PRCo Car Houses

[Edward H. Lybarger]

Don't know about the car assignments exactly, but a lot of information is
known about the car houses beyond Ben's specific period study.  Like a lot
of other stuff, I have no time to dig it out during the next couple weeks
but will try to get it out later.

Ed

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
[mailto:owner-pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org]On Behalf Of Jim Holland
Sent: Saturday, October 09, 1999 1:04 AM
To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
Subject: PRCo Car Houses


Greetings!

Carl Zager wrote:
>
> Jim Holland mentioned that there was a car house standard for car
> numbers (I won't attempt to repeat his conjecture since he admitedly was
> hard pressed to follow the reasoning <grin>).

	PRCo had a system for assigning cars to Car Houses - I just don't
know what that system was.  When the 17s arrived, I know that 1763-1769
were at South Hills - 1949-1950.  But there were several Car House
closings shortly after that and a few more into the late 50s, early 60s.
Sometime during these closings, 1763-1769 were shifted out of South Hills
and eventually ended up at Craft - don't know if they visited other Car
Houses in between.  But they eventually came back to South Hills!

> Is there a record of PRCo car
> houses (built, abandoned, destroyed, etc.)? Is there even just a list
> (name, location)?

	I have a partial listing:
SOUTH
	 1)--* Charleroi, closed June of 1953 - Westinghouse PCCs
	 2)--* Tylerdale, just north of Little Washington, closed August
		1953 - Westinghouse PCCs
	 3)--  Castle Shannon Car House
	 4)--* Suburban Car House, Brownsville outer end, closed in 1954
		- Westinghouse PCCs
	 5)--  Hilltop - near 44 / 53 junction
	 6)--* South Hills - Westinghouse PCCs
	 7)--  Thirtieth St Car House (50)

WEST
	 8)--  Carnegie Car House (27, 28)
	 9)--  West Park Car House (26)
	10)--* Ingram, closed 1959 - Westinghouse - GE PCCs
	11)--  Coraopolis  (23)
	12)--  West End  near the old Point Bridge
NORTH
	13)--* Manchester, closed 1959 - Westinghouse - GE PCCs
	14)--  Taggart
	15)--  Charles Street
	16)--  Emsworth
	17)--* Keating, closed 1965, - GE PCCs
	18)--  Chestnut Street
	19)--  Lowrie
	20)--* Millvale, closed 1952 - GE PCCs
EAST
	21)--* Herron Hill, closed 1951 - Westinghouse PCCs
	22)--  Forbes
	23)--* Craft Avenue, closed 1967 - Westinghouse PCCs
	24)--* Plummer Street, closed 1954 - Westinghouse PCCs
	25)--  Butler Street
	26)--* Highland, closed 1954 - Westinghouse PCCs
	27)--* Homewood, closed 1960 - Westinghouse PCCs
	28)--* Glenwood, closed 1961 - Westinghouse PCCs
	29)--  Homestead
	30)--* Rankin - used for dead storage until 1967.
	31)--  Braddock
	32)--  Wilmerding
	33)--  McKeesport

	According to Schneider in *PCC From Coast to Coast* page 169, the
ones with an asterisk housed PCC cars from 1943-1951 - other Car Houses
may have been in use for low floor cars.
	Sooooo, in 1950 there were at least 15 operating Car Houses
(including Rankin which might have been dead storage only and not
operating); in 1955 there were 8 which includes Rankin; at the end of 1960
there were 5; and at the end of 1965 there were three - Craft, Rankin, and
South Hills.  Within 2 years only South Hills was an operating Car House
and the dead storage of Rankin was closed - and I believe that this
remained PRCo to the end!  Someone will have to fill in the closings on
the others.
	Much of the above information on Car Houses was from *Pittsburg's
Car Barns 1900-1909* by Ben Rohrbeck (mailto:Rohrbeck at juno.com).  The
spelling of Pgh with the *H* was permissible in those days.  Ben may be
lurking on this list - he was invited to join!
	Before Cousin KEN nit-picks me for location ::>) - Routes 1-21
were Northside - on the other side of that River; route 22 was Crosstown;
routes 23-34 were West End; routes 35-53 or 54 were South; the rest of the
routes were East.  While Butler and Plummer St - even Highland - Car
Houses are north of downtown, they are east of that there River and in the
numbering system for the eastern region!

	Interestingly, PCC 1630 - the air car with fans from the builder -
was initially stationed at Highland.  But I definitely remember it at
South Hills and it may have come to SHJ in 1954 when Highland closed.  It
remained at South Hills then and was completely overhauled when it had its
fans removed by PRCo in the early 60s and a very nice operating car.  But
PAT rejected it apparently because the trolley base had an 1100 or 1000
series cowl installed when the fans and roof monitor were removed instead
of the standard 1600 series variety.

> My childhood (rug rat to yard ape years) was spent in a house on
> Frankstown Avenue within sight (I think) of that car barn (as my great
> uncle used to call it).

	My rug-rat days were at Homewood as well - Race Street - and my
Grandparents remained there when we moved to Greenmount in Dormont.

James B. Holland
------- -- ---------
        Pittsburgh Railways Company (PRCo), June of 1949 -- June of 1953
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