[PRCo] Re: [Fwd: Pittsburgh Rwy Cars]

[Harold Geissenheimer]

Greetings to every one

West Penn was also responding to the Federal SEC rules to divest the
power company from transportation.  This included not only the rail lines
but also their initial bus line to South Connellsville.  At the same time
the parent Potomas Edison Co of Hagerstown was selling off the
Blue Ridge Bus Lines (Wash & Balt to Pgh and Cleveland).  I would
suspect that they also saw red ink in the handwriting on the wall.

Blue Ridge/Potomac Edison/West Penn worked with many of their
employees to keep services intact.  That ranged from operations
to Washington & Charleroi, the bus terminal in Washington, and
even a 2 bus Blairville Bus Co. sold to a dispatcher.

They coordinated the sale of the Penn Bus/Blue Ridge route to
Carnegie, Bridgeville and Hickory to Community Transit Service and sold
them the almost new South Connellsville GMC buses.  These
stayed with Community for years and were eventually transferred to
PAT in 1964.  It was this company that replaced most of the Harmony
Short Line in 1961.  It was then I became Community's Manager.

A little side story of ancient history.   West Penn car #832 was labeled
the Valley Route and was housed in Tarentum before being moved to the
Coke Region.   In the late 1940's, West Penn purchased its first buses
which were housed along side #832 in Connellville.  These are the buses
that were sold to Community Transit.  When Community took over Harmony
in 1961, several of these were sent to Tarentum where they were housed in
the old West Penn barn which had been used by Harmony since 1937.  So
we have an interesting play by play:  Tarentum to Connellsville to
Bridgeville
and then on to Tarentum and the West Penn barn.  This building was used
by PAT until the HarmarGarage was built and I believe it is still used
as a tire company shop.

Now about the TV.  In the late l940's and early 1950's several important
things affected transit ridership.  One was the 5 day week replacing the 5
1/2
work on Saturday week.  Two was TV.  It hit the movie business very
hard.  Three was the automobile.  Four was the closing of mines and mills.
Five was the shift to shopping centers from the many downtowns.  You
had to see how crowded these downtowns were on Saturday and suddenly
they were empty

The Fayette Coach Co (owned by Lincoln Coach of Irwin) took over
the main WestPenn routes but abandoned them shortly after.  One thing
they found out was that rail passengers boarded at isolated car stops away
from the highway.  Bus passengers were standing along the highway and were
frequently given a ride.

I know from my own experience that the TV and Saturday thing affected
local bus lines in Tarentum and New Kensington.  Also in Oil City, the
Citizens Transit (ex Citizens Traction) purchased 5 new diesel buses in
1950
and quit shortly thereafter.  Citizens was owned by the same owners as
Montour Motor Coach in Pgh where I first worked in the transit business.
I once worked a one week vacation replacement in Oil City in 1950.
These were hard years in Western Pennsylvania.  I know.  I was there.

Remember this about the TV replacing the movie.  People who went to the
movie by transit made an extra round trip.  That was almost profit.  Now
they stayed home.  Pittsburgh was similarly affected as the downtown movie
business dropped.  Thats why the Penn and Stanley movies are now stage
shows.

Thanks for listening.  Best wishes.

Harold Geissenheimer

ROGER Jenkins wrote:

> Well Fred if two publications said it was TV that reduced the riding on
> West Penn and you did not believe it, what do you think the real reason
> was? To me it sounded plausible that the draw of watching Ed Sullivan
> and a whole lot of other things on the 12 inch sets like my neihbor had
> where us kids went to watch  it, made perfect sense. Instead of riding
> the trolley to the local bijou , people stayed home glued to that new
> fangled picture box !