[PRCo] Re: Interesting item on eBay-CompuServe web site item#2194709451: PCC Trolley Streetcar Pittsburgh .P717

[Edward H. Lybarger]

Spring Grove?

-----Original Message-----
From: pittsburgh-railways-bounce at lists.dementia.org
[mailto:pittsburgh-railways-bounce at lists.dementia.org]On Behalf Of Fred
Schneider
Sent: Sunday, October 05, 2003 10:22 PM
To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
Subject: [PRCo] Re: Interesting item on eBay-CompuServe web site
item#2194709451: PCC Trolley Streetcar Pittsburgh .P717


I don't think it was untruthful.  It was the prevalent attitude then.  And
you
cannot judge history in todays terms, you must judge it in view of events
then.
Buses were considered modern in 1967 in contrast to a trolley that had not
be
painted or replaced in 20 years.  Remember too that the 1700s represented
about
40% of the fleet in the middle 1960s and they were miserable on a stinking
hot
summer day.  An air-conditioned bus had a whole lot to offer.

Remember too that the railways company had been living off the depreciation
fund.  They simply didn't have the money in the 1950s to buy new cars.  Even
the
buses didn't come complete ... fare boxes and a lot of other minor hardware
was
transferred from older vehicles in an attempt to save money.

Riders in the last years?  Remember the 1954 strike wiped out any need for
the
remaining yellow cars ... they probably had 100 to 150 in service in the
rush
hours until that strike.  They lost about 20 percent of their passengers in
that
strike.  There was at least one other protracted strike, I think about 1957.
By
the middle 1960s their  car fleet was down to something around 450 cars, and
of
that about 75 were in dead storage in Rankin and each barn had its rows of
idle
cars.  This implies that they had lost about 70 percent of their rail
business
since the early 1950s.  Obviously, the abandonment of routes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5,
9,
12, 20, 23, 34, 25, 26, 27, 28, 30, 31, 34, 59, 62, 63, 81 C, D, W1, W2, W5
and W
caused some of the loses.  The shuttles were probably insignificant.  And
they
are not even in my guesstimate for the 70% car loss because they were all
gone
the year before the strike.  The Millvale and Ingram-based conversions were
all
relatively weak routes with probably the exception of the Spring Hill,
Spring
Grove, and Troy Hill lines.  The rest had a lot of unproductive miles.
Therefore, a big chunk of the reduced mileage was simply the result of
general
declines in the industry and responses to the perpetual labor disputes.

Ken & Tracie wrote: