Beeses of Pgh. area

[Harold Geissenheimer]

To Jim:  and all of you as well.

The Harmony Short Line Motor Transportation was owned by the McCahill family, also
owners of the Harmony Route and the Butler Short Line interurbans.  It was formed
in 1926 to supplement the interurbans and then in 1932, when the interurban was
abandoned, to replace it.  Initial operations were north from Pittsburgh to Butler
or New Castle.  Buses were thru routed to Erie via Welch Transportation and West
Ridge (later Greyhound).  Harmony purchased Welsh before the war.  Buses between
Pgh and Erie were a pool service.  2/3rds of the trips by Harmony and 1/3 by
Greyhound.  Harmony and Greyhound also operated service to Buffalo, Youngstown and
Cleveland via Penn Ohio (later Greyhound).  In 1937, Harmony begain service in the
Allegheny Valley to New Kensington, Tarentum and Kittanning replacing the Valley
route of West Penn.  In the 1950's Harmony replaced Penn Bus (Blue Ridge) on the
Oakmont line.  The Harmony terminal and office was at 10th & Penn with sidewalk
loading.  The building still stands.  Because of many strikes, Mr McCahill
abandoned the bus system in 1961.  This was a major abandonment as Harmony was the
largest bus company in Pittsburgh.  Several lines applied for new PUC certificates
to replace the abandoned Harmony routes including Horrell, Grove City Bus,
Culmerville Bus, Rogers Transit.
The entire Allegheny Valley Division went to Community Transit Service of
Bridgeville.  I became Manager of Community at that time and moved my office to the
former West Penn barn in Tarentum, Pa. complete with tracks still in place.  Your
list of bus lines probably reflects those lines acquired by the Port Authority in
1964.  Because Harmony was abandoned in 1961, it would not be on your list.
Harmony was a modern, well maintained bus line.  It went all diesel at the end of
World War II, never operated Fitzjohn, Beaver or ACF buses common on the other
lines.  Mr R M Glick was Secty-Treasurer for many years and was my boss.  He
continued to use the office at the 10th Street bus terminal to handle sale of the
various rail rights of way, etc. still owned by the Harmony Real estate Co and the
Short Line Land Co.  His son, Jim Glick is a reader of my Transnet news letter.
You can still see Harmony buildings such as the 10th & Penn bus terminal, the Pgh
Division Garage at 29th & Liberty and the Valley Garage in Tarentum.  Mr McCahill
also owned the Butler Motor Transit which he sold intact.  Butler Motor Transit is
still in business and it is a Coach USA company

Other Pittsburgh bus lines with a rail background include Penn Transit in
McKeesport and Poskin which operated Oakdale to McDonald from Pgh.   Trafford Motor
Coach competed with and eventually replaced the Trafford trolley.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Harold Geissenheimer


Jim Holland wrote:

> Greetings!
>
>         Mr. Geissenheimer's outline reminded me of a conversation with Mr. Ed
> Lybarger.
>         While I hope to model PRCo in "O"--Scale some day, I recognize that the
> same had some ({[bus]}) competitors and several of their models should
> be included with the layout.
>         Ed provided me with an URL showing the many bus companies operating in
> Pgh. - http://trfn.clpgh.org/amcap/history.htm (the home page for this
> URL is: http://trfn.clpgh.org/amcap/).
>         I  *thought*  I remembered Harmony Short Lines as mentioned by Mr.
> Geissenheimer, but it is not in the above list unless it is listed by
> another name.  I am assuming the Harmony lines ran on into Butler and
> the system is so named after the interurbans to the same destination!
>         Bigi ran thru Dormont and Mt.Lebanon to Bridgeville and had limited
> stops thru the first two.  I remember riding some of the old stick shift
> models of Bigi!  Brentwood, Oriole, and Noble J. Dick are several others
> for which I have vivid memories.
>
> 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/