Mom's last story -- Shiloh St. Derail.

[Jim Holland]

Greetings!

Dietrich wrote:

> Before, during, or shortly after my birth my folks lived in a house on
> Shiloh Street, it was torn down when the KQV tower was erected. . .

> There was a derail and here is
> your proof -- http://www.voicenet.com/~dietrich/derail.jpg . . . Notice
> the overhead switch on the curve.

	Fascinating - thanks for sharing!  PRCo took great pains toward safety
as well as avoiding human error (on the part of an operator.)  I have
been encouraged in this as information like this has been revealed here
on the list.  Sure, good ol' PRCo had some faults - whom among us
doesn't, but they did a pretty good job!
	The contactor we see in the foreground is to reset the switch for the
derail position after the car has passed.  I can't see the contactor to
set the point straight to allow a car to pass without derailing -
probably hidden by the building, but I wonder if maybe the point is
manually set?!?!
	This may have been taken out pretty early - maybe PRCo had more
confidence in the braking of the PCC.  You said you don't remember it
from your youth.  But now it seems that the map must be reasonably
accurate concerning derails.
	I suspect that this information in the map was obtained from PRCo
themselves and it may be an *all-time* listing of derails with some
already removed at the time the map was drawn.  It would be extremely
difficult for natives of Pgh. to make a detailed map like this without
assistance let alone the publisher of *Headlights!!*

James B. Holland

        Pittsburgh  Railways  Company  (PRCo),   1930  --  1950
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