PRCo List

[Edward H. Lybarger]

Only a small portion of the Washington route was on the alignment of the
narrow gauge Pittsburgh Southern.  I just encountered a photo taken in
Bethel Park as that line was being dismantled, showing the work train.  It
also shows a home that's still there, a block away from the Drake line.

The Pittsburgh Southern basically wandered across country toward
Finleyville, Thomas, Eighty Four and Washington, near the present-day
CSX/B&O tracks.  It came up Banksville Road, through the heart of Mt.
Lebanon and down the 38A before heading out the Washington alignment.  Where
it left to go to Finleyville is unclear to me.  What is needed are Ed Boss's
maps.  Before he died, he mapped all the narrow gauge south of Pittsburgh
(and maybe more), but no one knows where the maps have gone.

Ed

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
[mailto:owner-pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org]On Behalf Of Vigrass,
Bill
Sent: Friday, October 08, 1999 9:21 AM
To: 'pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org'
Subject: RE: PRCo List


Message to Jim Holland from Bill Vigrass:
I enjoyed your article on PRC PCC's in the recent issue of TROLLEY TALK.  My
issue arrived early this week, but I just read it last evening.  I saw your
by-line.  Well done!  The comment on the smooth ride of the 1700's was
especially interesting since I am a techno-nut (retired Supt.of Lindenwold
Car Shop).

That the Overbrook/ex interurban line was narrow gauge then broad gauge but
never standard gauge is another item of interest.  In PAT's official history
of that line segment and in Hilton's book Narrow Gauge RR's of No.America
(or whatever its title), I learned that it was 40 inch gauge, an unusual
narrow gauge that caused the owners problems when they tried to buy another
locomotive. Nearly all of the Washington route, if not the alignment, had
been narrow gauge, but as I recall, most of it was 36 inch gauge, not 40.
Just the Castle Shannon RR was 40 inch as I recall very imperftectly.

During preliminary studies of upgrading that route (I was PMO for FTA,
jargon for Project Management Oversight Consultant for the Federal Transit
Administration), we learned that in several locations that PAT could not
attain environmental standards.  There is so much coal still in the ground
(in non-commercial quantities) that it gives off methane and other
hydrocarbon gases all the time so that the ambient condition exceeds EPA
standards.  There is no way that PAT could ever attain EPA standards.  I
think they got a waiver.  This came up at some station excavations around
the Castle Shannon area.  That route is very interesting for a variety of
reasons.   And it is now being rebuilt.  John von Briesen of DMJM is project
manager, a very good professional engineer who is also a railfan.  He did
the New Orleans St. Charles St. reconstruction project.  The project is in
good hands.

Best wishes.  Bill Vigrass.

> ----------
> From: 	Jim Holland[SMTP:pghpcc at pacbell.net]
> Reply To: 	pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
> Sent: 	Thursday, October 07, 1999 11:15 PM
> To: 	Brashear, Derrick J.
> Cc: 	pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
> Subject: 	PRCo  List
>
> Greetings!
>
> 	Earlier this evening I sent a roster of all PRCo PCCs, the
> 3750-3769 low-floor cars briefly used as Charleroi interurbans, and the
> 3700-3714 and 3800-3814 interurbans in addition to 3556 and showed
> arrival date, in service date, disposition date, and notes.  That was a
> large file and the mail software may have set it aside - don't remember
> it showing up!
>
> 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/
>