[PRCo] Re: PRCo - "through?" lines

[Fred W. Schneider III]

Possibly or perhaps because of its pecuniary problems, the railways
company did not print an abundance of maps or route guides.  There was
one, however, that they handed out through much of the 1950s, which
shows all of the feeder bus and through bus routes at that time.  John's
memory of a route "J" suggests that there were, then or in the previous
years, at least nine other through bus routes. 

John Swindler wrote:
> 
> I remember a PRC route "J", Edgewood-Swissvale via Parkway.  Started
> somewhere in vicinity Jane St. loop, followed outbound 64 carline to
> Swissvale RR station, then wandered over to Penn Lincoln Parkway at Braddock
> Ave. interchange.
> 

> Correction: Brady St. Bridge was reason for splitting route 77/54 in early
> 1960s.  Streetcar route 77/54 then ran northside-Bloomfield-Oakland to
> Forbes-Seneca-Gist (two single track connections between Forbes and Fifth).
> Small buses put on portion of route Oakland-Brady St. to southside.  Don't
> recall if buses continued out S. 18th St. to Brentwood Loop.

I'll accept that I stand corrected.  That makes a whole lot more sense
because that was the era that made one Pittsburgh doctor famous for
climbing up on the steel work of the partly collapsed Brady St. Bridge
to amputate the leg of an iron work who was pinned when the structure
started to go down.  I've never understood how a surgeon could have
enough adrenaline in him to do that! 
> 
> Originally route 77 was part of an inner loop belt line from dawntawn.  (or
> something like that in Pittsburgese)  Penn-Bloomfield-Fifth.  Had different
> car number for clockwise direction.  This was called the Bloomfield loop.
> 
> There was also an outer loop belt line.  Fifth-Shady-East Liberty-Penn.
> Again, different car numbers for clockwise and counter-clockwise.
> It was referred to as the Fifth-Shady-Penn loop.  Maybe I should not have
> used term "belt" to describe.  Need to check if PRC used this term.
> 
> > > Wasn't there a route which went from the Butler Street 62nd street loop,
> >through
> > > town, and over to the South Side Carson Street loop (where route 50 once
> > > terminated)?
> >
> >No, there was a 62nd St. - East Liberty line.  It simply connected with
> >the 94 and 95 lines at 62nd St, ran farther east on Butler Street, then
> >up into East Liberty.  I think it used Negley to Penn, than made a loop
> >in the northeastern part of East Liberty on Larimer and Paulson Sts.
> >It really could not be called a crosstown line in the definition of
> >something that ran completely across a major part of the city.
> 
> There were three PRC car lines that operated out Penn-Butler route to 62nd
> St. (four if you include route93): 94 which continued to Aspinwall (may have
> only gone as far as Sharpsburg originally), 95 which short-turned at 62nd
> St. and 96 which continued to East Liberty via Morningside.  This is
> probably a legacy of the early independent companies.  Anyway, a
> rationalization around 1918 eliminated the 62nd St. via Penn/Butler to
> downtown portion, thus producing the route 96 that we remember.

Thanks John.  I remember many shuttles that once ran downtown but 96 was
never in my brain housing group.  
> 
> For the trivia fans, this was also the changes that extended the 86 East
> Liberty Express from its turnback on Penn Ave. in the center of East Liberty
> to the Larimar Loop.
> 
> John
> 
> > >
> > > Does anyone know of any others?
> > >
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