PRCo List

[Vigrass, Bill]

Thanks. Fascinating!   Bill V.

> ----------
> From: 	Edward H. Lybarger[SMTP:twg at pulsenet.com]
> Reply To: 	pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
> Sent: 	Friday, October 08, 1999 11:41 AM
> To: 	pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
> Subject: 	RE: PRCo  List
> 
> 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/
> >
>