[PRCo] Re: PRC 6000

[Bob Rathke]

I remember stopping at this diner in 1961 when its past life as a trolley was
apparent from the outside, but sometime after that it ceased being a diner and
became a retail store.  I'm not certain when it became the beer distributorship
which it seems to be today.  My brother moved to the Allison Park area in 1970,
and when driving out there to visit in the 70's, I noted that the building
exterior had begun to cover the trolley structure.  I stopped by there on a Sunday
in 1998, hoping to check out the interior, but the store was closed (I forget that
Pennsylvania still doesn't allow the sale of packaged goods on Sunday).

Who wants to run out Route 8 with a camera?  On a Monday-Saturday, of course.

Bob 5/29/01

---------------------

Jim Holland wrote:

> > Bob Rathke wrote:
>
> > Page 14 in Tom Parkinson's booklet, "The Street Railways of Pittsburgh,
> > 1859-1967," states that, "(PRC car) 6000 survived to become a roadside
> > cafe near Allison Park, Pa."  Is this the same structure that is now the
> > beer distributorship?
>
>         The PRMA publication  --  *Pittsburgh's Experimental 6000's*  (with HO
> scale plans)  --  has a photo on the back page of 6000 herself converted
> to a "._._.diner near Allison Park, Pa."
>
>         From the test of this publication:::::::
>
>         ".......but the body of 6000 was saved from the torch and shipped to a
> site north of Allison Park, a suburb of Pittsburgh, where it was
> converted into a roadside diner.  6000 is still there [date of
> publication - September--1962], looking from the outside very much as it
> did in operation, except for a rebuilt windshield."
>         "Be's Diner, as it is now known (Fred Biessinger, proprietor), is
> located one mile north of Allison Park on Pennsylvania Route 8, and 'Be'
> is always glad to show visitors around the old car.  The interior has
> been modernized, and fluorescent lights have replaced the old dome lamp
> fixtures, but many of the details mentioned in this booklet can still be
> seen in the flesh in this last vestige of a brilliant, but short-lived
> class of Pittsburgh trolleys."
>
> --
> 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/