[PRCo] Mark's comment

[Fred Schneider]

Boris:

If you have not figured out this mailing list by now, let me explain.  Everyone has an interest in Pittsburgh Railways.  Some people come to
the list in a year and some leave.  Some don't open their mouths (or move their fingers over the keyboard) for months at a time.  But given
enough time you will get to know some very interesting people.  I've personally met a lot of the chaps on the list and I regard many of them
as friends.

I've driven Mark McGuire around the Pittsburgh area on one visit ... he is a letter carrier from Jacksonville, Florida ... a very pleasant
young man who takes his responsibilities with the post office and his customers very seriously.  Derrick Brashear is our youngest ... sharp
as a tack when it comes to computers ... and real nice to have only 200 miles away when I have a computer problem.  He and his wife are
welcome in this house any time.  My relationship with John Bromley goes back ...  back ... way back to 1957.  I was his Best Man in 1973.
Damn, John, was it that long?  Harold Geissenheimer is our most vocal industry spokesman ... his career included transit consulting, the
number one jobs at San Francisco Municipal Railway and PAT, and the number two man in Chicago.  He, like Swindler and myself, are past
editors of a railfan magazine called Headlights.  I think Ed Tennyson might be on the list (or if not he should be and he is quoted from time
to time) ... Ed worked for Pittsburgh Railways in the 1930s, for Milwaukee Electric Railway and Speedrail, for the City of Philadelphia's
transit division, and he retired as the Director of the Bureau of Mass Transit Systems in the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.  Ken
Josephson .. he and I wandered around Utah last summer ... Ken is a fan of both Milwaukee and Pittsburgh and loves old muscle cars and
perhaps he is more attached to his wife and daughter than most husbands I've ever met.  Jim Holland is a former motorman and now a trackless
trolley operator in San Francisco ... we went there from Pittsburgh.  Ed Lybarger is a past president of the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum ...
one of the experts on esoteric facts ... I've known Ed since 1974.  John Swindler works for PennDOT (Tennyson was once his boss).  John is
the voice of realism ... he understands how the industry works in this country.  One of his best lines is, "The only real money is local
money."   Fred Bruhn, aka "The Other Fred," hails from eastern Ohio and is our expert on the trolleys of Wheeling, West Virginia (which is
within scope of this list).  Ed and I spent two days with him a few years back ... had a lot of fun ... Fred, like me, seems to enjoy gourmet
cooking.  There are others you will hear from regularly, some you will never hear from.  Derrick set up the list for western Pennsylvania
railfans (not just Pittsburgh), but sometimes, just like I'm going right now, the topics get off on some tangent far from Pittsburgh.
Personally, I like the diversions because we get to know each other through them.

So glad you're here.  And come visit.  (And why is it that I can get into your country with just a passport but you need a US visa?)

Mark McGuire wrote: