[PRCo] Re: Pittsburgh 7-Charles Street abandonment

[Jim Holland]

> John Swindler wrote:

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

	John::	You, too, have certainly provided some  high--density--protein 
to this discussion!!

	In trying to understand the mood--sentiment of the time (without
playing Devil's Advocate), maybe these people honestly thought that real
progress meant conversion to  ({[bus]})!!   (And this is not to imply
that decisions were not made to benefit investments!!)
	Trolleycars were really hated after WW-2, and that seemed especially
strong in Pgh.  The general public thought they were antiques, not just
the politicos!
	While we all have a fondness for trolleycars, it would seem that most
of us concur that PRCo of the 1950s, with all the street trackage, would
not be viable in 2001!  But PRCo had much prw and it seems that better
use could have been made of some trolleycar lines.

> 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.

	Do you have a listing to share of available prw at this time?

	Nice to speculate about Harmony, but it wouldn't really fit into the 
({[pat]})  scheme of things since that entity is limited by the county
line.

	Also interesting to see how interurban traffic was 
funneled--siphoned--GIVEN--AWAY  to the competitor!

	While none of us is perfectly good, it would seem that no one is
perfectly evil(-?-?-)!!  Maybe the Anne--X.--Alpern Allegheny County
Limit had good intentions and was not specifically directed against the
interurban lines.  (Does anyone know what the  <*-X.-*>  stands for in
Alpern's name  --  makes her sound sinister without knowing her!)

	ED--T:	Could you provide more information about desire to eliminate the
Charleroi and Washington lines in 1941?  If they could have legally
abandoned the lines then, do you think that WW-2 needs would have staved
off the abandonment?

>> From: stennyson at webtv.net (Shirley Tennyson)

>>     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 

>> 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 that 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

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