[PRCo] PRCo History

[Jim Holland]

Mr. Tennyson,

	A Million  THANKS  for this highly enlightening summary of events
concerning PRCo.  Sure hope you find time to share more information in
this regard.  Nice to hear it from someone actually employed by PRCo!!
	It was definitely the waning days of PRCo, but I am glad I was able to
see and enjoy the interurbans to Charleroi and Washington and what was
left up until 1962!  Have some fond memories!

> Mr. Ed Tennyson wrote:

>     No, John, no "can of worms". You have it right.
> The 1903 consolidation to  form Pitts- burgh Railways Company was done
> with 99-year leases.  That way, P.R.Co did not have to buy the 99 ?
> other companies. . .  We do know
> the Judge who was first involved with Pat was "connected" to GM. That is
> how John Dameron got in and deposed Harley Swift

> In 1950, P.Ry.Co operated NO buses.

	Good  --  SUPER  Good!!  If I ever get to model the PRCo system, the
latest date I want to model is 1950 so I don't have to worry about any
PRCo Gutterliners (Thank You, Ira!) on the layout.  There will be others
({[gutterliners]}), for sure, just to make an interesting scene, but I
am modelling PRCo and can't include all of that let alone the 
({[bus]})  competitors!!

> They contracted with Pittsbrgh Motor
> Coach for shuttle and feeder routes at a hue loss to P.Ry.Co  and let
> P.M.C. Co operate the "Throuh" bus routes separately. . .
> The Through bus routes never carried route numbers.
> There were about a dozen of them including one to Charleroi which the
> 1938 barkruptcy forced them to sell to Blue Ridge Bus, the big bus
> subsidiary of the Hagerstown & Frederck Ry. It really put a crimp in
> long haul interurban car rides as the bus did not carry local coal
> miners.  The 99
> leased companies all claimed they were not bankrupt because P.Ry Co owed
> them rent. Anne X. Alpern fought that one too, but this time, only this
> time, she was right and the Court put them all in bankruptcy. . .
> One condition of the consolidation, imposed by Anne
> X. Alpern was hat no service leave Allegheny County, hence the
> interurban abandonments at that time. They would have been abandned i
> 1940 or 1941, but they belonged to legally solvent copanies and could
> not be liquidated so long as they were owned by others. During the War,
> ridrship more tha doubled to make them valuabel, and after the war
> commuter business to the new outer suburbs kept them busy as far as
> Canonsburg and Fin;eyville (Riverview).    until e 15 percent federal
> tax was slapped on in 1948 but not applied to Blue Ridge Bus.  The
> govrnment really hated rail service.
> E d   T e n n y s o n

-- 
James B. Holland
        Pittsburgh  Railways  Company  (PRCo),   1930  --  1950
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