[PRCo] Re: West Penn Railways Fare Zones

[Fred Schneider]

The loop used by route 94 cars in Aspinwall was West Penn track.

There is a picture that Ed Miller took ... I think it might have been  
used a few years ago in a PTM calendar ... I'm sure I saw it  
published somewhere or the mind is simply playing the usual tricks.   
Or maybe we displayed it at the museum.  At any rate, Ed's picture  
shows a PRC route 68 car laying over in McKeesport with a black car  
stop sign with white letters hanging on the span wire overhead.    
Guess what guys...   That was a West Penn sign.   There was shared  
track in McKeesport and off the top of my head I really don't know  
who owned what.   There was an entry in the West Penn financial  
reports in 1950 or perhaps 1951, that I read, referring to track work  
that the company had done in McKeesport that year (13 or 14 years  
after they abandoned passenger service).   It was noted that WP was  
negotiating the sale of that track to PRC and that until the sale was  
made they were not placing that expenditure in the right pigeon hole.

Jerry, in case you were unaware, Duquesne Light Company, Equitable  
Gas and Pittsburgh Railways were one big ..... family at one time.   
But not all electricity was obtained from Duquesne.   West Penn Power  
Company provided electricity to run the outer ends of the interurban  
lines.   In a postwar labor dispute at Duquesne, PRC shut down all  
its trolley lines except for those fed from West Penn.  The  
Washington city lines and the interurban from Washington to  
Canonsburg substation wye continued to operate.

On Sep 20, 2005, at 7:08 PM, <mtoytrain at bellsouth.net> wrote:

> Fred
>
> You mention West Penn using PRCo right of way in McKeesport, was  
> there other areas of the
> PRCo right of way that West Penn used?
>
> Jerry
>
>>
>> From: Fred Schneider <fwschneider at comcast.net>
>> Date: 2005/09/20 Tue PM 06:07:44 EDT
>> To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
>> Subject: [PRCo] West Penn Railways Fare Zones
>>
>> My wife thinks Ed Lybarger is away (she and his wife Janis are closer
>> than Ed and I).  Some point he will catch up to this and no doubt add
>> his comments.
>>
>> West Penn also used fare zones on Division B (Coke Region) in much
>> the same manner that Pittsburgh Railways did on Washington and
>> Charleroi but their zones were not as arbitrary.   West Penn zones
>> often overlapped each other so that a ride from zone A to just
>> slightly into zone B really was only a one zone ride.   Ed has a lot
>> of information on them manipulating fare zones in order to get more
>> money without actually increasing fares.   Therefore the zone charts
>> in 1920 may not be identical to those in 1930 or 1940 or 1952.
>> During the summer months, i.e. the park season, West Penn was also
>> know to abolish certain zones to increase attendance at company-owned
>> amusement parks.  In this instance I'm talking about fare zones
>> between Uniontown and Shady Grove Park.
>>
>> I have no idea what West Penn did in the way of minimum fares ...
>> seems to me it was one zone and not a minimum of two.
>>
>> I've never seen a zone chart outside of the Coke Region and I would
>> be curious to know whether or not West Penn charged the same fare as
>> Pittsburgh Railways when they both ran cars over West Penn tracks
>> between McKeesport and Duquesne.   I have a hunch that whatever West
>> Penn charged in McKeesport might well have been influenced by
>> Pittsburgh Railways, but that was on the fare chart with Allegheny
>> Valley and I don't have one.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>
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