Ken's Carhouses & railfan trip thoughts...

[brathke at juno.com]

After Keating closed in September, 1965, I believe that 6/14 and 21 ran
out of SHJ (until the end of April, 1966) because of a lack of buses for
use on 13 (and then 6/14) which was a relatively long line.  21-Fineview
was short, could be operated with one or two cars, and shared half it's
route with 8-Perrysville which was abandoned in September, 1965.  So why
was route 21 kept running for eight months?  I suspect it was because PAT
didn't have suitable buses to replace the Fineview trolleys in September,
1965.  Any comments?

Coincidetally, yesterday I made some notes on my recollections of routes
13 and 6/14. Here they are:

I didn't photograph many North Side cars at SHJ while they were based
there from Sept., 1965 to April, 1966 because I was spending most of my
photography time on North Side.  I recall being out on the 13-Emsworth
line in mid-December, 1965, and as I worked my way back to downtown, I
saw a car with a 6/14 sign which was rather uncommon at that time.  I got
a photo of it and thought I had a rare shot - little did I know that
route 13 would soon be cut back to Avalon, and the 6/14 signs would be
the ONLY signs we'd see on that line until it ended in April, 1966.  I
did get a number of shots of route 13 cars between Emsworth and Avalon
that day, though.

At the end of their runs downtown, the routing of the 6/14 and 21 cars
heading to SHJ allowed for a few extra photos.  For example, after riding
the last 21 car into downtown around Midnight on 4/30/66, a large number
of riders waited on Penn Ave. for the last outbound 6/14 car.  I had a
few minutes, so I ran up to 9th and Liberty and got a photo of the 21 car
going eastbound on Liberty (I believe it ran down to Grant St. where it
turned southbound to SHJ).  And I did the same thing with the last 6/14
car after it returned downtown sometime past 2AM.

And, getting off subject, I'm going out now to photograph the extra Metra
trains running between the suburbs and Chicago today.  There's a big
fireworks display on the lakefront downtown, and one million+ people will
be in the park tonight.  Downtown parking garages were filled by 1PM
today, so they're telling people to take the trains from the suburbs. 
Metra is adding trains, and some of the extra inbound trains on single
track will have to hold on passing sidings until the regular outbound
trains clear.  That's what I want to photograph.

Bob 7/3

------------------------------------------

On Mon, 03 Jul 2000 13:00:16 -0400 mrb190 <mrb190+ at pitt.edu> writes:
> Ken,  GREAT shots as usual, and as usual, super of your to share!
> 
> http://davesrailpix.railfan.net/pitts/htm/rhp053.htm
> 
> On the pic above, note the route 6/14 in the yards.  I guess this 
> was after
> Keating closed up.   I didn't know at the time (sept. '65 to april 
> '66) what
> continued to run throuugh the North Side after the 10 West View & 
> 77/54 were
> abandoned, since those were the two routes I was most familiar with, 
> but it
> seems so strange that just those two lone N. S. routes continued on 
> alone.    I
> guess it may have been a matter of economics (not enough buses on 
> hand), but I
> wonder if PAT felt they could milk the railfan charters for a while 
> by keeping
> those routes alive.
> 
> Switching over to the South Side Lines - I recall when the 39 
> Brookline ended
> service.  I distinctly remember reading in the press that there was 
> some talk of
> possibly using the rails there for a tourist attraction line.   
> Anyone else
> recall this?  Obviously, that never happened, but it made sense:   
> the access
> off West Liberty to the prw, and the wide-wide width of Brookline 
> Blvd. in
> Brookline.  Hmmm...
> Then, of course, back to the North Side --->  Fineview.  What a 
> shame.  That WAS
> a tourist attraction!  I look at the pictures Bob & Roberta & others 
> took and I
> wish I could find the time machine to take me back for an excursion 
> on the 21.
> 
> One more question:  is this carhouse, Homewood?
> http://davesrailpix.railfan.net/pitts/htm/rhp054.htm
> 
> Matt
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
On the other hand, you have different fingers.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

________________________________________________________________
YOU'RE PAYING TOO MUCH FOR THE INTERNET!
Juno now offers FREE Internet Access!
Try it today - there's no risk!  For your FREE software, visit:
http://dl.www.juno.com/get/tagj.