West Penn Railways questions - 10-01-00

[Fred W. Schneider III]

Assuming this is the set of negatives the museum just bought ... they were poorly
maintained over the years and need chemical restoration. The asking price was
considerably inflated.   They are simply car record photographs ... nothing at all
outstanding.  The true value may be fleet analysis obtained by looking at the
negatives on a light box; most of them will not yield anything more than mediocre
prints.  The West Penn collection shows what was around in Connellsville at that
time, and we've already known that.  The 800s came there in 1937 and were in
service during this period.  The 200s were being scrapped and their trucks were
being placed under ten or the twelve 286-297 series cars.  There were still some
two-man 700s around.  Although they had not been used in scheduled service since
the night the northern end of the mainline was converted to one-man in 1933, they
had been stored in Oakford Park, Connellsville, and Iron Bridge carbarns.  We know
that some of the two-man 700s were being used during the war for troop movements
such as hauling inductees to Greensburg to the train to Pittsburgh for
processing.  We also know that 703-706 and 716-720 were converted from two-man to
one-man configuration late in the war, but this happened beyond the scope of those
negatives.  Of course, we probably all know that 701 and 702 never were converted,
and were run from Iron Bridge to Connellsville for scrapping in 1951.   The best
views were really those taken by Charlie Dengler.  He took a considerable number
of duplicates that were sold around the country in the late 1930s and 1940s; some
of the best of which have found their way back into the museum archives thanks to
Dick Rumbolz selling them to Oliver Miller a decade ago.

Of course, I must apologize to some degree for what I've said.  When you have
1,000 West Penn prints, you can be persnickety about what is good and what is
mediocre.  If you've never seen a 1930s picture of a West Penn 200, quality is not
as meaningful.  From my perspective, Fred, you saved your money for something
useful.

I can also imagine grumbling out there that they are now locked up in the museum
archives where no one will ever again see them.  I feel compelled to come to the
defense of PTM and any archive.  I can assure you that the PTM archives are there
for valid research projects.  The problem with routine picture requests from
railfans is a simple one ... sales could not generate enough money to pay for the
staff needed to conduct them.  Realistically, a library needs to collect about $30
an hour for staff time in order to hire a person with a marginal degree of
dedication and also to pay the legal payroll taxes.  And it needs to do it hour
after hour after hour in order to hire someone with.  You would need to sell three
prints an hour, every hour, at $20 per 8x10, just to get into that business.  We
still have not added anything to cover the cost of housing the negatives so that
prints can be sold.

Last spring I stopped in at the Marietta College Library in Marietta, Ohio
inquiring about the Durward Hoag collection of negatives.  Hoag was a local
amateur historian and photographer and hotel entrepreneur who not only gave the
college his own collection but also made it possible for the college to have the
boat negatives taken by the late Harry P. Fischer, a local studio photographer.
The Fischer collection covers c.1900-1957.  Some of the Hoag photos appear in the
CERA West Penn book.  The special collections librarian was incredibly helpful,
and she had a number of prints made for me.  They wanted only $10 per print.  I
immediately realized the college was loosing money on the deal.  There was no way
they could pay the printer, the staff time, and the cost of a driver and 48 miles
of driving to the lab in Parkersburg, WVa on what they were charging.  When the
prints and the bill arrived, I sent them a check for twice as much, realizing that
they were still loosing money!

Jim Holland wrote:

> Greetings!
>
> Fredbruhn at aol.com wrote:
>
> > I have a couple of questions this morning:
>
> > 1 - He had for sale about 1,000 negs
> > taken from 1938-1943, mainly B&O and West Penn and some other lines too.
>
>         Doc Lybarger beat you to it - think PTM now has the negatives for West
> Penn!!!!!!!::>>)))
>
> > 2 - I have both heard of and seen the photo of some 700 bodies sitting in
> > Uniontown,
>
>         Don't remember this.  Do you have an approximate date for the *Trolley
> Talk* photos?  I have many back issues, complete volumes 1-11, in
> addition to many loose copies since then - I could look to check.
>
> 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/