[PRCo] Crew scheduling/route interlining

[Fred W. Schneider III]

I talked to Art Ellis about the above subject ... he claims he only made
up passenger or public timetables and that John Baxter made up the crew
assignment timetables.  John Swindler knows where to reach Baxter ... I
think we should ask him to write a note to John after collecting all the
questions people need to have answered.

Art was able to give provide general information.  

1.  Cars assigned to Charleroi and Tylerdale (Washington) car houses
were assigned to x + 1/2 round trips per day in order to have each car
overnight two to three days a week at Tunnel for maintenance.  This
schedule apparently did not apply to Saturdays and Sundays.  I have no
time frame for his assertion.  But the cars remained assigned to
Charleroi or Washington.

2.  Trainmen on the interurbans were not necessarily assigned only to
cars from their barn but they were assigned in some manner that would
get them back home at the end of a shift.  Therefore, as an example,
cars pulling out of Charleroi in the morning and those pulling in at
night would have a crew based in Charleroi running the car.  However, it
order to make everything come out even, Art remembered that men did swap
cars at sidings ... this probably happened on early middle afternoon
trips.  

3.  City men did not necessarily spend all day on one route.  Art
claimed it was very common for a man (or woman) to work up to three
routes in one day on their pick.  And there would be street reliefs for
lunch, or car swaps on the street.  Art answered yes when I asked if the
assignments were always from the same car house; i.e. he was agreeing
that a man would not make a trip on 71, then on 8, then back on 71
because that would have involved two divisions.  However, there might
have been a block (theoretical of course) that saw a man make several
trips on 9 and 21 and make one or two on route 8 ... whatever it took to
get eight hours or more.  

4.  I think, however, before Art Ellis's time with the Railways there
may have been divisional interlining of crews in instances where cars on
a line worked out of two separate divisions.  Route 56 split cars
between Glenwood and McKeesport and I think 68 used cars from both
Rankin and McKeesport, therefore I would have expected crew interlining
too.  Baxter should be consulted on this.

5.  This also raises another question ... was there bus and rail
interlining if both operated from the same division?  In this case I'm
thinking of Manchester.  Could a man have worked a bus on
Manchester-Evergreen as well as rail trips on 18 and 19 in the same
day?  Or was Manchester two separate divisions?  I was also thinking
about Homewood, but then it occurred to me that the bus garage was built
after the fire, and all rail routes went to Craft the day of the
fire.     

Hope this helps.  

Fred