PRC recollections

[Fred W. Schneider III]

My memory may not apply to every situation, but I have some photos that show
that Pittsburgh Railways was quite good at removing or welding switch points
and filling frogs with weld on abandoned track.  For example, I have a
picture at East and Evergreen that I took in December 1953, about a week
after route 12 Evergreen quit running.  The wire and rail for route 12 was
intact, but the outbound switch points had already been removed and a weld
filled in the frog.  The frog from route 21 at Charles and Perrysville to go
north on Perrysville to the carbarn had also been filled with a weld long
before the line was abandoned ... I can only believe that the Railways
Company had a reason to believe a smooth ride for imaginary patrons on route
21 was more important than bouncing over a weld one time a day going to
Keating Car House.

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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