[PRCo] Re: Sidings Added on Busy Pittsburgh Line.......

[Jim Holland]

Greetings,

	Evening pull-ins from the interurban lines used the 38-Mt.-Lebanon line
every weekday in the late 1950s early 1960s.  I did this many times
myself as I made every excuse possible to go downtown after school and
ride the interurban a trip and then come back up thru Mt.-Lebanon.
	If I didn't do this after school, I was near the 42-wye and saw many
interurbans heading inbound on the 38-line.
	Cars from Library and Drake that were scheduled to return to the barn
over the 38-line used the crossover just inbound of Martin Villa and ran
on the outbound track for about 2-car lengths before taking the switch
to the Castle Shannon Loop.  37-line cars would back from the 37-loop to
the Castle Shannon training loop and return on the 38-line.  It  IS 
just as Roger said below.
	One day I was walking up Biltmore from the 42-line (quite a steep hill)
and a car pulled out in front of a 1600-series interurban.  The motorman
hit the brakes hard, dropped sand, and rolled toward the auto in an huge
cloud of dust!  No contact.
	Pg.83 of Smith's book,  *Touring Pgh by Trolley,*  shows 1619 inbound
on the 38-line near Dormont Jct.  His title for the picture is all
wrong:  ("By 1965, No. 1619 had been fitted with a roof headlight and a
pilot, accoutrements appropriate for the open running on the
SHANNON-LIBRARY line.")  First of all, the photo can't be 1965 since it
is running on the 38-line; the portion between Dormont and Brookline
Jcts was abandoned by PRCo.  This car was actually outfitted with a
pilot by Feb-15-1948 and a roof light within a year or two of that.  And
while the photo caption doesn't explicitly say so, this is probably an
evening rush hour tripper heading back to the barn.  The 1600-series
interurbans were Only used in the rush hours and interurbans were not
mixed with city cars on other routes unless an emergency.

> Fred W. Schneider III wrote:

> The only instance I ever heard of such a diversion was the routing
> diversion during County Fair, during which outbound morning and probably
> early afternoon cars used the interurban, while cars returning to
> Pittsburgh in the evening used the interurban.  Opposing movements went
> through Mount Lebanon.

>> ROGER Jenkins wrote:

>> I thought that PRCo rerouted cars during the rush hours thru  Mt Lebanon
>> , sending some outbound cars deadhead that way in the AM rush to prevent
>> inbound cars from bunching up at turnouts on the Overbrook section
>> waiting for more cars than actually were needed on the interurban. The
>> reverse was thought by me to be in effect in the evening rush hour where
>> inbound cars were diverted via Mt Lebanon.

-- 
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/