[PRCo] amazing news

[roger]

This is somewhat off topic of the Charleroi discourse but I just learned
that Seashore Trolley Museum was just given a Monongehela West Penn
streetcar body of Kuhlman Car Co. parentage of 1927 that used to run in
Parkersburg WV  #115 !! It was given to them by the Historic Hamar {ohio}
Station and Bridge museum {never heard of them} It used to be operated by
City Lines of West Virginia until 1947. It was used as a home for a long
while until it was given to the museum who in turn offered it to Seashore.
It should have been rightly offered to PTM eh what !!
----- Original Message -----
From: "Fred Schneider" <fschnei at supernet.com>
To: <pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org>
Sent: Saturday, March 01, 2003 8:12 AM
Subject: [PRCo] Re: Charleroi etc.


>
> Roger, and anyone else who cares:
>
> There are two many factors to simplify the issues.   Industry likes low
wage
> areas (Mexico is good), lack of labor unions (the Carolinas were good
except
> they've lost a lot of their jobs due to migration of garment shops to
Mexico and
> the downturn in tobacco), good transportation (generally this means
interstate
> highways and not railroads), cheap utilities (Allegheny Power is skirting
> bankruptcy now so there are no givens), low taxes (that rules out
Pennsylvania),
> abuntant youthful workers (that tends to rule out western Pennsylvania -
this
> state has the second oldest population in the nation). The youth tend to
lower
> retirement contributions and medical insurance premiums and they tend to
be
> better trained.   Lamentably, western and northern Pennsylvania has
everything
> going against it.   The weights applied to each need vary depending on
what is
> being produced, stocked, or sold.   Perhaps our most recent nail in the
cross
> has been incredibly high medical malpractice insurance premiums (even the
boss
> wants doctors when he gets sick).
>
> I don't have any solutions, Roger.  A good industrial development
authority
> helps, but even it needs something marketable.  Right now I think about
the only
> thing Washington and Westmoreland counties have to market is gasoline,
food,
> repairs, lodging and peep shows to the truck drivers on I-70 and I-77.
None of
> these are high wage jobs.  Western Pennsylvania was a classic oversized
> "one-industry town."   Steel,  aluminum and machined steel products, and
coal
> for energy to produce the steel and aluminum, and railroads to move in raw
> materials and steel to market.  There was also a glass and crockery
industry but
> it too has also pretty much vanished.  I've never seen any numbers.  I
would
> love to know just how much of the steel output went into railroad rails
and
> railroad cars.  I suspect that most of us knew Pittsburgh at its best
because of
> legislation in the 1930s that allowed unions which secured unheard of pay
and
> fringe benefits for their members, and now we're seeing it at is most
> depressed.  We're too young to have known the area in the 1880s and early
1900s
> when the employees were slaves.  It's been 21 years since the steel
collapse ...
> and those people who are still there are the ones that were too old to
move out
> in the 1980s.  I recognize my own cynicism.
>
> roger wrote:
>
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Fred Schneider" <fschnei at supernet.com>
> > To: <tsquare at toad.net>; <pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org>
> > Sent: Friday, February 28, 2003 5:22 PM
> > Subject: [PRCo] Charleroi etc.
> > Thats a real sad story about whats happening down there.  There really
is no
> > solution to this sort of thing either is there !!!
> >
> > >
> -- Trailing quotes stripped by Listar --
>
>
>