[PRCo] Re: Interurban Accidents

[Fred Schneider]

Funny how this thing about accidents goes on and on and on and on and  
on ......


Conestoga Traction Company, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, put its oldest  
cars in the Parkesburg carhouse.   There was a reason.  Usually the  
best cars are put where we can influence rich people.   Philadelphia  
Transportation Co., for example, did that when they put their first  
PCC cars on Wayne Avenue.  Well, what was the deal with Parkesburg.    
This barn was way down at the east end of the company, about six  
miles from Coatesville,  over in Chester County.  Unlike Lancaster,  
which had an agricultural and soft goods economy, Coatesville was  
noted for two steel mills ... Lukens and Bethlehem.   Different kind  
of people.

The Lancaster to Coatesville line offered hourly service with extra  
cars thrown in to provide service every 30 minutes from Parkesburg to  
Coatesville.   This explains the car house 20 miles from Lancaster.

Why the old cars, well, those of you who remember old Pittsburgh will  
remember the Iron City Beer and Duquesne Pilsner signs all the way in  
Butler or Carson streets.   Coatesville was no different.   The town  
actually went dry before national prohibition, and the traction  
company bought eight multiple-unit cars to run in trains, the idea  
being they would haul the drinkers in trains over into Lancaster  
County.  It never happened.   National prohibition went into effect  
before the substations were beefed up.  But one motorman told me he  
recalled as man as six sections of one schedule on a Friday night.    
And why the old cars?   Well, it might have something to do with the  
night that one of the cars
came back into the barn with the ceiling riddled with bullet holes.

Urban legend?   Maybe.   No way left to prove it.

fws