[PRCo] Re: South Hills Station Roof

[Edward H. Lybarger]

The cash umbrella wasn't related to Duquesne Light in 1948-49.  PRCo was in
reorganization proceedings and was cut off from all Philadelphia Company
activities, including those involving the two major sister companies.  The
only thing Philadelphia Company got to do was pay the PRCo rentals they had
guaranteed; I'm sure they'd have been glad not to have had that honor.

The last cash PRCo got directly from P.Co. would have been no later than
1938.

-----Original Message-----
From: pittsburgh-railways-bounce at lists.dementia.org
[mailto:pittsburgh-railways-bounce at lists.dementia.org]On Behalf Of Fred
W. Schneider III
Sent: Saturday, February 23, 2002 12:45 PM
To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
Subject: [PRCo] South Hills Station Roof




Begging the pardon of all of you.

I was troubled by the thought that Pittsburgh Railways might have cut
the roof corners at Tunnel Administration Building when Castle Shannon
closed in the early 1930s and longer cars were based at Tunnel.

Why?  Not because the cars might not clear.  The 3600s, 3700s and 3800s
all have a 27'-6" wheel base compared to 21'-6" on a low-floor or 22'-9"
on a PCC.  Obviously anything on the inside of a curve that a PCC could
just barely clear could be cleared by an interurban.  That's academic.

My problem is that Pittsburgh Railways would even have had a
non-clearance loop from 1909 until 1932, which would have forced them to
run any interurban car they wanted to turn 5 miles to Castle Shannon or
over a time-consuming 4 mile loop through downtown.  To me it didn't
make sense that Pittsburgh management was that short sighted.  Yes, I do
know that, on average, more than 45% of all management decisions in
corporate America are faulty, but the faulty ones don't last 23 years.

Voila.  (Pardon my French but it is a good emotional word.)  I FOUND A
JOHN D. SEIBERT PHOTO IN MY COLLECTION SHOWING SQUARE (NON CHOPPED) ROOF
CORNERS IN 1948.   Therefore it had nothing to do with clearances.  I
suspect one of the corners rotted out and the company decided it was
cheaper to balance the structure with a chain saw.  Remember that the
Philadelphia Company and Duquesne Light, and with them the cash
umbrella, were separated from Pittsburgh Railways circa 1949.  Don't fix
what can be torn-down is a much better deal.