[PRCo] Re: Economics of West Penn Railways

[Edward H. Lybarger]

And I didn't even get into depreciation accounting and the large charge-offs
required when lines were abandoned!  I should also clarify one other line of
thought...there certainly was a postwar economic downturn in Fayette County
due to reclosure of mines and coke plants and exhaustion of the resource as
far as the mine owners were concerned.  It was much more industry-specific
than widespread geographically, but hit the Coke Region hard, as one might
expect.

As for the West Penn book...I'm stuck in the mid '30s at the State Library's
Newspaper Room!  Have to read 20 more years, and that's just Connellsville.
I need a volunteer to read the Tarentum paper, too.  Anyone for Wheeling?

Thanks for the kind comments, Jim.  By the way, did the item I sent you
arrive?

Ed

-----Original Message-----
From: pittsburgh-railways-bounce at lists.dementia.org
[mailto:pittsburgh-railways-bounce at lists.dementia.org]On Behalf Of Jim
Holland
Sent: Monday, March 11, 2002 1:46 AM
To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
Subject: [PRCo] Re: Economics of West Penn Railways



Good Morning!

	Utterly fascinating treatise!   Your writing style matches as I was
hanging on to every word  a-l-l  the way thru!

	WHEN  did you say your  Book*S*  on  WP & PRCo  are coming out?(:->)

> "Edward H. Lybarger" wrote:

> Let me begin with some comments about a handful of the statements that
have
> gone back and forth this afternoon.

> On converting the cars to one-man operation:  this was not seen by the
> company as modernization, this was a survival issue most basic.

> On recessions in Fayette County:  The only economic downturns indigenous
to
> the Coke Region were those brought about by miners' strikes, the most
> notable of which occurred in 1922.

> On length of beehive coke oven batteries being equal to miles of West Penn
> track:  there's quite a bit of hyperbole here.  West Penn had 237 miles of
> track in Pennsylvania, or 1,251,360 feet (in round numbers)........
> So at 8.14 feet per beehive oven, the 38,031 ovens in the Connellsville
and
> Lower Connellsville Region in May of 1914 (close to the peak) would
require
> only about 309,572 lineal feet, or a mere 58.63 miles...less than one
fourth
> of the total trackage.  The Coke Region mileage alone was 158, so the
> comparison simply doesn't work.  Nice try, though!

> On Clairton:  there were more than "some economies" involved here.

> On the playing out of coal mines:  It is easy to overlook the age of the
> mines.  Some examples of opening dates...Dunbar-1860, Fairchance-1860,
> Wheeler-1865,

> On the virtual exhaustion of the Pittsburgh Seam coal in Western
> Pennsylvania:  'Tain't so.  That's what's coming out of Washington and
> Greene Counties today in big numbers.

> On West Penn's parent:  Contrary to what the New Dealers and their
> successors will tell you, there were utility concerns who placed "public
> service" in their mission statement right along with earning a return on
> their investment.  Such a company was West Penn's parent, at least after
> about 1914.

> On passengers waiting by the edge of the woods being picked up by their
> neighbors with autos:  Like the TV story, this sounds great but is way
> overstated.

> On McKeesport profits:  there weren't any after about 1920, and maybe
> before.  It wasn't "the most profitable part" of the system in the 1920s
and
> '30s.  As stated a paragraph down, it had the highest revenue per car
mile,
> but that's a lot different from turning a profit.

> On abandonment of the New Stanton-Hunker-Tarr-Scottdale route:  I disagree
> that it was torn up because the Borough of Youngwood was audacious...it
was
> torn up because patronage on the line was insufficient to justify the
costs
> of rail maintenance, let alone replacement and paving

> On when West Penn would have disappeared without World War II and the
> Depression:  whenever a major paving project came up!

> Now as to why West Penn lasted and why it quit:  there are some basic
facts
> that have to be understood.
> 1) The company actually wanted to be in the transportation business.
> 2) The company issued 50-year bonds in 1910.
> 3) The company last made money in 1920.
> 4) The company readily understood the OPM (Other People's Money)
Principle.
> 5) The company had those Power dividends.

> The operating deficits that began in the '20s were seen as temporary, as
> something that would be corrected with time.

> But there were all those bonds to pay off!  This is an honorable company,
> one that believes in helping the public as it is supposed to do.

> Come 1948, everyone knew the party was over.  Still attuned to the concept
> of public service, the company hung on as long as it could out of the
> farebox (and with minimal maintenance).

> I guess I don't see what is so hard to understand about why West Penn a)
> lasted so long or b) quit.

> Ed

> P.S.  Don't forget to order that Warren book if you want to know anything
> about the history of the regional industry.

wxyz

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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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