[PRCo] Re: 2002 PTM calendar

[Bob Rathke]

Thanks for the great recollections, Fred.

Bob 10/14/01

-----------------------------
----- Original Message -----
From: <Fredbruhn at aol.com>
To: <pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org>
Sent: Sunday, October 14, 2001 5:15 PM
Subject: [PRCo] Re: 2002 PTM calendar


> In a message dated 10/14/01 1:21:05 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
> transitmgr at worldnet.att.net writes:
>
>
> > Bill was named after a Presidential candidate.  I was born in 1928
> > just after the election and almost was named "Herbert"!  In my National
> > Guard unit I had a Roosevelt Nixon and Franklin D. Knuckles.
> >
> >
>
> That is correct, William Jennings Bryan Gwinn.
>
> I wish I had a disposition of all the Co-Op cars.  39, a Cincinnati
curveside
> car is at Seashore.  47 sat on Route 250 as a storage shed in a junk yard
> until it rotted away.
> It was about a dozen miles out of Wheeling in Ohio towards Cadiz.  Car 9
was
> a shed near Martins Ferry but I think it is gone now.  Most of their cars
> were stripped
> of parts north of Bridgeport on the 79 Rayland line.  I think they may
have
> been burned on the spot.  Several were torched behind the Warwood car
barn.
> I have a photo or two of the WP 700 type cars (Panhandle Traction, but
never
> changed for the front door like WP) sitting in Warwood at the barn missing
> windows, etc.  The two sloped end cars that Harold mentions (100 and 101)
> have been rumored to have gone to a lake towards Columbus for use as
cabins.
> Someday I plan on searching this out.  The first car was modified to
> modernize the ends, and the second built from
> scratch.  They initially made trips on all lines, but my photos seem to
> indicate they were used on Martin Ferry lines and Shadyside mostly.
>
> Bill's seniority usually got him route 61 (Lansing) or in bus days route
69
> (Barton).  This allowed him to stop in front of his home at 650 Main St.
and
> pick up a hot lunch.
>
> Most probably don't know that Bill requested from the company to allow him
to
> post his photos in the dispatch room in the Island barn.  They provided
> several glassed
> cases on the wall for his use and he would rotate the photos from time to
> time.  I
> made my initial contact with him in 1954 by wondering around the barn on a
> visit to Wheeling to see grandparents and saw the photos inside.  Being a
bit
> shy, I went home and got my grandmother to find out if I could go in and
see
> the photos and she had no reservations of barging right in.  Bill came in
off
> his run soon after and that is how I met him.  My first Wheeling trolley
trip
> was in 1947.  I think Bill switched to buses before the end of trolley
> service to keep his run intact.  Lansing went off in 1947 and the last
lines
> in 1948 were scheduled to close near the end of April, but floods on the
> island on the 12th. ended things prematurely.  Several feet of water
> covered the island.  My father used to tell me of his childhood days in
the
> 20's when flood waters would almost hit the second floor of homes and the
> boys would pull themselves along in a boat using the trolley overhead.  It
> wasn't until the floor control
> dams and lakes built in the 30's came along that the flood waters could be
> controlled Even with that most basements in Wheeling were dirt floors and
> stone walls.  Every spring brought some flooding until the early 60's.
>
> Bill used a Kodak box camera for almost all his photos, and I remember
> towards the end of his trips to Pittsburgh he had a more modern camera.
He
> would rubber band a sheet to the box camera to keep the notes on where and
> when the shots were made.  He did his own developing in a wash room off
the
> kitchen on the first floor.
> Some think he used his wife's dirty wash water to develop his prints.
>
> We are fortunate Bill Gwinn and you other photo historians were around and
> had the foresight to capture the trolley years.  If Bill had not
discovered
> -- as he once said "gee I found out other people liked to take to trolley
> photos too" from that first fan trip he was conductor on, we would have
scant
> coverage of Co-Op.  I have been running
> a series in Traction and Trolleys Quarterly off and on for the past 10
years.
>  We have one chapter to go.  All I owe the editor is a system map and its
> done.  Ed and I have tossed around doing Co-Op as a museum project
sometime
> and I hope we can get to it.
>
> Fred
>
>
>