NC Zones in Pittsburgh & gauntlet (gantlet?)! Overhead

[Jim Holland]

Greetings!

Robert E. Rathke wrote:
> 
> The 5 Spring Hill line was single track with a loop at the end on Rhine
> and Buente Streets.  There was a double trolley wire on the single track
> line, and the trolley wheel rode on the righthand wire;
> Was double wire on two-direction single track a
> common practice on PRC?

	Thanks for this observation!  From the photos of 1699 turning from 
Chestnut onto Spring Garden (April 1991 PTM calendar), it appears that the 
wire for the 5 Spring Hill is double wire.  But this poses a problem.
	For the 1 Spring Garden to make a right turn outbound, there must 
be a standard trolley frog in the outbound 5 Spring Hill wire.  The 
inbound 1 Spring Garden will use the same track to turn back to Chestnut 
(and the photo clearly shows a single wire on this turn) which means that 
the inbound 1 Spring Garden trolley will end up on the right side / 
outbound 5 Spring Hill wire so another two frogs are needed to get this 
trolley to the inbound wire!  Do you remember the configuration here?  
Can't use a crossing as then the outbound trolley could not switch wire 
properly.  Or possibly a 1 Spring Garden car had to move the pole over 
manually!

-- 
James B. Holland
       PITTSBURGH RAILWAYS COMPANY (PRCo), June of 1949 -- June of 1953
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