Old PRCo route numbers

[Fred Schneider]

Last evening I was looking at the PRC route cards for Charles Street
Transfer, Charles-Perrysville, Riverview-Perrysville, and Perrysville.  

Some day I would like to make sense out of all of those cards ... one
problem is that the person who compiled the data for the Railways
Company had an old German-style script ... reminds me of the effort I
went through with German birth certificates and marriage documents ...
sometimes you cannot even read a street name.  There is the added
complication of changes in street names over time, particularly after
about 1907 when the City of Allegheny (north side) was absorbed into the
City of Pittsburg.  Because of street name changes, routing changes, a
lot of superfluous data, and poor penmanship (that guy never heard of
the Palmer method), it can take hours to more than a day just to make
sense out of one route ... probably a year of full time work to do all
of them.    

But I can assure you that there were Perrysville-Riverview Park cars
(the old Bentley-Knight system) which ran all the way out to East
Street.  There were Perrysville-Charles Street cars, which ran to
Charles Street and then down the hill to the carbarn.  To avoid changing
ends or perhaps for traffic reasons, there was a period when these cars
ran inbound on Perrysville in the morning, returning via California Ave
and outbound on Perrysville in the afternoon rush, returning by way of
California.  There was also a Charles Street Transfer, which ran from
the barn up the hill to Perrysville Avenue.
And there was a route simply called Perrysville, which ran to East
Street using a much more convoluted route on the lower north side.  

In a previous letter, I was very critical of using 1940 or l950 memories
to analyse earlier data.  In 1940 or 1950 PRC had a head sign (I'm sorry
that I tend sometimes to mix American and English terminology)
CANONSBURG, which was used by cars running from downtown Pittsburgh to
the wye at the north end of Canonsburg ... until Drake Wye was built in
the spring of 1953 that was the first point south of Castle Shannon
where cars could be wyed or looped.  Canonsburg extra cars helped to
serve the burgeoning suburbs north out to McMurry.    In 1914 there was
also a route called CANONSBURG, but it was a reminder of the original
Washington and Canonsburg Railway ... extra service from  Washington to
Canonsburg.  Here are two routes called Canonsburg ... both on the
Washington line ... but neither covered any of the track used by the
other.  

I have a 1914 route list ... 6 pages ... simple to xerox.  And, unlike
the route cards, this is typeset and easy to read.  This may be a
mistake on my part (if I trigger an avalanche), but if someone wants it,
send a legal size return envelope with a 33 cent stamp on it to Fred
Schneider, 111 Delp Road, Lancaster, PA 17601-3905.   


fws

-----Original Message-----
From: Donald Galt [mailto:galtfd at att.net]
Sent: Monday, November 22, 1999 6:31 PM
To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
Subject: RE: Old PRCo route numbers


On 22 Nov 99, at 14:44, Donald Galt wrote:
> 
> That word "transfer" - was it in use for such services in other
cities, or is
> that a Pittsburgh peculiarity?

One answer to my own question: Portland OR had it's "Bridge Transfer" 
line, which served essentially the same purpose as PRCo's P&LE Transfer.

Now, you guys with all the opinions about the Arnold Report table: can
you 
shed light on some of the more obscure route names?

Like, for instance:

	J&L Trippers
	Carrick - Knoxville
	18th Street Franchise
	Bell House

D2