Memories

[Jim Holland]

Greetings!

	Having massive email problems here again - can apparently send but not
download so if you don't receive an expected response, that is why!

	Earliest memories . . . :::::::

	. . . my mother dragging me across Wood Street downtown while I was
straining to see the spare trolley pole strapped to the roof of that
17--interurban!!  That impressed me  --  gave the car a powerful look
along with the pilot!
	. . . watching the cars in rush hour on the 42-Dormont route line-up
down the hill, across Biltmore, and across Raleigh (forgot the name of
the street--had to look at the map!!) as they waited for access to the
wye.  Interesting to see the vast mix of equipment  --  all-electric,
air-electric, low-floor!
	. . . watching as one regular service car backed deep out of the 42-wye
to allow cars returning to the barn to back in front of them. 
Interesting to watch the motormen crank the controllers on the old car,
throw the reverser, and crank up the controller all the way and speed
thru the wye back toward the barn!
	. . . watching the motormen stop at Biltmore outbound on the 42-line to
punch in the arrival time on the clock.  Remember standing there and
begging the operator to allow me the honors!!  Similar clock a couple
car lengths inbound of the 42-wye.
	. . . riding to Washington on a 17--interurban we raced around what I
thought was a rather sharp turn without losing the trolley, clattered
across a long trestle, and dipped so fast on the other side as to leave
the stomach up in the air like on a roller coaster!!  Later identified
this as the *Houston--leap!*  Running for the car as it backed out of
the wye in downtown Washington, and my father having to ask the motorman
to stop the car on the way back so I could water the flowers!
	. . . watching the cars on Charleroi when I went to visit some cousins.
	. . . looking for an interurban to pass under Route 19 from/to
Washington when we went to the Drive-In near Canonsburg someplace!
	. . . watching for an interurban to/from Washington at Richfol in
Canonsburg and that bridge that *began on a curve* and also had a
sidewalk on it!
	. . . having my grandfather take me for a look at the Homewood Shops
when we visited them on Race Street.  Watching the shopmen here back
cars and shift trolley poles from one wire to another to get the cars on
another track into or out of the yard.
	. . . running with my father to catch the 42 at Smithfield and 7th (we
just transferred from an 88 from *Grandmas*) only to watch it split the
switch with the front heading up 7th and the back down Smithfield! 
Don't know how long we waited to get home.
	. . . riding by myself to Grandpas in Homewood at a very young age -
10-12.  The 88-line car was running late and we were flat moving
outbound on Liberty by the PRR embankment.  The motorman was not at all
happy about being late but he did talk to me a little which I thought
was a real treat  --  kids were to be seen and not heard so I was
surprized that an adult spoke to me!
	. . . trying to outpace an interurban in our 1952 Chevy along route-88
(state route, not trolleycar route!) as the trolleycar raced back to the
barn!
	. . . transferring at SHJ to catch the 44 then the 53  --  the only
good thing about going to the dentist, my mom's cousin.
	. . . riding thru the car yard on the 42-Dormont - spectacular for a
young railfan!
	. . . the coolness and wonderful ozone aroma in the tunnel!
	. . . the rapid-fire of the rail joints outbound in the tunnel as this
is one of the few places that the pedal was put to the floor and left
there for any length of time.  Most rides on PRCo were quite sedate.
	. . . knowing all the rail joints on the 42-line and being able to
click them in sequence with my tongue!  Pardon the pun, but it literally
threw me for a loop when they put in welded continuous rail on couple of
the bridges - Smithfield and Palm Garden!  My brother and I measure each
rail length inbound and outbound to/from Biltmore and the 42-wye but
trying to duplicate that in "O"--Scale did not duplicate the
prototypical sound - not even the sequence!
	. . . observing the West End lines as we went across town to visit
relatives.  Saw the sliding roadway and multiple misalignments of the
