[PRCo] Re: LAST DAY FOR MR. ROGERS NEIBORHOOD 8--31--01

Tue Sep 4 08:29:59 EDT 2001

When I visited the Pgh airport, the toy store had operating Mr R trolley cars.  They had wooden bodies made by a toy company in western PA.  Since Mr R did not license much, I believe they had an exclusive.  I recently visited the airport toy store again, but they did not have any of the cars.  I rarely see them around as models.  On Ebay, I see the Strawberry Shortcake Berry trolley based on that series.  I have a photo of Morris Stone (Chairman of American Greetings and model/prototype trolley fan) and me holding my copy of that model.  He did a lot to help the modelers and fans. Mr R kept the trolley concept out there for the kids to carry it on.  When my niece saw an interurban running on my model trolley layout, here initial young comment on seeing it was to describe it as a "school bus".  She had no reference to what a trolley was.  Mr. R was her closest chance.

Edward G. Skuchas, PE
Parsons Energy & Chemical Group
edward.g.skuchas at parsons.com <mailto:edward.g.skuchas at parsons.com> 
The Berkshire Car Shop
berkshirecar at aol.com <mailto:berkshirecar at aol.com> 
Importer of St. Petersburg Tram Collection
The trolley modelers source for all manufacturer's parts, kits, cars, videos, books.

-----Original Message-----
From: Bob Schmidt 
Sent: Saturday, September 01, 2001 8:49 AM
To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
Subject: [PRCo] Re: LAST DAY FOR MR. ROGERS NEIBORHOOD 8--31--01

Greasings 

I'll "second that", Roger.

Mr. Roger's was a special kind of person both on and off Television.. 
I had the pleasure meeting him when, in 1973, my harmonica trio did a
music spot for his Mr.Rogers' Neighborhood Show #1273 using his music
store set as a main theme. It has aired as a repeater over the past 26+
years.

While Mr. Rogers was getting his face put on, and waiting for WQED;s
studio personnel to get the taping equipment set up, I had a bit of time
to snoop around the neighborhood looking for the trolley. Held it in my
hands. A no frills neatly painted wooden model which appeared to be in
the G-scale garden RR size. It didn't have a pole, which I felt took
away some authenticism.
However, since the Neighborhood car is known to run forward/stop/reverse
all in short snappy increments, I can appreciate the absence of a pole.

I've seen a few commercially- produced G-scale renderings of this car in
the past few years at hobby shops and Greenberg;s train shows.
It's possible we may be seeing more production models of the
Neighborhood trolley with the official retirement of Mr.Rogers. 

Bob Schmidt

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From: ROGERTROLLY at webtv.net (ROGER Jenkins)
Date: Fri, 31 Aug 2001 21:39:48 -0700 (PDT)
To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
Subject: [PRCo] LAST DAY FOR MR. ROGERS NEIBORHOOD  8--31--01
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Today , Fred Rogers hung up his sweater in the closet for the last time
and officially retired.  And the trolley ran its last run across the
town that appeared to be in HO scale. Originating from Station KWEQ in
Pittsburg since it started [correct me if I got the call letters wrong ]
for about 40 years I think , the original trolley was a much larger size
than at the end. The show will be in repeats and syndication hereafter.
Sad to see the show end as my kids watched it years ago as I did when I
could.  He had some of the kids in the audience draw their version of
the trolley and he showed them at the end of te show and some were quite
realistic looking. Years ago he even went out and had  some of PAT'S
cars parade by in the 70s when they carried those crazy paintschemes .
And he took us on rides on some of them.  We will miss you Mr. Rogers
!!!