Spring Hill and Garden

[Jim Holland]

Greetings!

	All of the following is from Bob Rathke:::::::-=*-*=-=*-=*-=*-=*-=*-=*-=*

The Spring Hill and Spring Garden tracks are still intact in Chestnut
Street, and are actually in better condition than some current PAT track.
There was/is an unusual derail turnout near the bottom of Rhine St. on
the Spring Hill line.  This is a steep downhill grade, so the switch was
normally set for turnout, and the trolley operator had to stop at a red
signal just before the turnout (only about 24" long), and activate the
turnout to the main line position in order to get a green signal to
proceed.  Spring Hill was a single track line used in both directions, so
trolleys operated on the wrong side of the street for nearly a mile
(there's also a 1/2-mile stretch of track like this on Dallas' McKinney
Ave. line).  Spring Garden was double track, but there were a couple of
curves that were so tight that the double track was reduced to a single
track for the curves.

I lived on Spring Hill, and went to high school on Troy Hill.  A weekly
student pass in the mid-50's cost 95 cents, so I would ride the Spring
Hill line down to East Ohio St., then transfer to an outbound 4-Troy Hill
trolley.  Leaving school in the afternoon, PRC would line up four to five
inbound cars to pick up students; these cars had 8-Brighton Road route
signs on them, and they would go west on E. Ohio Street, drop off
students along the way for transfers, then turn onto the Brighton Road
line into downtown and operate as rush hour cars.

-- 
James B. Holland
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              PITTSBURGH RAILWAYS COMPANY (PRCo), June of 1949 -- June of 1953
      Pennsylvania Trolley Museum (PTM) member #273; http://www.pa-trolley.org/
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