[PRCo] Re: Why was the Drake Loop Built?

[Fred Schneider]

This was explained in an e-mail that I just sent in response to  
Dennis.   Drake was installed to allow the service frequency beyond  
the Pittsburgh suburban area to be reduced.

Somewhere around here I have those schedules ... I cannot off hand  
remember the exact date ... about mid April 1953 ... both Charleroi  
and Washington went from every 30 minutes to every 60 minutes south  
of West Library and Drake Wye respectively.   I rode both lines one  
day apart ... I have grossly overexposed photographs of the crew of  
M-212 packing up for the day after stringing wire over the Drake wye  
on March 30, 1953.   Not very good pictures because I was just  
graduating from a box camera to a 35mm folding camera and I really  
didn't have a clue what f-stop and shutter speed relationships were  
all about ... I began to understand that the next day.

Canonsburg trippers continued to run.   They were not removed from  
the schedule because they were rush hour cars.    In fact there is a  
picture of Ed Lybarger at age 8 posed at Cheeseman stop with 1647  
running a Canonsburg tripper on Saturday August 29th, 1953 ... proof  
that they ran to the very last day of service.   I think the  
Riverview cars also continued to run until June.

On Dec 14, 2006, at 5:02 PM, Jim Holland wrote:

> Berry  Interesting.       Fred's original message never arrived  
> here on
> the Left Coast but was obviously sent out via the list for Ed to  
> reply!
> .
> It should be mentioned that the Walther's / Drake Wye did not always
> exist;  it was built late in the life of the Washington Interurban to
> either shorten the travel distance for rush hour trippers  (which  
> had to
> go to Canonsburg to wye)  O-R  it was built as a temporary turn around
> until the Drake Loop was built, with the latter reason being the most
> likely.
> .
> .
> .
> Jim___Holland
> .
> .
> .
> Edward H. Lybarger wrote:
> .
>
>> I think, Fred, that those ridership numbers are zone fares rather  
>> than
>> actual passenger counts.       You may want to analyze the numbers
>> contrasted against the service...how many per day and how many per
>> trip...that should tell us which.       PRCo records do not.
>>
>> My mother bought a car in September 1949...she had places to drag me
>> that weren't served by the trolley.       But I went to elementary
>> school, starting in the fall of 1951, with lots of kids who lived in
>> one-car families.
>>
>> In addition to avoiding future maintenance on Drake Viaduct, which  
>> was
>> budgeted for re-decking in 1961 at an estimated cost of $19,000  
>> (paint
>> was not mentioned), there was no good place for a turnaround loop
>> anywhere near County Line.       You might have squeezed one in at
>> Paris Lake but the creek was awfully close and the space was small.
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From:  Fred Schneider
>>
>>
>> In addition to being a picture of a switch, this picture is very
>> interesting because it shows the Drake loop being built.
>> Pittsburgh Railways' intent was apparently to shorten the interurbans
>> and get them out of Washington County where accident law suits always
>> favored the plaintiff and never the railways company.       County
>> Line Siding was roughly 10,000 feet south of Drake Loop.       The
>> Loop was actually south of Drake Wye which was situated just south of
>> Walther stop. At the time the rails were torn up in 1953 there were
>> already a lot of new homes between Drake and Cremona Siding and Paris
>> Lake stops.  It was already substantially developed.
>>
>> One look at the interurban revenue chart between 1945 and 1952 would
>> have made you want to shorten it too.       At the end of the war the
>> Railways Company was hauling more than 30 million passengers on the
>> two interurban lines plus the Donora shuttle and the three Washington
>> city routes.       By 1949 that had dropped to about 21 million.
>> In 1950 it was about 19 million. In 1952 it was down to 15
>> million.       Remember guys ... this was small town and suburban
>> America.       By 1948-49 the auto manufacturers caught up to the  
>> pent
>> up demand for cars after World War II and by 1949 they were
>> advertising to women to buy a second car for the family so that they
>> didn't have to suffer with the bus or trolley.       People like Mrs.
>> Samuel Lybarger got the message ... ultimately there was a second car
>> in their garage.       Ed can tell us if his mom waited until after
>> the trolley line was torn up in 1953 or if she bought it before.
>>
>> So it was obvious that the railway had good reason to shorten the
>> interurbans to some point but where?       The picture is worth a
>> thousand words.       The Drake viaduct was a 470 foot long
>> maintenance nightmare that stood 44 to 45 feet above the valley floor
>> at McLaughlings Run in Upper St. Clair Township.       Had it
>> remained, the Port Authority would have no doubt been forced to
>> replace it just as they did the three other viaducts along Saw Mill
>> Run.       So much for not running the remaining 2 miles down to the
>> Allegheny - Washington county line.
>>
>> I think any manager who looked at what was happening would have done
>> the same thing.
>>
>>
> http://lists.dementia.org/files/pittsburgh-railways/03-Track%20Drake 
> %20Loop%20Construct%201953xxxx%2001.jpg
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