[PRCo] Re: Politics of Traction Thread

[Derrick J Brashear]

On Fri, 3 Aug 2001, Kenneth Josephson wrote:

> This isn't Western Pennsylvania-related (unless you count the mentioning of George
> Westinghouse), but there is an excellent thread going on about the economic failure of the
> interurban industry on Laura Heiden's North Shore Line discussion board.

Well, I can easily bring such a thing on-topic. 
>From what appears to be the first message in the thread:
"why do historians of U.S. industry, transportation and even railroads
ignore the Interurban Era?"

In many cases much as there were redundant steam railroad lines interurban
lines in the context of the existing steam lines. At least that's the way
it looks from here. For reasons which aren't really appropriate for
discussion here I found myself going through Oakdale and McDonald 3 times
this week.(*) There was a remote part of the West Penn here; The Panhandle
Division of the Pennsylvania Railroad also connected the two towns along
with Pittsburgh, Steubenville, and other places. 

What did the trolley bring to the table?
-Cheaper fares
-I lack railroad timetables of the right era, but probably more frequent
headways

The question then is what impact it had on travel in the area. I'm not
sure.

The wise among you will rightly point out that a small operation in
isolation like Oakdale-McDonald isn't really a fair example for an
interurban as neither Oakdale nor McDonald (nor Noblestown) is urban. I
can only agree, but it was a fine example of an operation entirely
paralleled by a steam railroad which was fresh in my head. If you want
other examples, Trafford-Irwin is a good one, and was part of a network
which connected Pittsburgh with Greensburg (those are both urban, right?
;-) Yet that portion fell over early compared to the rest. 

Aside from local historians and people like us, this sort of line is
forgotten. 

Extrapolate.

-D
(*) If you're curious why I ended up out there 3 times this week I'll be
happy to amuse you offlist. It's not any of the obvious reasons.