[PRCo] Re: So you can't get to Pittsburgh?

[Ken & Tracie]

HI Jim,

Jim Holland wrote:

>         I don't really see where you are going with this, Ken; much of
> what you say has already been discussed here before.

Where I'm going with this is the following:

Had Pittsburgh turned out to be another Melbourne or Toronto, had they
somehow managed to retain most of the streetcar network, all those red and
white PCCs would have still been replaced with LRVs, routes would have
been renumbered and consolidated and operating practices would have still
changed.

I am indirectly asking why you have no interest in visiting the first
phase of the light rail reconstruction and why you still want to call the
line through Dormont and Mt. Lebannon the 42/38? I draw a parallel to a
diehard Boston Red Sox fan who would stop attending games because Fenway
Park was replaced. :-)

>
> TrolleyCar demise started in the 1930s, was staved from total
> abandonment by WW2, but abandonment continued in earnest
> thereafter.    Puts a big hole in the NCL theory, but there are
> still those who believe NCL was solely responsible for trolleycar
> annihilation.    Puts a hole in anyone purchasing new trolleycars
> in the 1950s.

No argument on this end.

>
>         Pro-rail attitude can't even get some built today  --  and has
> gotten some built that will be history shortly  (Buffalo?)

I agree. But I'll add that some that some that shouldn't have been built
helped put nails in the coffins of ones that should have been constructed.
Buffalo never turned out to be what its initial planners conceived. Almost
a parallel to the sincere interurban promoters (there were many) who
couldn't see the private automobile  taking a toll upon their passenger
base.

>
>         Don't think trolleycars would have developed that way  --
> improvements on the Picture Window car to one large window would
> have been the next step.

Yes, I have to agree. But had GM re-entered the fray, they probably would
have adapted what they had at hand. :-) I believe a next generation of
PCCs would have resembled Toronto's current fleet.

K.