[PRCo] PRR Pittsburgh station

[Bob Rathke]

In the late 1940's, the PRR demolished the old arch-roof train shed which
covered all 15 tracks, and by the early 1950's they had started construction
of new platforms.  In 1954 I saw a model of the planned improvements for the
PRR station, and it included low roofs over all of the 15 tracks in the PRR
station.

The new Ft. Wayne viaduct between the station and the 10th St. bridge opened
in May, 1955 - I watched the first train to cross the bridge that day - the
Afternoon Steeler to Cleveland.

By 1956, the tracks on the north side of the station (Pittsburgh to
Cleveland and Chicago) and at least two of the eastbound  tracks to
Philadelpia and New York - were reached via an undeground waiting room (at
the level of Libery Avenue).  This was done to eliminate the need for
passengers to cross the tracks in order to reach their trains.  Escalators
ran from the concourse to the underground wiating room, and then up -
through several escalators - to the platforms for tracks 1-6.

The original plan was to build a similar underground waiting room and
escalators on the south side of the station to serve the platforms used by
trains to St. Louis (via the Panhandle tunnel and bidge now used by PAT LRV
routes), but station reconstruction was halted in the late 1950's as
passenger traffic declined.

Most of the 15 platforms and tracks were still in use into the mid-1970s,
In 1982, demolition of the concourse started, followed by PAT usage of the
track area on the south side of the station, and around 1990 the present
Amtrak waiting room on Liberty Avenue was built.

I took numerous photos in the PRR station from 1954-1991, and I will be
happy to give the website addresses to anyone who is interested.

Bob 7/17/04

-----------------------------
----- Original Message -----
From: "Joshua Dunfield" <Joshua_Dunfield at mlist-0.sp.cs.cmu.edu>
To: <pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org>
Sent: Saturday, July 17, 2004 11:31 PM
Subject: [PRCo] Re: 1965 PAT fantrip


>
> Harold Geissenheimer wrote:
>
> > Trolleys on Penn southbound (one way then), on Liberty two way and
> > on on 9th, 7th and 6th.  No trolleys on 10th.  Freight trains once
> > ran on Liberty
> > There was a PRR elevated structure for freight on the Blvd.
>
> Freight trains on Liberty?  How far did the tracks go?
>
> Actually, I'm very curious about how the whole Penn Station area was
> laid out.  A few weeks ago I was riding Amtrak from Philly to Pgh.
> Those trains usually arrive Pgh on the left-hand (southernmost)
> through track, but NS was doing an insane amount of track work -- I
> lost count of how many MoW vehicles we passed -- and we got shoved off
> to one of the right-hand tracks.  Whatever platform used to be out
> there had long since decayed into oblivion, so I got to jump down and
> over the rutted dirt... Anyway, from there I noticed a couple of
> "MOVING STAIRS" signs for long-vanished escalators that couldn't
> possibly connect to anything now.
>
> Obviously, the building must have been very different back when it was
> all a train station instead of apartments with a tiny station in the
> basement.  Anyone remember how it worked?  If the "MOVING STAIRS"
> signs are where they always were, it seems like there must be
> (now blocked off) corridors underneath the platforms.
>
> Any information about the track layout (particularly before the busway
> and subway were built) would be interesting as well.
>
> -j.
RR