[PRCo] Re: Rankin Car House

[Harold Geissenheimer]

Fred and all
I lived a year in Dormont in 1950 without a car.

Had two trolleys (38 and 42), two movies, two shopping areas (Poromac and
D Jct) and my Dormont Presby church.  You could walk any where.

I used trolley or Bigi Bus to reach my Montour Motor Coach ride to the
garage in Moon Run. 

No problem.

Harold Geissenheimer



Fred Schneider wrote:

>My good friend of 32 years:
>
>I originally wrote in the bit about riding on pass for PRC employees and then
>deleted it, questioning in my own mind what share of operators were still using
>it in the late 1930s.  I really have no feel for what share of PRC drivers and
>motormen used trolleys to get to work.
>
>Yes, I lived in the suburbs and everybody I knew lived in small towns (Marietta,
>Ohio) or Penn Township (now Penn Hills).  My aunt had a 37 Chevrolet.  Dad had a
>39 Chevrolet.  Uncle Fred had a 41 Plymounth.  Grandpa Rebele had a late 30s
>Graham-Paige, and he lived just off Perrysville Avenue in the 3400 block.  My
>dad's father did not have a car; he had owned an air-cooled Franklin back when
>driver's licenses were not needed.  After he used it to knock the porch off a
>house in Marietta and then spent weeks worth of evenings building the family a
>new porch, then he decided automobiles were not for him.  He managed to get away
>without it until his death in 1962.  But almost everyone around me in the early
>1940s had automobiles, although many were not able to use them.  I think my
>Uncle Emil didn't have a car and he may have been my only great aunt or great
>uncle who didn't.  My memory goes back to the middle 1940s.  Automobile
>ownership probably wasn't a whole lot different in the war ... actually
>registered vehicles dropped during the war, and then rose slightly after it as
>some cars were pulled off blocks and relicensed.  That is my memory.
>
>What follows is not brag ... it is simply stated to show my perspective.  I
>recognize too that my mother's father was an electrical contractor who did
>commercial buildings.  Depending on how fast the customers paid, he did have
>money ... enough money that he vacationed every summer in the early 1930s in
>Virginia Beach and got there in his automobile.  My father was a test engineer
>for Gulf Oil, then an design engineer for two electrical suppliers in the
>Pittsburgh area, then he went with Armstrong as an engineer in the Pittsburgh
>plant and later the chief engineer in one of the Lancaster plants.  He wasn't
>exactly poverty stricken.  His sister was a school teacher (back in the days
>when you were told to quit when you got married or pregnant).  Her husband was a
>public high school teacher who climbed the ladder to Chairman of the Industrial
>Arts Department, State University of New York - Oswego.  They were not hurting
>either.   In our neighborhood in Pittsburgh was a later Gulf Oil vice president,
>a white hat from Homestead, a well healed real estate salesman, several
>doctors.  My surroundings were clearly not median income ... morely likely top
>10 percent of the heap.
>
>Now if I were to ask Jim Henwood, he would tell me that his family lived in
>North Philadelphia and no one had a car because no one needed a car.  Certainly
>that was paralleled in Pittsburgh to a large degree.  I have motor vehicle
>registration data for the state (if I can find it in this dump), but I have
>nothing by county.  To get that I would have to go to the state library and get
>those old paper books that police used to identify the owner of a car from the
>license plate number.
>
>
>
>John Swindler wrote:
>
>  
>
>>Fred, you've been living in the suburbs for too long. (:>)
>>
>>Why use an automobile when the company will provide free transportation?
>>
>>It was a time of frequent service, and the barns tended to be located where
>>there was much service.  Craft, for instance, had one vehicle commutes from
>>E. Liberty, Wilkinsburg, Swissvale, Squirrel Hill, etc.  Likewise, just
>>about any home on a car line in the South Hills would be a one vehicle ride
>>to Tunnel.  And the availability of owl service was the norm.  Even into the
>>60s, route 88 Frankstown had half-hourly owl service.
>>
>>In summers of 1968 and 1969, I had a two vehicle commute to work in Chicago.
>>  Even a 4am or 5am start was not a problem due to existance of half-hourly
>>owl service on most routes.  Likewise a pm run that would pull in around
>>midnight did not create any problem commuting back to where I stayed.
>>
>>In 50s and 60s my father used a 64 car, then either 60 or 68 to commute to
>>Homestead Works.  In 70s, he would use PAT for day shift, but usually drove
>>his car for night shift and 4-12 shift.  The reason:  reduction in transit
>>service in late evenings.
>>
>>It was a different world then.  Today I would not be surprised if most bus
>>drivers drive their cars to work.
>>
>>John
>>
>>    
>>
>>>From: Fred Schneider <fschnei at supernet.com>
>>>Reply-To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
>>>To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
>>>Subject: [PRCo] Rankin Car House
>>>Date: Wed, 25 Feb 2004 18:51:30 -0500
>>>
>>>Follow up on previous e-mails:
>>>
>>>Rankin Bridge collapsed June 26, 1937 and was reopened November 25,
>>>1937.  A sidewalk opened in August.
>>>
>>>On July 10, 1937 Rankin Car House closed as an operating facility.
>>>Routes 55, 60 and 61 were moved to Homewood.  Route 59 went to
>>>Glenwood.  Routes 67 and 68 went Craft.  The route cards for each route
>>>began with, "Because of the collapse of the Rankin Bridge, ....."
>>>
>>>Unfortunately, we have no information on the factors PRC used in their
>>>decision to move the routes out of Rankin in 1937, or for the failure to
>>>return those routes to Rankin later in the same year.  Perhaps the
>>>company had been wanting to close it for sometime and the collapse
>>>simply made shifting of jobs easier.  Apparently the other barns now had
>>>sufficient capacity for all the routes, and they continued to have
>>>adequate capacity throughout World War II.
>>>
>>>Thirty years earlier most operators would have lived in the neighborhood
>>>where they worked ... generally within walking distance.  Perhaps mostly
>>>within one-half mile.  If you moved men to another division, you might
>>>have had to move them to a new home.  West Penn Railways did that when
>>>the Iron Bridge Carbarn was closed; the company moved the men to new
>>>houses at Greensburg or Connellsville.  But this was 1937 and most
>>>families in the state had an automobile (ownership was lower in urban
>>>areas like Pittsburgh and Philadelphia).  Moving men may have been more
>>>of an annoyance than major problem.  My recollection is that most
>>>carbarns in Pittsburgh did not have an abundance of parking for
>>>employees.  This may not have been a problem at Homewood because there
>>>would have been five blocks or more of street spaces beside the company
>>>facility.  Glenwood may have had some space in the 1950s but I don't
>>>know about 1930s.   Space was probably at a premium around Craft Avenue
>>>... certainly the presence of Magee Woman's Hospital next door would
>>>have put a premium on street space.   I would love to see what the rest
>>>of you are thinking.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>      
>>>
>>_________________________________________________________________
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>>    
>>
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