[PRCo] Re: Where are you?

[Fred Schneider]

Primarily a reply to Boris but I'm going to put this on the line.  I'm
sure Holland will want to add something.  And maybe Ed will add
something next week.
I'm recovering from shoulder surgery ... the pain woke me up at 1:30
this morning.  The operation was Wednesday and it failed to produce the
intended results ... surgeon told my wife that the tissue was so beat
that he couldn't guarantee that it would work.

The history of Pittsburgh Railways is very well documented in the old
issues of Trolley Fare and probably also in Headlights, the magazine of
the Electric Railroaders Association.

The majority of the employees went to work with the Port Authority on
April 1, 1964.  Charles Palmer and I'm assuming that some of his legal
and financial people stayed with the old company.  They had been
investing in other things during the final years in an attempt to create
a positive cash flow in order to keep the transit company functioning.
Unfortunately, every time they invested a dollar in another gasoline
station, the city political hacks tried to beat them over the head for
diverting money.  At the same time the city publicly admitted that they
were trying to ruin the company because it would reduce the condemnation
price the public had to pay.

The county condemned PRC and 28 other bus companies to create the
transit division of the Port Authority of Allegheny County.  The entire
PAAC name rapidly disappeared from anything the public saw and evolved
into PAT.  I think only Deere Brothers and Pittsburgh Railways fought
the county in judicial proceedings. PRC lost; they were fighting to get
the county to take everything, just like they did with the bus
companies.  PAT only took what they wanted ... some cars, some buses,
some real estate.  The county even refused to take the overhead crane
built into the Homewood car shops.  And the county won.  The 76 cars in
Rankin car house, and the building, remained PRC property after the
court case and PRC scrapped them.

PRC management renamed their company Pitway Corporation ... EHL could
tell you exactly when it happened.  The old stock code on the American
Stock Exchange never changed ... it remained PRY until the company
totally disappeared.  The company was well known as a manufacturer of
First Alert smoke detectors.  I think they may have also been involved
in aerosol cans.  I'm not sure how long Palmer lasted; his health was
very poor when I did the PCC book.  I called him but his family didn't
want him disturbed.  He must have died shortly thereafter ... late
1970s.   Pitway was eventually sold to Honeywell Corporation.  Ed could
tell you when ... my guess is within the last five to ten years.



Boris Cefer wrote:

> Hi, Fred, Haven't heard from you for weeks. Or does it only seem to
> me?I read quite interesting article concerning removal and scraping of
> Pittsburgh PCCs, but haven't found any information about what happened
> to Pittsburgh Railways Company when PAAC took over. I mean the company
> itself, people and the property (assets) which wasn't taken over by
> PAAC. And also it is not clear to me the process of taking over - did
> PRCo sell part of its property to PAAC under some kind of government
> control or was it an execution or embargo? I think this information
> did not appear anywhere. Who paid for scraping surplus car fleet -
> PRCo or PAAC? What about your back? Ready for work in a darkroom? I
> have saved a lot of money for prints... (Don't forget about
> humour.) Boris