[PRCo] Re: Pittsburgh 7-Charles Street abandonment

[John Swindler]

Thank you, Ed, for the detailed historical information on Pittsburgh 
Railways.  Very interesting and informative.  While I can dig out some of 
the historical information buried in PUC records, the personalities and how 
people acted are missing.

To add to Jim Holland's comment: So what else did you analyze during your 
tenure with Pittsburgh Railways???  And subsequent dealings with PAT???   
Not only the facts, but the personalities involved???

Concerning the 1926 bankruptcy, I didn't see any application for approval of 
a PRC reorganization plan in the index listing.  However, in 1927 Pittsburgh 
Railways sought PUC approval to purchase:
Bates Street Railway Co.,
Bereton Ave. Street Railway Co.,
Carrick & Baldwin Street Ry. Co.,
Grant & Liberty St. Ry. Co.,
Pittsburgh Southern St. Ry Co.,
Virginia Ave. Street Ry. Co.,
Washington & Claysville St. Ry. Co.,
Crafton & Chartiers Valley Traction Co.,
Tustin St. Ry. Co.,
McKees Rocks & Neville Island St. Ry Co., and
Homestead & Mifflin St. Ry. Co. (not including corporate franchise and real 
estate).

The 'can of worms' was when I looked at index for Consolidated Traction Co., 
and Monongahela St. Ry. Co. yesterday and saw that they too were seeking 
approval to purchase underliers in 1927-28.  And in the 1950 proceedings, 
PRC is seeking PUC approval for "incorporation through consolidation of 55 
companies comprising present Pittsburgh Railways Company system."

So much for their only being a couple dozen abandonment petitions to browse 
through on Pittsburgh Railways!!!!!

So did the 1926/7 bankrupcy actually result in elimination of some of the 
underlying companies prior to the depression (PUC application will only show 
what is proposed - doesn't show if actually done), or were all 99 underliers 
still in existance in late 1940s?????

Wasn't it Judge Lewis who was involved with bringing Dameron to Pittsburgh 
from St. Louis???  What was his background??

As for Harley Swift, he was ATE managment from Harrisburg.  Thought he was 
just temporary to get PAT started.  For those who like to speculate, Harley 
Swift hired Gordon Thompson to do an inventory for PAT, circa 1964, of rail 
private right of way in Allegheny County that could be used for rapid 
transit purposes (this was pre-LRT days).  Even Harmony Line rights of way 
are listed.

Again, Ed, thanks for the background information.

John





>From: stennyson at webtv.net (Shirley Tennyson)
>To: j_swindler at hotmail.com (John Swindler)
>CC: billvigrass at hillintl.com, pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org, 
>ALLMANR at aehn2.einstein.edu, rwan at dejazzd.com, csiebert at paonline.com, 
>elmerfry at desupernet.net, JacksoRE at STVINC.COM
>Subject: RE: Pittsburgh 7-Charles Street abandonment
>Date: Wed, 30 May 2001 21:21:04 -0400 (EDT)
>
>     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.     In 1926 or so, there was a bankruptcy which was
>reorganized by shaving the lease payments rather than rejecting them but
>this was not sufficient for the Great Depression, cut-wage political
>buses, and FD Roosevelt's order just to P.R.Co to pay six days pay for
>five days' work. We wonder if BM-Firestone etc put him up to it as hat
>is when PCC cars were bought along with ACF=Brills, No GMC.  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. They contracted with Pittsburgh Motor
>Coach for shuttle and feeder routes at a huge loss to P.Ry.Co  and let
>P.M.C. Co operate the "Through" bus routes separately. That is where you
>got the Route 9 North Side Through Bus. They had a 25 cent fare for
>premium service with a seat for every passenger, but the City of
>Pittsburgh and Anne X. Alpern, always anxious to remove street cars,
>used the Great Depression as an excuse to force the 25 cent bus fare
>down to trolley rates. PUC compromised at 15 cents with tickets at maybe
>12.5 cents. Trolley was 8.33 cents or a dime cash. That ended a seat for
>every bus passenger. The Through bus routes never carried route numbers.
>There were about a dozen of them including one to Charleroi which the
>1938 bankruptcy forced them to sell to Blue Ridge Bus, the big bus
>subsidiary of the Hagerstown & Frederick Ry. It really put a crimp in
>long haul interurban car rides as he 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. I did some
>research on them when I worked for Russ George and Clyde Ligo in the
>Research Department.       In 1952, all 99 companies disappeared along
>with Pittsburgh Motor Coach Company and there was just one legal
>company, P.Ry. Co.   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 abandoned i
>1940 or 1941, but they belonged to legally solvent companies and could
>not be liquidated so long as they were owned by others. During the War,
>ridership more than doubled to make them valuable, and after the war
>commuter business to the new outer suburbs kept them busy as far as
>Canonsburg and Finleyville (Riverview).    until a 15 percent federal
>tax was slapped on in 1948 but not applied to Blue Ridge Bus.  The
>government really hated rail service.
>E d   T e n n y s o n
>

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