[PRCo] Re: Liberty Avenue (and tunnel under PRR tracks)

[Joshua Dunfield]

Matt Barry wrote:
> Hello all,
> 
> Liberty Avenue, from 16th street to____?  is currently being scraped for 
> eventual asphalt repaving.   Travelling over it yesterday afternoon, it 
> was fairly easy to see that all of the rails that former PRC routes 
> 77/54, 88 Frankstown, 87 Ardmore, and 94 Sharpsburg used, are in tact.   
> This includes the rails that turned in and out of 23rd and 24th streets 
> (I may be off a street or two) from Penn Avenue to Liberty Avenue. 
[...]

OK, I just rode the 54C out there.  Turning rails visible at 23rd and
22nd, as follows:

    22nd        23rd
     :           :
.....:...........:.............Liberty
   \ : /         : /
    \:           :/
     :           :

The tracks going from Liberty outbound onto 22nd are truncated
(exposed track-ends, without continuing under the pavement on 22nd).

Since there's no real sidewalk on the north side of Liberty, I wasn't
in a position to see the main tracks.

They've finished resurfacing as far as 17th, so if anyone wants
to take pictures they should do so ASAP.

> Just interesting to see this history uncovered.
> 
> On that same trip yesterday, we were on the North Side, and drove up 
> Chesnut Street from Spring Garden.  There on Chesnut, almost from the 
> intersection with Spring Garden, was the original red brick street with 
> car tracks in tact.   The wheels on my Ford rode the rails quite well.  

Yes, the Chestnut tracks are very well preserved.

Also, regarding the tunnel under the tracks on the 1923 map, there is
a suspicious-looking alcove (strewn with trash and blocked by
chain-link fence) in the right place (just east of I-579, which is
between 14th and where 13th would be if it now intersected Liberty).
It's quite wide, which fits the 1923 map.  I didn't feel like getting
myself killed crossing Liberty, so I didn't get a closer loo.

-j.