More Dramamine Railway

[Jim Holland]

Greetings!

	Charlie said he needed to take some dramamine before watching the rest 
of a video about PRCo!  We natives definitely understand!

	Under the topic of Schoenville, it was mentioned that the trackwork of 
PRCo was *probably* the worst in the nation.  Don mentioned that he had heard 
cars described as *waddling like a duck* but I thought that leaping like a 
jackrabbit was more apropos!

	*The Great Circle Tour* (a 16 page article with many good photos in *ERA 
Headlights*, Sept-Oct 1984 about a trip starting in Mt. Lebanon, a ride on the 
42, 87, 62, taxi, West Penn to Brownsville, train to Roscoe, Charleroi 
interurban to Castle Shannon and 38A back home) is an excellent article but 
makes these observations about the system  **in 1947**::::::::::::::

	The ". . . 42-Dormont trolley line . . . fast, rollicking hill-and-dale 
ride."

	The 87-Ardmore:  "Our PCC car entered Ardmore Boulevard, with its 
private right-of-way median strip. . . We were disappointed.  The track was 
awful, and at each stop, the track jogged to provide room for a safety zone for 
waiting passengers.  This outbound car in the morning peak made few stops, but 
swung and swayed through each of these jogs.  Because of the poor track, the 
motorman often had to slow down.  The ride was anything but comfortable, yet it 
was reasonably quick and, without doubt, it was rail transit."

	And while riding the train from Brownsville to Roscoe:::::::  "Through 
the dirty train windows, we saw what appeared to be an abandoned streetcar body 
in a nearby field.  After alighting from the train at a flagstop shelter, we 
were able to discern a PRCo 3750-type deck roof car in the Roscoe Loop.  It 
wasn't a car body.  Weeds merely grew up to the windows."

-- 
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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