PRCo Car Houses

[Carl Zager]

Jim Holland comes through again. Thank you, kind sir, especially for the
references to Schneider's book. I hope the <grin> was enough to convey
that I am greatly impressed with your memories and was only teasing that
there was something you didn't know. I discovered as a youngster that when
one my age or your age remembers something, no matter how completely,
cultural lore is invariably increased. It is usually left to others to
fill in the gaps. But, no. Wrong, Carl. Jim comes through again!
Excellent!  Must be the Homewood-Green connection (he to Greenwood in
Dormont, me to Scott Twp. on Greentree Rd.). <more grins).

On Fri, 8 Oct 1999, Jim Holland wrote:

> 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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> 

 Carl Zager
 KB9RVB
 czager at bloomington.in.us
 http://www.mccsc.edu/~czager/