track but never rode through it in a trolleycar.
	. . . taking a bunch of the ballast in hand and pitching it straight up
at the trolley wire which would make for a resounding *ping* when the
two connected.  If the cars were on strike and the power off, the
ballast hitting the wire produced a very dull thud - also sagged badly!
	. . . watching a 16-interurban in the AM rush display  PITTSBURGH  for
a destination since it didn't have the proper signs for 42-DORMONT!
	. . . making my mother wait for a low-floor car to ride home from
downtown Pgh. - a treat for a young railfan but a nuisance for her if
the floor had slats - she got her heels caught in the slats!  Those were
the days when you didn't think of going downtown without a tie!
	. . . on some of the low-floor cars the floor dipped between trucks.
	. . . my mother taking my sister and I for our first rides on the
87-Ardmore - holding on to prevent landing on the floor as we jogged
around the car stops at speed on the Boulevard.  Think the motorman did
this to tease the ladies - married or not  --  KNOW the motormen/drivers
still do this, right Charlie?::>>))
	. . . riding an all-electric with the super soft suspension of the
Clark B-2B trucks on the school picnic from Dormont to Kennywood.  The
car did some super-soft rocking and rolling while negotiating the
crossovers to the loop at Kennywood and the girls were screaming
full-throttle  --  best part of the trip - remember nothing of Kennywood
that day!
	. . . racing a trolleycar along East Ohio Street as we drove to friends
of the family in Etna on Dewey Street, the location of an on-street
turnback wye for the 2-line.
	. . . driving across the rickety Sharpsburg bridge and listening to all
the planks snap about.  This was originally a trolleycar only bridge
converted for auto use I believe.
	. . . placing cap pistol rolls at various intervals along the tracks on
July-4th!
	. . . lining ballast up along the tracks at other times!!!!!
	. . . walking the tracks from Greenmount to Potomac to my first job
(not counting paper delivery, Sun-Telegraph!) at Potomac Pharmacy. 
Stopping to observe the line-car and crew on the curve directly opposite
Kelton Avenue.  They had reports of trolleys dewiring at this point.  I
observed how the hanger at this point caused a rather sharp kink.  They
agreed and realigned it and the trolleys stopped dewiring.
	. . . watching the weed-spraying-car spray but not kill the weeds along
the prw!
	. . . watching the portable rail grinder smooth the track at the crest
of the hill on W. Liberty at Dormont Ave outbound.  Tremendous
difference in ride quality after that!
	. . . making any excuse possible to go downtown after school so I could
ride Charlie Diehl's interurban.
	. . . experiencing a big gap in service outbound on Library PM rush
with Charlie Diehl - our Library follower was right on our tail. 
Charlie put it on the floor at Hillcrest outbound and did not take the
pedal off the floor until the grade crossing before Brightwood - no one
wanted on or off at Lindemer.  The power cut at 42mph as we passed
Lindemere and we didn't get it back until we were 3/4 of the way uphill
to the grade crossing!  We literally rolled the rest of the way to
Library.  Met our follower when we were inbound at Kings School - so we
put some real distance between us.
	. . . remember heading back to the barn with Charlie Diehl after the PM
rush on Library in the winter - overhead lights on.  We saw a Drake
approaching Washington Jct. and Charlie complained that a slow-poke led
him back to the barn from Drake.  So Charlie tromped it passing Mine-3
inbound and we rolled into Wash Jct at a good clip.  Trouble is, the
regular Drake man was not there and the Drake apparently saw our
overhead and he tried to beat us to the Jct!  We got in front of the
Drake but the Drake continually ran our signals - he was in the same
block with us most of the way back to the barn.
	. . . sitting at Bon Air IB after a Library PM rush with Charlie
waiting for a red board to clear.  We got the green and as Charlie hit
the power the signal went totally blank.  We stayed put to have an OB
car, Little Red, come thru looking down and away from us - he jumped our
signal!  Could have been a cornfield meet.
