South Hills Junction

[Fred Schneider]

Unable to make connection to your website.  No reason was given.  I have
one picture of the back side of the admin building very early on.  There
is also a very early picture from the top of the tunnel showing both the
admin building and a Pittsburgh & Castle Shannon narrow gauge steam
train near the later Warrington Avenue alignment (the interurban used
the P&CS right of way once it climbed up from the junction to the
more-or-less level P&CS.
I have an original negative showing the old interlocking tower in front
of the admin building (and looking into the tunnel) about 1937.  I'm not
sure if the tower controlled the entire junction or simply the derail
before it was automated using two trolley wire contactors and a timing
clock.  The detail was installed about 1918 (after a 4200 ran
out-of-control through the tunnel and rolled over on its side at
Smithfield and Carson with a full load of Christmas shoppers.  The Port
Authority, in their infinite bureaucratic wisdom, removed the derail
when the tunnel was paved for buses (government owns it now, therefore
there will never again be an accident). 

You can call me at home to discuss if you wish:  717 569-6791.  I'm
operating at the Baltimore Streetcar Museum tomorrow afternoon.  Will be
home after church Sunday afternoon.

If you want to look at what I have on file, that might work too.
Address is 111 Delp Road, Lancaster.  Delp Road is 2nd taffic light on
route 501 (Lititz Pike) north of Route 30 bypass, then 1/4 mile west.
Phone is 717-569-6791.  THIS IS OFFICE WEB/AS SOON AS I SIGN OFF YOU
CANNOT GET ME BY E-MAIL.   

-----Original Message-----
From: Dietrich, Robert J. [mailto:bob.dietrich at unisys.com]
Sent: Friday, October 22, 1999 8:12 AM
To: 'pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org'
Subject: South Hills Junction


Folks:

I am a modeler and my primary interest in street cars is from that
perspective.  I belong to the East Penn Traction Club and have a couple
trolley modules built to their standards.  I'm about to start on a new
module of a specific place and time; South Hills Junction in the mid
'50s.
As I started gathering information it seemed only natural to share it,
so I
started a web site.  As you will see some folks on this list have
already
contributed, I especially want to thank Ed Lybarger and Bill Vigrass for
their input.  Since there seems to be so much knowledge about the
Pittsburgh
Railways system in this group I'm asking for your help.  I would like to
include some historical information but it is hard to come by.  When I
build
the module I intend to include the Administration building and the news
stand.  I don't believe that plans for these structures exist but
straight-on pictures would go a long way toward an accurate model.
Anything
else that is appropriate I'll be glad to get.

Thanks for your help, and keep the rhetoric going on this list, it's
been
great.

Oh yes, the web site  --
http://www.voicenet.com/~dietrich/SHJ/default.htm

Bob Dietrich