[PRCo] Re: West End- Part 1

[Fred Schneider]

Correct, Matt.  The good cars went elsewhere and were replaced by 1000s and
1100s that would be scrapped ultimately. Ingram had GE 1500s and GE 1700s.  I
know the 17s went to Ingram.

Matt Barry wrote:

> Pittsburgh Press, May 27, 1959
> Railways Denies Ruse on Bus Shift
> Palmer Quizzed About Permit for West End Routes
>
> CD Palmer, president of the Pittsburgh Railways Company, denied to day
> that his company will use a temporary permit to operate buses in the
> West End as a ruse to win approval for permanent bus lines.
>
>  Mr. Palmer took the stand today at the Public Utilities Commission
> hearing on whether the firm should be granted a temporary permit to
> operate buses in place of street cars on its West End routes.
>
>  The company, which eventually wants to convert its West End routes to
> buses, must win support of affected communities to pull up tracks
> without paying for track removal and repaving involved.
>
>  Mr. Palmer was subjected to intense questioning by Gilbert Morecroft,
> solicitor of Crafton Borough and spokesman for the communities involved
> - Crafton, Ingram, Stowe, McKees Rocks, Carnegie, Scott Twp., and
> Heidelberg.
>
>  Pittsburgh Railways has reached an agreement with the State Highways
> Department under which the State will pay Pittsburgh Railways $300,000
> for removal of tracks on State-owned rights of way.
>
>  The agreement, however, is contingent on the company's reaching an
> agreement with the municipalities involved regarding track removal and
> repaving.
>
>  "If the agreement (with the State) is voided, Mr. Palmer said, "we will
> go back to trolley service."
>
>  He said the firm has a tentative agreement with Scott Twp., and sees
> eye-to-eye with Pittsburgh and the County on matters involving those
> governmental bodies.
>
>  None of the communities dislikes the idea of getting buses instead of
> streetcars, but most are concerned with who will pay for removing tracks
> and restoring the torn up rights-of-way.
>
>  Under its franchise, the trolley company is responsible for this work,
> but they would like someone else to pay the bills.
>
>  But Crafton, Carnegie, Ingram, Stowe and McKees Rocks have money
> worries, and Heidelberg doesn't like the proposed bus route going along
> its "congested" Washington Street.
>
>  Scott with a little more than a mile of track to contend with has
> agreed to pay its own way.
>
>  Led by Mr. Morecroft, attorneys for the money-conscious communities
> told PUC Examiner Maurice Claster the railways company doesn't want to
> pay as previously agreed.
>
>  But Mr. Claster agreed to continue the hearing at the request of the
> lawyers for the affected communities after Mr. Palmer stepped from the
> stand.
>
>  Norman A. Groudine, McKees Rocks solicitor, said he wanted John R.
> Razzolla to "clarify some misstatements" made at the opening of the case
> yesterday.  Mr. Razolla, of the State Highways Department legal staff,
> was absent from the second day's proceedings.  Although not sworn in as
> a witness, he took part in the first day's hearing.
>
>  Other attorneys said they would present evidence against the trolley
> firm's request for a temporary approval on bus operations.  They pointed
> out that there was insufficient time to prepare the material since
> Pittsburgh Railways filed its petition only last Thursday.
>
>
> NOTE from Matt:   I noted in the Pgh Press article written the day after
> the last service car pulled into Ingram carhouse in June, 1959, that Pgh
> Railways workmen were there to take the cars to other car houses on the
> system.  So, that would indicate that active cars didn't stay on the
> property until the final PUC-approved abandonment of the West End system.