PRC recollections

[mrb190]

Great recollective minds think alike.  I recall asking also, at a very young
age, about rail that led off active rail.  There was some rail left at the
intersection of Butler Streets and Penn Avenue, after the abandonment and
rather quick removal of the car tracks on Butler Street formerly used by the
94 Sharpsburg.  I used to kneel on the long side seats (the seats which had
the backs against the windows) and look out at the passing buildings and the
roadway.  Anyway there was always a subtle, yet noticeable, double or triple
couple of bumps as we rode on the 88 Frankstown line just at the point where
the former 94 line rails were now severed.  Apparently it was a quick weld
job after the switches had been removed.  These bumps were what made me look
down and see the old Butler Street rails, and I questioned.  Can't recall the
answer my Mom gave me, but it was a disappointment to hear that the cars no
longer ran there.  In retrospect, I am pretty certain it was then that I
began to worry that the 88 Frankstown carline would soon be motorized.  It
took several more years for that to happen, and when it did happen, it was,
well, sad.  Seems like a lot of Pittsburghers at that time who probably still
favored streetcar service, just resigned themselves to the change.  As one TV
reporter (Paul Long) said in a voiceover of film of the some of the carlines,
on WTAE-TV a special celebrating 25 years on TV, (to paraphrase) "and we
watched helplessly while our transit service disintegrated..."

I also remember going to North Park from Lawrenceville, across the 40th
Street bridge.  Once on East Ohio, we'd bump along patchy asphalt over the
tracks of the Etna & Millvale routes, and I'd always note the tracks which
turned from East Ohio onto Grant Avenue.  Those tracks stayed there for some
time during the 60's, but were pretty much gone by the early 70's.  There is,
however - as someone else mentioned on this list - a stretch of track and red
brick still exposed and laid bare on what is now a parking lot; a section of
old East Ohio about a half-block long just at the intersection of Grant &
East Ohio.

I also remember seeing a stretch of single open track off of Penn Avenue in
East Liberty located somewhere between Negley and Baum Blvd.  I think this
was trackage used by the old Rt. 60 East Liberty-Homestead route, as a
terminus.  When I saw it, it had to have been sometime in the mid-sixties.
It looked totally operable, though Rt. 60 was abandoned in what?  1958?  My
guess is the track continued to serve as a wye.  I think an inbound track
from Penn led into this prw trackage, and an outbound Penn track led into it
as well, perfect for moving in and backing out to go in the other direction,
correct?

In recent years, I've noted rail popping out on 47th Street off of Butler in
Lawrenceville.  I imagine this was trackage that led down to Plummer Street
carhouse OR it was track that led into a loop where a funeral home now sits
on Butler at that location.

When riding the 77/54 over to the North Side, I always noted the old track
leading off of Chesnut onto East Ohio, and clearly saw how it had been
severed.  But it always seemed to me that whatever route would have continued
on up Chesnut was still in service as the wiring and trackage were completely
intact.  But, of course, the Spring Garden had ended service much sooner than
the Flying Fraction.

Just a couple weeks ago, workmen were digging on Forbes Avenue near Bouquet
across from the old Kings Court theatre.  There, about a foot and a half
under the asphalt was a streetcar track.  I didn't know THAT much asphalt was
applied.    (The street workmen were apparently working in tandem with
builders on that entire block of Forbes and Bouquet for yet ANOTHER
University of Pittsburgh a/o UPMC building.)

brathke at juno.com wrote:

> A few days ago I exchanged some trolley recollections off-line, and
> thought that some of the PRC memories may inspire other recollections...
>
> Some comments on the trolley wonderment of a five year old:
>
> I was probably that age when I took interest in the PRC turnouts on the
> North Side that didn't seem to go anywhere.
> I remember asking peope why those tracks switch off of the main track,
> but are only a few feet long.  I don't think I ever got an answer, but
> now I know that they were abandoned lines.  Johnstown kept such tracks
> active, and the overhead wires intact, years after abandobnment, but PRC
> usually removed the turnout rail and most of the wire, leaving only the
> points and frog in the street.  One of the PRC turnouts I wondered about
> was at E. Ohio St. and Union Ave. on the Northside (there's a photo of
> this location and a commentary on page 13 in Harold Smith's book).
> Another was at Chestnut and Concord Streets. And a third was on North
> Ave. at Arch St., although this location had a short stretch of active
> rail and wire on Arch St., and was used as an emergency wye - as an
> adult, I took some photos of this wye in use during a fire in 1966.
>
> Another item of wonderment as a five year old: on my family's first long
> car trip in the 40s, north on U.S. Rt. 19, I asked why there was
> "country" between the cities.  In other words, why doesn't the "city" of
> Pittsburgh go all the way to some point where it becomes the city of
> Erie?  I don't recall getting an answer to that question either, but it
> must have been important to me because I still remember asking.
>
> Bob 7/19
>
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