[PRCo] Re: West End

[Jim Holland]

Good Morning!

	Here is one of my previous posts on this intersection and I used the same
photo of 1201 northobund exiting the tunnel on Dave's site as Robert just
supplied.

>> John Swindler wrote:

>> Route 32 P&LE Transfer (so as not to confuse with earlier
>> route 32) required a double end car.  The crossover on
>> Carson St. west of Smithfield was still in place for
>> (really stretching the memory cells now) car 1000 fantrip in
>> June 1958.

> Jim Holland wrote:

> Message-ID: <3CAA2C8D.71B4F90F at pacbell.net>
> Date: Tue, 02 Apr 2002 14:11:25 -0800

> 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.

> http://davesrailpix.railfan.net/pitts/htm/bvp013.htm - shows intersection
> of Carson and Smithfield  *Before*  the 2-turns to and from West Carson
> were installed to and from the tunnel.   And the turn from Westbound Carson
> to southbound tunnel is not in as yet, either!

>         There is also a photo of a 37 or 38-series interurban heading southbound
> farside of Carson with many people standing there  --  we have discussed it
> before and someone thought the car was stopping to take on passengers.
> Not the case - people were waiting for car to clear to cross the tracks.
> At any rate, I can't seem to find that photo to see if turnouts were in
> place for turns to and from West Carson.

>         These 2-turns seem to have been added during or immediately after WW2
> which is interesting because the 3750s with left side door were reportedly
> based at South Hills for the 23-line.   How did they get them to and from
> the barn without these turns?   Must have gone downtown first and probably
> to the downtown West End loop.

>         At any rate, there would be additional time to route the West End cars
> over the Smithfield Bridge in addition to increased congestion here.   The
> West End downtown loop barely made it into downtown so cars were into and
> out of downtown very fast.   The Smithfield Bridge could handle the
> additional traffic   ---   consider the frequency of service in the 1940s
> very early 1950s and the number of lines that used the bridge, the cutbacks
> in headways in the mid-1950s, and running the West End lines this way could
> have been done.

>         But this would have greatly increased overhead as more cars would be
> needed on West End routes because of additional running time but would be
> theoretically carrying the same number of people!

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James B. Holland

Holland  Electric  Railway  Operation....... 
___"O"--Scale St.-Petersburg Trams Company Trolleycars and...
______"O"--Scale  Parts  mailto:pghpcc at pacbell.net

______Pennsylvania Trolley Museum http://www.pa-trolley.org/
___Pittsburgh  Railways  Company  (PRCo),   1930  --  1950
N.M.R.A.  Life member #2190; http://www.nmra.org

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