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

[Fred W. Schneider III]

For those who wonder ... I back down.  I was not aware how much this
happened in regular service.  The only day I saw it resulted from some
problem on the valley line, and that day everything ... 38/42/35/36/37
were going through Beechview.  It was during the Geissenheimer era.  I
think I blew a roll of Kodachrome in 30 minutes or less with no two cars
in the same color!

Jim Holland wrote:
> 
> 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
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