[PRCo] Beer signs

[Bob Rathke]

Two weeks ago, a friend from the East visited us, and we went to Kenosha one
day to ride the trolleys which happened to include the "Pittsburgh" car.

As we rode around Kenosha, he said he felt at home seeing all those neon
beer signs in the front windows of  bars -
he said he hadn't seen such colorfully illuminated store fronts since he
left Pittsburgh.

Bob 9/24/03

-----------------------------
----- Original Message -----
From: "Dietrich, Robert J." <Robert.Dietrich at unisys.com>
To: <pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org>
Sent: Wednesday, September 24, 2003 6:53 AM
Subject: [PRCo] Re: Plummer carhouse


> There were two or three bars within sight of my house and I seem to
remember
> one day all those neon signs came down - I must have been about ten so it
> was early '50s.  My mom told me the city passed an ordinance that the
signs
> could not just have the beer name but they had to have the name of the
> establishment (or something).  Conclusion: Pittsburgh politicians were the
> first to worry about our morals.  Must have been a diversion.
>
> Bob
>
>  -----Original Message-----
> From: Fred Schneider [mailto:fschnei at supernet.com]
>
> But what I
> remembered mostly were all of those neon signs in front of bars ... Iron
> City
> Beer, Duquesne Pilsner, and so forth.  Must have been a bar to every other
> block.
>
> We still need to convince the museum management at Arden that we need a
> propoperly illuminated bar sign.  And, of course, the left front dasher
> panel on
> 3756 or 4398 needs a beer advertisement.  (And, to be sure, someone who
> watches
> our morals will tell us we can't do it.)
>
> Fred the Agitator
> .......
> Bob Rathke wrote:
>
> > My father worked at Heppenstall Steel Co. in Lawrenceville, and every
> summer
> > they had their company picnic at West View Park.  Living on Spring Hill,
> we
> > always drove to the park, but Heppenstall chartered PRC trolleys in the
> > 1940's, and possibly into the early 50's.  I remember the chartered
> trolleys
> > leaving from the Plummer carhouse which was just a few blocks from the
> > Heppenstall plant on 46th St.
> >
> > At that time my father's brother worked at H.K. Porter Co. which was
also
> > near Heppenstall and Plummer.  Porter built industrial steam
locomotives.