Route "#s" Etc

[Jim Holland]

Greetings!

Donald Galt wrote:
> 
> On 11 Nov 99, at 11:54, Derrick J Brashear wrote:
> 
> > That's still Pittsburgh practice [signing only for a route name, not a
> > destination]
> 
> The pecularity of Pittsburgh is that there were no interlinings through the
> Triangle.

	Yes - so when a route is listed as 15 miles long in Pgh. it is from
city center [centre] to the outer terminal.  Route lengths in other
cities were measured from and outer terminal  t-h-r-u  downtown to
another outer terminal and sometimes this made for a rather long route
of 15 miles.  But this would be two routes in Pgh and thus those
extraordinarily long routes from other cities were not so long.
	Imagine interlining Charleroi with Ardmore - or McKeesport!

> Wolfgang Auer, who has written an extensive treatise on the Vienna route
> numbering system, was fair astounded when I pointed out to him that the
> car on the cover of "Touring Pittsburgh by Trolley" is heading AWAY from
> West View.

	Why be astounded?  That is a system that worked very well for PRCo.
	I once had a rush hour trip on that read 41 UNION-STEINER
the normal destination was 41 UNION-LYON.  M-a-n-y  people let my
coach pass even though they got off many blocks before Steiner - and I
had a mostly empty coach.  Most people in SF who have ridden the same
line for 20 years or more haven't the slightest idea which streets they
pass enroute to their destination!
	On the other hand,  m-a-n-y  people never read past the 41 and then
curse the driver out for turning short!
	I think the PRCo system of 42 DORMONT  and  43 NEELD makes
much more sense!

> Which brings up another point: I assume that 10 and 15 cars changed signs
> at West View terminus, right?

	IF the operator remembered!

	The Drake and Library lines were *interlined* on Sunday to reduce
overhead - this way it took only 3 cars to operate the two lines as
opposed to 4 cars if cars were dedicated to one line.  An inbound
Library car became an outbound Drake and an inbound Drake became an
outbound Library.  Drake left downtown on the hour, Library on the
half-hour.  Shannon residence had 30 minute headways.  I have many
photos of cars at Library with a Drake sign already displayed so I know
the photo was made on Sunday.  This was the official place to change the
route sign!

James B. Holland
------- -- ---------
        Pittsburgh Railways Company (PRCo), June of 1949 -- June of 1953
    To e-mail *off-list,* please click here: mailto:pghpcc at pacbell.net
N.M.R.A.  Life member #2190; http://www.mcs.net:80/~weyand/nmra/