Purity of Pittsburgh Railways

[brathke at juno.com]

Thanks, Harold, for your comments and the transit update list.  Could you
put me on the mailing list for future updates?  My job takes me all over
the country, and I carry a camera along to photograph rail subjects, but
sometimes I don't hear about potential photo subjects until I return
home.  

I was in Colorado last week and saw as much as I could in five days, but
there was a lot going on in the state that I didn't get to ride: Royal
Gorge train, Denver Ski Train, Durango & Silverton, C&T Scenic and
(later) the Georgetown Loop RR.  The state is just to big and mountainous
to see everything in a week.  I have been impressed with the fast, quiet
service provided by Denver's light rail.  And, I wasn't joking when I
said that the roof headlights on Denver LRVs look like the roof
headlights on PRC 1700 interurbans - PRC must have found a good headlight
design in 1949 that was 40 years ahead of its time!

I have a large loop trip over the next couple of weeks - Chicago to
Atlanta to Philadelphia to Buffalo.

Bob 5/26

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

On Sun, 21 May 2000 17:39:41 -0400 Harold Geissenheimer
<transitmgr at worldnet.att.net> writes:
> Greetings to Bob
> 
> I enjoyed reading your Denver notes and the comments
> about out of state visits.
> 
> FYI: See my report on transit opening dates that I
> am sending you.  Denver is still scheduled for July 14.
> 
> Harold Geissenheimer
> 
> brathke at juno.com wrote:
> 
> > After reading these exchanges, I hesitated making some comments on 
> my
> > trip to Denver last week, but here goes. I'll go out of my way to 
> relate
> > my observations to Pittsburgh topics:
> >
> > 1. I noted that LRV street turnouts in Denver are railroad-style - 
> both
> > points move (there recently were some questions on the Pittsburgh 
> list
> > about trolley track turnouts).
> >
> > 2. Roof headlights on the Denver cars look a LOT like the roof 
> headlights
> > on PRC 1700 interurban cars.  Does some transit component supplier 
> still
> > have the mold from the 1949 headlights???
> >
> > 3. Denver streets feature "stealth" catenary poles and rigging - 
> about
> > 1/10th as visible as PAT's industrial-strength catenary supports.
> >
> > 4. The Colorado RR Museum in Golden has a fantastic book store, 
> including
> > trolley and out-of-print titles; they'll send you a catalog of the 
> books
> > they have.  I bought a copy of Harold Smith's 1992 book, "Touring
> > Pittsburgh by Trolley".
> >
> > Now I must congratulate myself on how I related these Colorado 
> items to
> > Pittsburgh!
> >
> > Bob 5/16
> >
> > On Fri, 12 May 2000 16:50:07 -0400 (EDT) SaturnV at webtv.net (Bob 
> Schmidt)
> > writes:
> > > WOW!  Does this mean that those of us on the list who may have
> > > vacationed outside the State, and who have traction-related
> > > information
> > > or a nice story to share cannot, because of location relevancy?
> > >
> > > I've not seen too much "outside" material since I've been on the
> > > list,
> > > and only when references were made for identifying with local
> > > equipment
> > > for the sake of comparison.
> > >
> > > Fred Schneider's material reads like a travelog which I find
> > > entertaining. It's pleasure, not business, and a nice break from
> > > some of
> > > the ongoing chatter about local matters. Far as I'm concerned, 
> if
> > > you
> > > don't like out-of-town material
> > > there's a delete key on your hardware. Leave it at that.
> > >
> > > As a suggestion.....Perhaps it would be appropriate for Derrick 
> B.
> > > to
> > > post a reminder for those of us on the List re policies of the 
> PRC
> > > Chat
> > > Site so everyone is on the same page.
> > > If worse comes to worse, vote on it. After all, we're a 
> democratic
> > > body
> > > of enthusiasts, are we not?
> > >
> > > Bob S.
> >
> > ________________________________________________________________
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> 

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Never argue with an incompetent person.  He'll only drag 
you down to his level, and then beat you with experience.
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