PRCo Book - Is It Going To Be Published?

[Edward H. Lybarger]

A lot of folks are eager for this production, but of course a much smaller
number offer legitimate assistance, and an incredibly small number offer the
significant management skills it will take to do it.

Pittsburgh can't be done in one volume and be expected to sell in sufficient
quantities to make it worthwhile.  A single volume would approach $100 or
more, and narrows the market significantly.  So we are obligated to consider
it as five or six books, which in itself is not bothersome, just
time-consuming.

The research, after all these years, is still not done.  I discovered upon
taking over the PTM Archives that no one had even bothered - or considered -
reading the local newspapers!  If you want a balanced book - one that
considers the economic, social, political, etc. aspects, the author is
obliged to go out and find out what others thought of the company, what else
was going on in the world, etc., etc.  (Of course if you want to produce
another glossed over railfan production about how wonderful the streetcars
were and what a shame it was that they went away, there's plenty of material
available.)

Anything PTM would be responsible for will be balanced, and will talk about
why things happened, not just that they happened, and the warts will be
there.  PRCo was not a beloved company -- far from it, and that fact screams
at the newspaper reader.  Funny that it's hardly ever been mentioned in the
railfan accounts so far.  When you herd people in like sheep most of the
time because you don't have $$ for additional cars....when you take away
transfer privileges on holidays....and things like that, you are going to
incur the wrath of the public, and we have to talk about it.

We now have one gentleman who is making his way through the Pittsburgh
papers, just as I have been doing for years with the Connellsville Courier.
Once the reading is complete, the clippings will need to be indexed, and
text will have to be prepared.  This means that an author will need to know
what is important and what isn't, and how each item fits with Pittsburgh of
the times.  I doubt that one person can be expected to do this all, and we
don't yet have enough qualified people who are both retired and interested!

I know of two other individuals who have indicated they will publish a
Pittsburgh book.  One would be a rehash of the 1918 Snow Report which
laboriously looked at all the underlying companies and established a
valuation for PRCo in a PSC rate case.  This is a great cure for insomnia (a
copy of the Snow Report is in our library) but a useful source for facts.
Most readers don't care about the pedigree of defunct streetcar lines.  The
second would be who knows what.

I know what neither of them would be...a legitimate history putting the
companies in context with their times, and that would be PTM's ultimate
goal.  Meanwhile, we are fairly close to a greatly expanded revision of the
1967 booklet that Tom Parkinson did.  The text is essentially finished but
we need time to select and caption photos..time that's scarce.  The museum
has other things going on which unfortunately claim precedence!

Ed

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
[mailto:owner-pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org]On Behalf Of
HRBran99 at aol.com
Sent: Tuesday, January 11, 2000 6:35 PM
To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
Subject: PRCo Book - Is It Going To Be Published?


The following post was sent out over the "Trolley at Railspot" discussion list:

<<Please name one book, comparable to the above two on Chicago, about
Pittsburgh Railways Company (PRCo) - both a City Transit and Interurban
system!  I have honestly heard rumors for over three decades that a
PRCo book is *imminent.*  I have written to people who should have this
knowledge and while they will tell me that one is imminent, they refuse
to identify any authors.
    I recently got wind of a potential author for a PRCo book and mentioned
that fact here - the book is expected by Spring of 2000.  But a letter
to this author - with an enclosed SASE for a reply - went unanswered!>>

Does anyone on this list know, if indeed, a book on PRCo is coming out?

I know that many years ago (in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s)
several individuals in Pittsburgh were working on such a book. I also know
at
least one of them has died, and another had moved to Washington, DC.

Can anyone give an answer?

HrB