Interurbans

[Jim Holland]

Greetings!

	PTM (http://www.pa-trolley.org/) has a reprint of the July 1952 issue
of *Electric Railroads* which details the Charleroi and Washington
interurbans as well as the Washington and Donora local lines.  This is
the source of my info.
	M-A-N-Y  on the list are members of PTM.  Ed Lybarger is the Archivist
for the Museum and is a walking encyclopedia on West Penn (I believe his
favorite) and PRCo.

Greg King wrote:

> Hi Jim,

> Thanks for that, wish there was a publication on those lines.

> Greg
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Jim Holland <pghpcc at pacbell.net>
> To: <pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org>
> Sent: Saturday, September 30, 2000 1:06 PM
> Subject: Interurbans

> > Greetings!

> > The 1600--series PCC interurbans were in service by mid--1948, approx.,
> > and the 1700s in very early 1949.  It wasn't until November 1950 that
> > both 3700s and 3800s were removed from service.  Scrapping was as much
> > as several years later.
> > So the Brill and  *old*  St.-Louies (the PCCs are St.-Louies, too!) did
> > not last to the end of interurban service in Washington County, but it
> > was as close to the end as possible - just 2.75-years shy!

> > You know that Charleroi had local service as well to Donora.  There was
> > a loop at Riverview which had a leg added to it to make it a combination
> > loop and wye.  This was the northern terminal of the Donora local and
> > the wye could be used by rush hour trippers from Pgh.
> > The interurbans thru Charleroi to Roscoe and the Donora local shared
> > trackage from Riverview on south through Monongahela on single track in
> > street with passing sidings.  Not long before Black Diamond Junction,
> > the line was double track.  The interurbans cut uphill across country at
> > the Junction while the Donora local was side of the road for a good
> > distance and then in the street as it essentially followed the
> > Monongahela River.
> > In Donora, there was a wye that was called a freight terminal.  This
> > was not used by the local cars which continued several blocks further to
> > a stub end, on street terminal.  But for a period during the 1920s,
> > every other interurban came to Donora and wyed so the people of Donora
> > had hourly through service without transfer to Pittsburgh as did the
> > people of Roscoe and Charleroi.  Thus, it was a 30-minute headway north
> > of Black Diamond Jct to Pgh and return.

> Greg King wrote:

> Is anybody/everybody on the list a member at Arden, I would like to chat
> off-list about it if someone would like too.

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/