[PRCo] Re: Other survivng car houses

[Harold Geissenheimer]

Greetings

Going up to Tarentum, Pa., the former AlleghenyValley/West Penn
car barn at 2d and  Adams Street still stands.  It was used by West Penn

cars until 1937, then by Harmony Short Line buses until 1961,
then by Community Transit buses until 1964, then by Port Authority
buses until the ealy 1970o's when the Harmar grage opened.
I believe its a tire retailer now.

My office was there for Community Transit.  There was street car
rail in the paving inside the building.  John Davidson, my maintenance
manager worked for the Butler Short Line in Mars, Pa. until 1932.

A little bit of equipment history.  West Penn car 832 (now at Arden)
was sent to Connellville in 1937.  In 1950, West Penn purchased
GMC model 3612 diesels for S. Connellsville, etc.  These were
stored along side #832.  When the West Penn went out of the bus
business in the early 1950's, these buses were sold to Community
Transit Service in Bridgeville(outside of Pgh).  In 1961, Community
in Bridgeville expanded to take over the Alleghency Valley operations
of Harmony and several of the ex-West Penn buses were shifted to
Tarentum
to the same building that #832 left in 1937!  Hows that for a round
robin!

Harold Geissenheimer

robert netzlof wrote:

> As I was driving off to the dread higher elevations
> north of Interstate 80, my real home now, fresh fdrom
> having seen the Oakford Park Car House, I pondered the
> fact that there are four other car barns still
> standing in my part of the Known World.
>
> 1. Latrobe. Jefferson Street between Spring and
> Chestnut Streets.
> 2. Latrobe. Across Ligonier Street from the Latrobe
> Brewing Co.
> 3. Derry. Just west of the PA 217 bridge over the
> PRR/CR/NS main
> 4. Indiana. Wayne Avenue, just north of and across the
> street from Kovalchik's yard.
>
> 1 was, I believe, built by the company which built the
> pre-West Penn line from Latrobe to Baggaley, but
> became West Penn with the purchase of that company by
> the power company. Within my lifetime, it was used as
> a garage and storage building by West Penn Power, who
> had a large substation beside it for decades. In the
> '40's the area between the building and the street was
> paved with brick and the rails were still in place in
> that pavement.
>
> 2 replaced 1. When? I know not. Pre-WW2 certainly. I
> think a part of the building was torn down several
> years ago, as it looks shorter than I remember it. One
> could still see the two tracks into the barn, and the
> siding which ran beside the barn until Latrobe Brewing
> expanded and covered the area in front of the barn
> with stone chips.
>
> 3 was built by the Westmoreland County Street Railway
> which folded long before I was around, although there
> were places in Latrobe where one could still see their
> rails in the streets. When I first knew of the
> building it was the garage for Chestnut Ridge Bus
> Lines, now also gone.
>
> 4 was built by the Indiana Street Railway. It
> currently is used by Kovalchik to store salvaged
> electrical equipment and copper.
>
> Since Indiana is probably getting pretty far afield
> for a 'Burgh-centric group, I'll refrain from
> mentioning the old car barn in DuBois.
>
> =====
> Bob Netzlof a/k/a Sweet Old Bob
>
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