History -- Pgh & PRCo --- WAS:---[West Liberty]

[Jim Holland]

Greetings!

	You outdid yourself!!!  Not only do you get to eat again, but you can
take the other boss  --  sorry, mean the wife(!)  --  out to dinner
tonight!  Not quoting all - just a couple noteworthy events from recent
discussions here:

John Swindler wrote:

> This may end up as three parts, Jim.  Here's number one with more trivia (or
> where did some of our trolley line names originate)  Sources are city/county
> histories of 1888, 1922 and 1931.  Also couple Pittsburgh Press articles.

> "To the east of the boundary line of the 19th ward is the West Liberty
> district, formerly a part of Lower St. Clair Twp, and incorporated as a
> borough 7 March 1876, and the village proper was formerly a small hamlet on
> the National Turnpike.  It was annexed to city in 1908."

	Did I miss something here?  If I remember correctly, one of your
previous posts indicated that Brookline and west as far as Neeld Avenue
were included within West Liberty.  If this was annexed to the city,
then Brookline and Beechview and districts within Pgh; how did their
naming come about?

> Balwin Township:  While the land is valuable for farming and gardening, the
> underlying strata of coal constitute the great source of wealth.  The mines
> are operated . . . and in the valley of Saw Mill Run by the Pittsburgh &
> Castle Shannon Railroad Company, . . . The branch from
> Glenwood to Finleyville, sixteen miles long, was built in 1883.  The road
> was sold under foreclosure 20 Nov. 1884, and purchased by the Baltimore &
> Ohio for $50,000.  It was subsequently reorganized under the present name.
> The portion of the old line between Castle Shannon and Finleyville, twelve
> miles long, has since been abandoned.

> (that last sentence sure got my attention)

	YES:::::::  --  the last sentence above coupled with the info below
*suggests* that the Charleroi interurban *may-have-been* built on this
old railroad prw which was initially single track.  Hoped for growth
then explains the double-tracking.  While mid-day service could probably
work well with single track, rush hour traffic from the 1920s to West
Library and from Simmons after 1953 would be greatly hindered by single
track operation.
	A little hard to imagine a railroad climbing from Wash Jct to Hillcrest
and then into the next dip southbound, but the rest of the route is
reasonably flat.
	The Jan-22-1950 Charleroi schedule reveals 30 minute headways to and
from Roscoe with the first car leaving Pgh at 3.30-AM and the last car
at 1.00-AM (60-minute headway between last two cars, 12-Midnight and
1.00-AM) - almost 24-hour service.  Eleven-AM trippers are listed from
W. Library; here are the schedule times from West Library with an *-L*
after Library tripper, *-C* after interurban from Charleroi:
4.46-L 5.18-C 5.48-C 6.18-C 6.37-L 6.48-C 6.57-L 7.01-L 7.09-L 7.15-C
7.25-L 7.31-L 7.39-L 7.45-C 7.54-L 8.07-L  8.15-C 8.33-L 8.48-C then
every 30-minutes from Roscoe/Charleroi.  Thru the heaviest part of the
rush hour (to get people downtown before 8-AM) headways are every 8-9
minutes with one 4-minute headway.  That's 38-cars inbound and outbound
in 4'50" or about 10 per hour, 5-each way, and single track would be an
impediment here.  Service might have been a little more frequent once
Simmons was the outer terminal.  So it seems that the forethought of
double track was a good decision between CS and Finleyville!

> Bethel Township:  Bethel Twp. was suggested in 1802 for upper end of St.
> Clair twp, that being name of a meeting house, but not formed until 1886
> from Snowden Twp . . .  This territory enjoyed railroad facilities during
> the short period that the Pittsburgh and Southern was in operation, and
> names of Smithton, Upperman, Bethel, Cowan, Rockridge, Norwood and Library
> yet adorn the map.

> (question:  As phrased, seems to imply  railroad stations?  And is/was part
> of Charleroi line on old Pittsburgh Southern railroad right of way?  Or is
> discussion concerning Pittsburgh Southern garbled by authors???????  Maybe
> there is more to Charleroi line then we have known???)

James B. Holland

        Pittsburgh  Railways  Company  (PRCo),   1930  --  1950
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