[PRCo] Re: Too Nostalgic?

[James B. Holland]

Matt Barry wrote:

>Click on this link, and then scroll down to where it states:  "picture 
>time!"
>http://www.pittsburghtransit.com/index3.html
>Note that the one caption for the 4th picture down is:  "Here is car 
>1726 fighting its way thru town."
>I have seen this kind of description over the years, to describe various 
>scenes of the streetcars "struggling" to get through downtown traffic.  
>It lends itself to the belief that the trolleys just could not compete 
>or handle sharing the streets with any other vehicle.   
>
>I recall leaving town -during rush hours - on the 42/38 to Mount 
>Lebanon, in the early part of the 1980's.   I don't recall much of a 
>fight or struggle to get out of town to the Smithfield Street bridge.   
>Dipping back further in time, the 88 Frankstown made it's way of town 
>quite nicely in the 1960's.    The replacement buses encountered the 
>same auto and pedestrian traffic as the trolleys.   Pedestrians, I 
>think, probably handled the trolleys passing by in the pathways better 
>than buses, as they knew the cars weren't going to swerve over to the 
>curb lanes unexpectedly, as a bus might.
>
>I probably wax more nostalgic than most, but barring a subway that 
>handles only rail transit, I don't see how our streetcars fought anymore 
>than buses on downtown streets, and perhaps, might have handled town 
>better in some cases.
>  
>

             Whoaaaa!      Think you are reading Way Too Much into the 
caption  --  anything that is in the streets  --  trucks, autos, 
TrolleyCars,  ({[beeses]})  etc  --  had to fight its way thru traffic.

             The photo caption just makes the TrolleyCar the center of 
attention.      And saying that trolleys could not compete is not at all 
mentioned in the caption  --  that's just an Old Wive's Tale (a misnomer 
because wives generally liked the TrolleyCars) used as an excuse to get 
rid of them.     With what would the trolleycar be competing?      Yes, 
we could have years worth of replies on that but those who want to use a 
car will use one regardless of cost  --  it speaks to Freedom of 
Mobility etc.

http://www.pittsburghtransit.com/1019.jpg   '''Car 1019 crossing a 
bridge on its way to Neville Island.'''    ----    Impossibility at time 
of this charter.

We have been to this site before  --  Shawn is a motorman for  
({[pat]})  and doesn't even know locations of many of the photos Where 
He Did Operate.      And he uses photos of others without giving credit 
and doesn't answer email.


Jim__Holland