[PRCo] Re: Mother, Europe, Pittsburgh.....

[Fred Schneider]

To the list:This note is in response to Boris Cefer who lives in the
Czech Republic.  Unless you know he has joined Derrick's list, please
also include him on any corrections to my comments.
To Boris Cefer: There is a Pittsburgh Railways address list maintained
by Derrick Brashear (write to him at <shadow at dementia.org> if you wish
to be added to the list.  The actual list name is the second address
above.  I'm sending this all to those people so they can respond
directly to you if they so choose.  Sometimes no one writes to the list
for weeks at a time; other times you'll see a half dozen messages in one
day.  The most common material is someone asking where a picture was
taken.

I have no idea why PRC had rectangular and circular car stop signs other
than a simple fact that you could not get the entire phrase on round
signs in some cases.

Pittsburgh's standard car stop shield was a white porcelain circle with
the words CAR STOP in black.  You will find instances of white letters
on black in McKeesport, Pennsylvania ... a very simple explanation ...
West Penn Railways owned some of the track in McKeesport until 1950 or
1951 and PRC simply had an agreement with West Penn to run over it.

Rectangular signs reading FIRST CAR, SECOND CAR, THIRD CAR were used in
locations where traffic was very heavy.  If a car stopped under one of
those signs, it would not stop a second time.  South Hills Junction was
an example of a location where all three of these signs were employed.

The railways company also used white on red SUNDAY ONLY CAR STOP signs
(no way you could fit that on a 12 inch circle) at various churches and
cemeteries throughout the system.  I have never seen an example of a
Friday Only stop at a synagogue  ... maybe one of the recipients of this
note have seen such a critter.  You need to understand, Boris, that in
the early years of the 20th century, it was very common for people to go
to a cemetery to visit deceased family members ... I've only stopped by
my dad's grave once in five years but now is a different era.  And 60 to
100 years ago church attendance was much higher that today, resulting in
a need for those stops.

Fred Schneider

Pepa Kalousek wrote: