Excursions, tours, whatever???

[Fred W. Schneider III]

THIS SOUNDS MORE LIKE CALL US WHEN YOU PASS THROUGH.  AS I UNDERSTAND THE
MAILING LIST, ONLY DERRICK AND ED LIVE IN THE PITTSBURGH AREA AND THE OTHERS
ARE SCATTERED FROM NEW JERSEY TO SAN FRANCISCO.

SO I'LL START WITH AN INVITE.  IF ANY OF YOU HAVE AN INTEREST EASTERN
PENNSYLVANIA SYSTEMS, AND YOU ARE PASSING THROUGH LANCASTER, CALL ME.  For
the uninitiated, Lancaster is 228 miles east of Pittsburgh, 67 miles west of
Philadelphia, about 25 miles north of the Maryland state line.  We're about
an hour and a half by train from Philly.  By car from Baltimore is about 100
minutes.  Phone number (unlisted) is 717 569-6791.  I'll me more than
delighted to show you the state's 6th largest property, which had 165 cars
and 165 miles of track, and radiated from Lancaster city like the spokes of
a wagon wheel. We also had two smaller companies, whose actual operation
totally defies logic but both lasted until 1929 and 1931.   You'll
understand when you see that, even today, nobody lives there.  If the phase
of the moon is correct and its custodian is available, we can probably pull
the Conestoga Traction Co. Birney out of its home in Manheim.  You can
actually achive mental overload if you just do the Lancaster properties, and
it will take two full days to cover it all.  Even more time would be needed
to ride the Strasburg Railroad, the Toy Train museum, or the state railroad
museum at Strasburg.   Staying in the Lancaster area is not a problem ... we
have more than 100 motels / hotels in the county and over 500 restaurants of
almost any description.  We are a tourist trap so ask first before booking
rooms or eating somewhere ... I'd hate to see a friend ripped off.

The Lancaster - York - Harrisburg region is home to nearly 2 million
people.  It is the most active industrial area in the state today there is
still a lot of room for agriculture.  These are the regions in the state
with the greatest prosperity.  Given two or three extra days, we can do
Harrisburg Railways, Valley Railways, York Railways, Hanover and
McSherrystown, and Hershey Transit.  John Swindler is the best expert on
where the suburban Reading lines were situated; I know the RT&L Lebanon
Division. Bill Watts may have been the last survivor who knew the RT&L lines
east of Pottstown and into Chestnut Hill ... anything I do there would be
exploratory.  Stan Bowman in Thorndale knows West Chester Street Railway and
the West Chester,  Kennett and Wilmington.  I've done Southern Penn and
DEPCO in Wilmington, Delaware.  Rich Allman knows what PST tore up.  I know
most of Lehigh Valley Transit.  I do not know Philly or Bucks County.

Even though retired, I do have other commitments with the church, with the
Baltimore Streetcar Museum, with PTM, my wife, and with my doctor.  Best to
give me a heads up early.  But if I'm free and some one from this group
shows up, we'll go for the gusto.

IN THE PITTSBURGH AREA, you really want to twist Ed Lybarger's arm.  He has
had me over all West Penn so many times that we've both memorized it and
I've forgotten a lot.  Ed has also shown me the Harmony Route, the Mars
line, the Southern Cambria.  We did Johnstown's Windber interurban
together.  We both know every inch of the Pittsburgh interurbans.  But both
of us are weak on Pittsburgh Railways ... Ed has admitted that he really
does not know the West End and I never even rode all of it.  If the group
wants to do Pittsburgh or West Penn, sounds like doing it by automobile is
the best possible way because it is illogical to expect more than two or
three people at once.  If a whole gaggle showed up at once, there is no
reason why I couldn't drive across the state to host a second car.  Unless a
group of new PTM members is interested, I suspect that a bus is not
logical.  It would mean that we would need to get all of the list together
at once and I hardly believe that will happen.

Ed and I both have USGS maps marked to show everything we have traced, which
makes it very easy to go back and revisit some of the lines we may have
forgotten.

Charles Brown wrote:

> Okay guys, having read so much about past excursions and the tracing of
> old right of ways and stuff, I was wondering what the chances are of you
> guys (ie those of you who live in Pittsburgh) sponsoring an excursion
> for those of us (ie those of us who don't live in Pittsburgh) who would
> like to visit your fine city and see all of your fine traction sites.
> I'm thinking of either an excursion on PAT covering all of the LRT
> system and/or a charter bus covering some of the more significant
> abandoned lines.  Oh, and maybe a side trip to Forbes Field where they
> played real baseball (I understand that some remnants are still there).
> Oh oh, and the inclines too.  Gosh, visiting all of the incline sites
> could take a whole weekend in iteself.
>
> So whaddaya say, any interest in this???
>
> Charlie
>
> Charlesebrown at webtv.net
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