WP & PRCO--Low--Floor Colors --- Tribute to West Penn by Wagner --- Low--Floor Poem --- Color Trivia

[Edward H. Lybarger]

Be careful about that "Charcoal gray" roof.  Where is the light coming from;
is there a reflection off a black roof?  A color print of 727 hangs in my
office, and the untrained observer would call that roof "charcoal," too.
But it's dirty black, period!

Ed

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
[mailto:owner-pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org]On Behalf Of Jim Holland
Sent: Saturday, September 23, 2000 3:11 PM
To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
Subject: WP & PRCO--Low--Floor Colors --- Tribute to West Penn by Wagner
--- Low--Floor Poem --- Color Trivia


Greetings!

Fredbruhn at aol.com wrote:

> 3 - We have not got an answer for the roof and
> doors/windows on low floor cars for modeling.
> Is roof brown the best choice
> for the West Penn cars and/or PRCo.

	I have just looked at a couple color photos of low-floor cars in
Washington and the roof is definitely much darker than roof brown - more
like coal black!
	I also have a color photo of WP 720 which I am assuming is this
charter:::  1950.02.05--720--WP--Last PRMA trip on Masontown, Martin.
It appears that the car was painted within the last several years and
since the photo is taken from a perch which looks even with the roof
line, a beautiful Charcoal Gray roof is evident.
	Quoting from *Trolley Talk* pg.46 (#12)::   "The original color was
dark green; then they were painted the familiar orange with black
trim."  This is an article mentioning the prototype and giving a general
description for building a model of WP 705.

	From *Trolley Talk* #120-8 (bound Volume-6) I quote::
	"WEST  PENN  705  COMES  HOME"
		"This story started in 1942 with the wedding of Birdie and Rich
Wagner.  The unsuspecting bride was treated to a ride on the West Penn
Railways and has been brain-washed about trolleys ever since.  Shortly
after the Wagners had developed the hobby into a business, Rich
custom-built a West Penn "O"--Scale model for a trolley fan in
Pittsburgh in 1950.  When this car, 705, was later offered for resale it
was purchased by Dudley M. Olney.  The Olney's having helped the Wagners
celebrate an anniversary, knew of Birdie's soft spot for West Penn
cars.  When Dud decided to part with some of his fine models, car No.
705 was scheduled to go but Dud and Sophia thought it should be Birdie's
car.  Rich tenderly overhauled it and gave it a new motor.  So the
editor of T.T. has her own (the very first) car to remind her of her
introduction to a railfan hobby.  She never dreamed that trolley cars
(and models!) would mean so much in her life."

	And from *Trolley Talk* #204-6 (bound Volume-11) come a poem and photo
submitted by Chuck Benjamin.  But the photo is an Harold E. Englund
original:::

I think that I shall never laugh
	Like when I saw a pantograph
Attached with chewing gum and sticks
	On Thirty-seven-fifty-six.

If trolley cars could only speak
	And reminisce of days antique
Each one would flex his creaking joints
	And make his nine successive points

"When I was just a little boy
	I used to run to Charleroi
Heidelberg with a passport
	Even out to far-off Glassport

For sheer variety of action
	You couldn't top the Flying Fraction
Open up your left door quickly
	To disembark before Sewickley

The little run that I liked best
	Was labeled simply East and West
But for it I was not intended
	Being only single-ended

Take your stupid people-mover
	And give me Forty-nine Beltzhoover
But now I ask to beg your pardon
	I must go home to rest at Arden."

	The accompanying photo was one of 3756 (with the unmentionable
({[pan]})) beside 4138 in Beechview with 1713 immediately behind 3756!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

	On another trolley list, someone mentioned good-naturedly that he
preferred the color green on trolleycars although he admitted that
orange was good for visibility.

	Someone else retorted::
"If God had intended for trolleycars to be green . . .
	He would have put leaves on them."

	Then came:
"HE did  --  the doors are leaves!"

	And someone else:
"A green trolleycar . . .
	is one that just hasn't ripened!"

> 5 - Just how bad is the information in CERA 110?

	Lets just say that CERA--WP--110 is *just-as-good-as*  "West Penn
Railways," 34.pgs., 1973 by PRMA which is an update of "Pittsburgh
Electric Railway Club Review of WEST PENN RAILWAYS 1889--1952," 16-pgs.,
August--1952, and CERA is almost a carbon copy of the latter.  Text is
almost word for word but photos and arrangement are different or
enlarged.

> Fred Bruhn

James B. Holland

        Pittsburgh  Railways  Company  (PRCo),   1930  --  1950
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