[PRCo] Re: West Penn Railways Fare Zones

[Edward H. Lybarger]

There was labor unrest for several years on the AV line, and I haven't read
the Tarentum paper to get the real skinny.  Neither have I pieced the story
together from the Pittsburgh papers, though it's there in smaller scale and
we have the clippings, thanks to John Makar.

Basically the men went on strike at least twice, began jitney service, were
the subject of a WP-originated action at the PSC and ordered out of
business.  Company men occasionally tried to run the service but did not
meet with great success.  The through service to Pittsburgh was halted when
Division 85's men refused to run downtown with strikebreakers, and was never
resumed after the issues were settled.

The abandonment involved the municipalities getting together and giving West
Penn $100,000 in cash, plus remission of the trackage/street obligations, to
abandon the railway.  I recall nothing in that Docket about selling the
track for a buck.

-----Original Message-----
From: pittsburgh-railways-bounce at lists.dementia.org
[mailto:pittsburgh-railways-bounce at lists.dementia.org]On Behalf Of Fred
Schneider
Sent: Tuesday, September 20, 2005 10:10 PM
To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
Subject: [PRCo] Re: West Penn Railways Fare Zones


I think this underscores the fact that most street railway passengers
rode for short distances.   While there was a connection between
Pittsburgh Railways and West Penn Railways in Aspinwall, let us not
forget there was a much faster way to Pittsburgh and it was called
the train.   There probably wasn't a whole lot of justification for
running cars through to Pittsburgh.   This was a very early change.
The through service opened in 1908 and I cannot find any evidence
that it resumed after the 1915 strike of Allegheny Valley Street
Railway employees was concluded.  Something here worth knowing....
The change in 1915 may have related to auto competition, the
availability of trains, and the desire not to have defferent unions
or union/non union crews together.   What do you know Ed?
Most of us recall that the Pennsy commuter trains in the Allegheny
Valley did not go farther down the river than Aspinwall, and instead
went up the Brilliant Branch to East Liberty and then into downtown
Pittsburgh.  This was not always the case.  In fact almost every inch
of mainline railroad track in the United States once had scheduled
passenger trains on it except some very late construction projects
(the 1903 bypass on the Pennsy in this area and perhaps the Keddie  -
Bieber line in California).  The Pennsy still carded two trains from
Federal Street Station on the North Side to Aspinwall in the 1930
Official Guide, and one of them went all the way to Kiskiminitas
Junction.  Earlier on I think there were also Federal St. to
Blairsville and Johnstown trains.   If you were in a hurry, you
didn't take the trolley.  If you wanted a seat, you probably didn't
choose the trolley.   I'm going to use my own mother as an example,
who, after she was married, worked for several more years at the
complaint window at Kauffman's department store downtown.  They lived
in Oakmont.  And she didn't take the 87 or 88 car to Wilkinsburg and
change to the 78.  Not on your life.  The Pennsy to Oakmont was a
heck of a lot faster.

So it probably wasn't all that much of a loss that the through cars
were taken off ... except to the railfans looking backwards.    By
the 1930s it was a moot point anyway.  West Penn bought 12 curved
side cars for the Valley Route in 1929 and retained four older ones
(250, 251, ? and ?)  and just a few years later they cut the
schedules in half, meaning they probably never needed more than 6 or
7 cars on a good day.

I personally liked the way the railway suckered each of  the
townships and boroughs in the valley into buying their track for $1
each in 1937 so that the railway could escape the cost of pulling it
out of the paving.  AVSR only lifted the unpaved track ...  the easy
stuff to get at and sell.   The press had so convinced the public
that the highway was a death trap that the politicians would have
given West Penn anything to get rid of them!   The newspapers called
the old route 28 the "Death Highway."   Had something to do with
visually challenged motorists plowing into trolleys.  You want some
good reading ... look into the PUC abandonment docket in Harrisburg.

fws

>
Jim Holland wrote:


> At one time the WP cars ran through to Pgh. with crews from both
> companies
> on the car.       That didn't last long and psgrs. had to transfer in
> Aspinwall.
> .