[PRCo] Re: Not Quite There Yet?

[Matt Barry]

Ed,

Would be great to hear some of the stories he shared.   That is great!   So 
glad you got this opportunity.

Matt
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Edward H. Lybarger" <trams at adelphia.net>
To: <pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org>
Sent: Thursday, December 08, 2005 5:19 PM
Subject: [PRCo] Not Quite There Yet?


> Yesterday it was my pleasure to spend nearly four hours interviewing one 
> of
> last two living Wheeling motormen.  He is 85 and sharp as the proverbial
> tack (the other gentleman is 97).  The good news is that he talked
> constantly, and into a tape recorder for much of the time!
> One of the items he gave to the museum is a Wheeling Traction Company
> rulebook, dated 1924 and issued to him when he went to work for 
> Co-Operative
> Transit in 1942.  This was of great interest, since I have never heard of
> the existence of, let alone seen a West Penn rulebook.  I thought perhaps
> one from a related company would shed some insight, but I'm not sure...
>
> Apart from three pages at the front, which appear to glued on before
> binding, and a note on one of them giving the Wheeling printer's name, the
> entire book contains absolutely no references to the company name or the
> geography in which it operates.  The inside is completely and extensively
> generic and was probably published and sold by a street railway supply
> house, then bound locally with identifying additions as necessary.  The
> headline typeface on the title page dates from the 1800s.  The text is
> pompous, even for the 1920s:
>
> "When a dead beat, by dint of dishonesty, avoids payment of fare, honest
> people have to pay their own fare and the dead beat's fare also.  It is 
> the
> part of Conductor to detect and defeat dead beats."
>
> So...I'm really no farther along toward tracking one down...or am I? 
> Could
> Connellsville have used the same thing?  It's 293 pages long, including 
> the
> index!
>
> Ed
>
>
>
>