbuzz.com/pitwrk.html
> >
> >We have photos of one of the last polychrome tile Gulf Gas Stations
> >and a
> >well preserved Isaly's
> >
> >Thanks again for your help!  (IT sure looked like an old PRC car to
> >me!)  ...
> >or maybe I wanted it to be one.
> >
> >Best
> >
> >---Frank
> >www.jitterbuzz.com
> >
> >
> >--------------3E091A361A27--
> >
>
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