[PRCo] Re: Derry

[Fred Schneider]

I probably didn't put a whole lot of information on the picture I gave you of
the car in Main Street in Latrobe.  Westmoreland cars 1-4 were the cars that
migrated to West Penn when Westmoreland bought cars like 102.  The older cars
became 610, 611, 612 and 613 on West Penn and I think they were not used a
whole lot after 1939.  Car 611 might have been the last active one and it was
used with 204 in South Connellsville service until West Penn changed their
minds and decided to reactivate the 286-297 series of cars.  I've never seen a
picture of 612.  Dengler did photograph 610, 611 and 613.  George Arnoux had a
picture of one of the cars used as a diner in Connellsville's West Side about
1948.

And what was the deal with the 280s?  After the McKeesport Division was
shutdown in 1938, they were stored and advertised for sale.  The connection
with the McKeesport closure?  They were built for city service in McKeesport.
The interurban service from McKeesport to Irwin and Trafford used the 1902
Stephenson cars (208 and 210 were assigned at the end).  Irwin - Greensburg
was also using low 200s.   OK .. so West Penn wants to sell them.   But there
were not too many companies that wanted just a dozen broad gauge steel cars.
Outside of Pennsylvania there weren't too many properties ... New Orleans and,
if not mistaken, part of the Columbus system.  Not many companies. Adding to
the problem was the B-50 control ... regenerative braking was unheard off
outside of southwestern Pennsylvania and Europe at that time.   So, after
several years of dead storage, with employment turning upward again and the
Depression ending, West Penn elected to keep the 280s.  Most were given 27F
trucks from the low-200s that were being scrapped.  Cars 296 and 297 retained
the original arch bar trucks.  Don't asky why and I won't be compelled to make
up facts.  The rebuilding from two-man rear entrance to one-man front entrance
(and the widening of the front doors) took place earlier and while they were
still in McKeesport local service.  When did they come out of storage?
Damfino. The earliest picture I have of a rebuild shows 290 at Trafford in
August 1939.  The most recent and dated picture of a 200 in that same service
shows 212 at Trafford in April 1940.

When did the Westmoreland cars go out of service on the West Penn.  We have a
C J Dengler picture of 611 -- clean windows, polished flanges, taken August
27, 1939.  The advertising frame on the front of the car proclaims that ANDY
HARDY GET'S SPRING FEVER and KID FROM KOKOMO were showing at the Orpheum
Theater in Connellsville from August 25 to August 29.  When the car was pulled
out of the car house in August 1941 for the N. R. H. S. Pittsburgh
Conventioneers' cameras, it still bore that same advert.  I think that is
pretty graphic evidence that the last Westmoreland car was stored serviceable
at the end of August 1939.



Derrick J Brashear wrote:

> On Sun, 2 Feb 2003, Edward H. Lybarger wrote:
>
> > I thought so!  That's the loose end that I think finishes the map.
>
> Thanks to Ed there's some stuff at
> http://trolley.dementia.org/wcry
>
> TIFF and JPG copies of everything. The TIFF will always be better, if you
> can deal with it.
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