	. . . 1723 derailing at Bon Air outbound as the back truck split the
switch.
	. . . walking back to SHJ after the derailment to catch another Drake
car sent around town and then we rode out the 38-line on route 19 as an
Express at Speed!  We were passing up traffic even uphill in a few
spots!
	. . . 1710 dewiring at Elwyn outbound and we coasted to Cretestone
before stopping to replace the pole.  It is in the 8mm film to video
transfer I made.  Pole also came off crossing Castle Shannon Blvd into
downtown Castle Shannon.
	. . . catching Charlie Diehl for the first time when coming back from
the County Fair at South Park.  To avoid the crowds I waited for the car
at Bethel.  When Charlie came around the turn and up the hill from
McDonnell he did so at speed - the car looked like it leaned 30-degrees
right, then 30-degrees left, then bounced up and down and hunted back
and forth.  My heart literally jumped into my mouth - I had ridden a car
like this many times but had never seen that before!
	. . . as we passed thru Hillcrest IB that same Fair trip we did so at
speed.  The highway overpass caused rain run off which affected the
alignment of the tracks.  The car bounced real good and some little
black boy was bounced out of his seat wide--eyed!  We made record time
with a dead silent car all the way to SHJ where Charlie got relieved. 
Dropped the pole on the sharp turn just above SHJ.
	. . . rode with another operator during Fair days - lots of people on
the car not at all used to the interurban runs.  John Swindler knows
this operator - forget his name myself.  It was at night and the lights
were on - we were moving quite fast on Overbrook inbound and lost the
trolley.  The retriever did its job and the car got dark in addition to
extremely silent - everyone stopped talking!
	. . . *Red* was quite an Irish rogue in his younger days and it was not
uncommon to see the trolley pole on his car bent like a pretzel or the
rope haning out onto the street in the back!  You needed a seat belt to
ride his car.
	. . . *Red* was operating a 17-city car on the 42-Dormont as they were
replacing the point outbound into the wye.  He hit the point hard and
the car leaned excessively - the point was not yet spiked in place!  The
maintenance crew roared at him - wonder they didn't lynch him.
	. . . watching operators who forgot to check the pole when backing out
of the 42-wye only to find they should have as it was not yet thru the
frog and was on the wrong wire and the trollepole gets caught straight
up between the spans!
	. . . watching the spring switch in the 42-wye jam and a car back
straight thru coming off the tracks.  The first he would realize this is
when the trolley would dewire!
	. . . a 16-city car had broken its torque arm on the front truck right
side.  The shop met the car at the 42-wye and used some heavy cable to
try to secure it.  Didn't work well.  They backed him out of the wye and
the very front right wheel would bounce an inch or two up and down on
the rail.  I would cringe and the motorman would stop.  The shop would
tell him to proceed, the wheel would bounce, I would cringe in unbelief,
and he would stop!  It took a while to back up.  Guess he went under his
own power back to the yard - not much else they could do!
	. . . an outbound 42-line car could not reverse!  They took him onto
the outbound 38-line to a crossover about 2-lengths inbound.  Wheels
spinning like crazy getting out of the wye - only time I knew this
connection to be used!
	. . . as kids we like to place green wild apples on the end of sticks
to throw the apples - they would really travel far.  We used to pitch
them over the trolleycars but one apparently found a hole in the
screening on the fan monitor of 1630 as we saw pieces of apple flying
around inside!

Kenneth and Tracie Josephson wrote:

> My first was 1614 during December, 1967. What do you other sentimental types
> out there recall about your first ride on the system? (If you've been riding
> since you were a babe in arms, what are your earliest memories?)

James B. Holland

        Pittsburgh  Railways  Company  (PRCo),   1930  --  1950
    To e-mail privately, please click here: mailto:pghpcc at pacbell.net
N.M.R.A.  Life member #2190; http://www.mcs.net:80/~weyand/nmra/