[PRCo] Re: 38 Mt.Lebanon/ 42 Dormont

[John F Bromley]

Oops.  From 42 to 38 possible, other way not.  I did see some 38s come down
42 in 1960 and turn back up W Liberty to go in as 38s.  I rode one and I
guess I just assumed they could go the other way too but of course there was
no similar crossover on the 42 north of the loop.

Mea culpa.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Jim Holland" <pghpcc at pacbell.net>
To: <pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org>
Sent: Thursday, March 07, 2002 4:19 PM
Subject: [PRCo] Re: 38 Mt.Lebanon/ 42 Dormont



> > .......There was also a crossover north of
> > the loop on West Liberty Av so short 38s could leave the carhouse in the
AM,
> > go out the 42 and turn left into West Liberty, then through the
crossover
> > from the outbound to he inbound line and off they went.  Short 38s
outbound
> > simply turned right on the same curve and went back to Tunnel on the 42.
>
> This is a new one on me  --  Never saw this - lived right here until
> 1963!   If an outbound 38-line car turned short here into the 42-Dormont
> wye, it would be facing backward on the inbound track.   The car would
then
> have to pull onto the single track connecting to the 38-line, plug the
> spring RR switch or throw it the other direction, back down the outbound
> track, and go around the wye again.
> If the spring switch on the wye leg was plugged for the 38-short to go the
> other direction, it would be facing backward on the Outbound track.   From
> the outbound track the car would have to back up outbound thru the switch
> to the single track connection and then go forward on the inbound track.
> With all the 42-line cars waiting to use the wye, this would make for a
> real bottleneck.
>
> Never saw anything like this in any of the schedules - No short cars AM or
> PM.
>
> The Only time I ever saw this used is in the mid-1950s when a 1200 could
> not back up.   The X-over was 2-3--car lengths inbound of the wye on
> W.Liberty and help was needed to stop auto traffic.   This was quite a
hump
> out of the wye and the car wheels spun tremendously.