[PRCo] West End/North Side/Homestead-Munhall

[Matt Barry]

from:  http://home.earthlink.net/~jatogr/pitts/trolley.html
Trolley Cars
by Jack Graham

    "Here comes the trolley, Mom!"  How many times did I or my little 
brother say that as we waited for that sleek red and cream colored 
mini-train of the Pittsburgh Railway Company to pick us up and take us 
home?  It was the 1950s, long ago if not so far away, before our family 
had a car of our own.  I only knew of a few school chums whose families 
had cars. The trolley was a choice--the only choice besides walking--for 
most folks in our Federal Street neighborhood.  Even after Mom and Dad 
did buy a car, a 1952 Chevy, Dad needed it to get to work.  Dad only got 
one day off a week, Sunday, and after driving to town for church, Mom 
would usually want to visit Grandma or one of my Aunts.  So the trolley 
car, the "street car," was still the most frequent way we got around 
town the rest of the week.

    The fare was fifteen cents, and for a nickel more you could buy a 
"transfer."  This was a paper ticket that would let you get on a second 
trolley car for a longer trip.  Usually we took the trolley to 
"downtown" Pittsburgh, and then back home again to the northside, across 
the Allegheny River.  We'd ride all the way around Perrysville Avenue 
before we got off so we could walk down, not up, that very very steep 
Federal Street hill to the Barracks where we lived.

    Later when we moved to Crafton, we still took the trolley most 
places.  The ride to Crafton was fun--longer and more exciting because 
the tracks from the West End to the Heights went through the woods 
alongside the road instead of down the middle of the street.  "Bet you 
can't remember streetcars!" I enjoy asking my younger cousins, trying to 
make them feel guilty.  I have several "favorite" trolley memories.

    For little kids, one of the big disadvantages of getting around by 
trolley was having to wait for one to come.  Sometimes little kids can't 
wait!  I can remember when I was about six. We had waited and waited.  
By the time the trolley came, and we were halfway up Federal Street, I 
just couldn't wait any longer.  Mom was embarrassed, I was a little less 
so, but stinky.  I still remember walking home from the trolley stop in 
a very unpleasant condition.

    Public Schools all over Pittsburgh had special days at the city's 
two Amusement Parks--Kennywood Park and West View Park.  Kennywood is 
still going strong, but West View Park is one of those things that isn't 
there anymore, except in the memories of grown-up kids who rode on the 
"Dips" and the other rides.  Crafton schools had their "school picnic" 
at West View, and ride tickets were sold in the Principal's office at a 
discount.  Then on picnic day, special trolley cars would pick up Moms 
and kids (guess Dads were working) at the corner of Noble and Steuben.  
The trolley would go downtown, then all the way to the Park without 
stopping.  You didn't have to change cars like you would on other days.  
Now that was exciting!

    The trolley from Downtown to the amusement park was memorable for 
another reason.  After passing Perry High School, the tracks left the 
street and went down a long hill through the woods,  and then up the 
other side to a "trolley barn."  This was where street cars were kept at 
night, and except for "school picnic" days, you would have to switch 
trolleys here again  before going on to West View.  When the trolley 
started down that hill, the Motorman would really sit on the throttle 
and the car would seem to fly along, rocking from side to side.  Moms 
didn't seem to like this part of the ride nearly as much as we kids 
did.  "Faster, faster!" we yelled with glee.

    Getting to Grandma's house in Homestead also required a couple of 
trolley changes.  I remember the stop on Third Street in downtown 
Pittsburgh where we waited for the Homestead car.  The store on the 
corner sold denim work pants--blue jeans--the precursor of Levi's 501s.  
They always had two pairs of denim overalls in their window that must 
have had sixty inch waists.  I always marveled at them, trying to 
imagine the person that could fit into those pants.  Finally the car 
would come, and soon we would get off on Eighth Avenue, the main street 
of Homestead.  We then had to wait for the "dinky" car that went up the 
hill to Munhall.  This was an "old fashioned" double-ended car.  It was 
painted orange, a leftover trolley from the Thirties.  This car went 
back and forth, up and down the hill, on its own track, and so had a 
controller for the big electric motors that drove it at both ends.  When 
the car reached the end of the line, the Motorman would disconnect the 
"trolley," the long rod that connected the car to the electric line 
overhead and thus powered the motor.  Then he would walk to the other 
end of the car, unhook the trolley rod that was tied down at that end, 
and let it spring up so the wheel on the end rode on the electric line.  
Now the car was ready to go back the way it had come.  But the most fun 
was that while we were going up the hill to our stop at Fourteenth 
Street, Mom would let me sit in the other Motorman's seat, the one at 
the back of the car.  I could push the trolley throttle lever back and 
forth and play that I was the Motorman!  What more could a kid want?

    "Ding, Ding, Ding went the trolley!"  They really did have a bell. I 
believe it was in the early 90's when the last trolley car made its 
final run from downtown Pittsburgh out to the South Hills. Hundreds of 
other routes had slowly been replaced by diesel-engined buses little by 
little over the preceding decades. The steel rails of the trolley-tracks 
have been paved over and occasionally peek out of the street when the 
asphalt wears thin. Just like the horse-drawn car, and the horse and 
wagon before that, the trolley car and the ding of the bell have taken 
their place in the receding memories of a dwindling number of rememberers.

(C) Jack Graham, 2000

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