[PRCo] Re: West End

[John F Bromley]

I'm looking at the track map (second edition) published by ERA, noted as
corrected to June 1949, and it shows the Carson-Smithfield-Sycamore St
intersection as having double track curves on all four corners, straight
tracks from Sycamore a the Tunnel entrance into Smithfield but no east-west
through tracks on Carson.  This was drawn by an R Saxon based on data
provided by W A James, J G Kneiling and Charlie Dengler.  The crossover on
Smithfield north of the shed at the P&:E is also shown (and it's in one of
those Vigrass negs currently at Fred's.  If the map is accurate what's all
this talk of using the crossover?  Also solves the Sewickley route egress
and ingress to Tunnel CH.  Look it up, people.  That's why maps are
polished.

The PERC map of 1859-1959 track, corrected to June 1959, is inconclusive,
since the 32 was by then abandoned for some time and the West End just gone.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Fred W. Schneider III" <fschnei at supernet.com>
To: <pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org>
Sent: Thursday, April 04, 2002 6:18 PM
Subject: [PRCo] Re: West End


>
> I'm loathe to jump into something about which I know nothing but here
> goes.  I have a couple of pictures but all the concrete data is
> elsewhere.  There was an eastbound to southbound curve at Carson and
> Smithfield about 1952 but no north to west curve. I have a Vigrass
> negative in my hand that veries that.  This indicates that cars going
> into service from Tunnel onto route 32 had to cross over from the
> northbound track through the tunnel to the southbound track somewhere.
> I don't remember a crossover near the mouth of the tunnel ... screwing
> around on a 6% grade is for the birds.  Therefore logically cars going
> into service on 32 ran through the intersection, then crossed over in
> front of the P&LE station, and then turned from southbound to westbound
> at Carson St.  Cars going out of service simply took the track from
> eastbound on Carson to southbound into the tunnel.  In my memory, that
> intersection was one curve short of a grand union, but I'm not going to
> stand on that statement.
>
> But what about the Sewickley cars.  Possibly cars going into service ran
> over the Smithfield St. Bridge into Pittsburgh, then back out over the
> Point Bridge.  Returning cars could run through town also, or run empty
> over Carson St.  There may also have been another curve from northbound
> on Smithfield to westbound on Carson when 23 was running.
>
> The answers are there Jim.  It is just a matter of time to research
> everything.  The track records (at least the early ones are at Arden).
> The car barn assignments are also on the route cards ... I don't have
> copies of everything at home.  I probably have route 32 / 33 but don't
> have time tonight to look for it.  We also have railfan pictures of
> 3750s at Tunnel bearing Sewickley signs.  It is no rumor.
>
> Certainly assigning the all the 3750s to Tunnel makes sense.  Why
> doesn't it?  PRC assigned cars according to apparatus in a transparent
> policy of simplifying parts inventories.  The sole exception, both with
> PCC cars and older equipment, were cars based at Homewood, where parts
> were not an issue because the central parts room was a block down the
> street.  Why would you give Ingram ten cars different from anything
> else?  Ingram generally had GE PCC cars of the 1500 series (25 cars),
> half of the GE 1700s, 5200 MU cars which had HL control, 4200 cars with
> HL control for Thornberg shuttle.  The 3750s were similar to the 5200s
> but they had higher speed gearing ... that and some other parts may have
> been the reason PRC wanted them all kept in one place.  The 3750s may
> also have been kept at Tunnel because the company needed the extra
> trackage at Ingram for the scrapping program. We may not know why
> everything was done, but you can be damn sure the result was well
> reasoned.
>
> Privately-owned public transit companies generally were most logical.
> For someone brought up in the era of government ownership, it isn't
> always easy however to follow the logic of making money.  That is not an
> insult Jim after all your years with Muni.  I saw it in 36 years in
> government myself ... the people around me never knew how to think
> dollars, only how to cover their asses with paper.
>
> Jim Holland wrote:
> >
> > Good Morning!
> >
> > >> Jim Holland commented:
> >
> > >> Good Morning!
> >
> > >> http://davesrailpix.railfan.net/pitts/htm/bvp003.htm - shows the
X-over on
> > >> the Smithfield St. Bridge which the 32-line cars used for getting
into and
> > >> out of the barn.
> -- Trailing quotes stripped by Listar --
>
>