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

[Boris Cefer]

I have found a photo from County Fair dated 1936.

B

----- Original Message -----
From: "Edward H. Lybarger" <trams2 at comcast.net>
To: <pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org>
Sent: Sunday, December 17, 2006 9:09 PM
Subject: [PRCo] Re: Why was the Drake Loop Built?


> I'm looking at pictures of car 1559, which was painted up for the 26th
Allegheny County Fair.  One of the views shows it behind car 1496, which
advertises 1963 Plymouths.  From that, we could deduce that the fair started
in 1938.  But Library Loop was built for the purpose in 1935.  Was there no
fair for a couple years during the war?
>
> All the Web sites I find merely say it started in the 30s.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: pittsburgh-railways-bounce at lists.dementia.org
> [mailto:pittsburgh-railways-bounce at lists.dementia.org]On Behalf Of
> hrbran99 at adelphia.net
> Sent: Sunday, December 17, 2006 10:45 AM
> To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
> Cc: Mark McGuire
> Subject: [PRCo] Re: Why was the Drake Loop Built?
>
>
> One of the main reasons PRCo wanted out of Washington County was the high
(and getting higher by the year) taxation rate applied to PRCo property and
operations. Also, competition from unregulated private bus operations was
draining a lot of revenue in those 'traffic free' days. The bus could make
it from Washington County to Pittsburgh in less time than the trolley took.
The bus just rolled along the auto free/traffic signal free roads of that
day at a higher average speed than the streetcar. The PRCo system was
plagued with miles of single-track operation which caused delays. Also just
the general way a streetcar riding on rails had to be operated in order to
be safe ate up precious minutes that the bus operations did not (or would
not) have to put up with. Had there been as many registered automobiles
then, as now, the story would be quite different, I am sure. Just think what
two double-track light rail lines (Washington to Pgh and Charleroi to Pgh)
could do for traffic !
>  congestion today!
>
> About West Library Loop. For years that loop was used to turn Fairground
cars. I would like to know what year the County Fair started at South Park
and what year the W. Library Loop was constructed.
>
> Also, when I operated those lines in the 70's/80's most passengers were
off the car by the time it arrived at West Library. Library Loop (Simmons)
had a very small parking area in those days. Had PATransit built a
first-class transit center at Library (Simmons) with plenty of
paved/lighted/secure parking and a decent waiting area with plenty of
passenger ammenities I feel sure that the ridership on route 35 would have
been substantialy higher. The mindset of the early/mid 70s was that "Skybus"
was the future and the Library line would be discontinued and replaced with
shuttle buses feeding into Skybus. Again, my main complaint about government
funded public transit in the USA.........they always want to jump on
whatever Rube Goldberg invention is being touted (and funded) and do not
want to see 20 or 30 or more years down the proverbial road.
>
> --
> HrB
>
> ---- Mark McGuire <macmarka at netzero.net> wrote:
> >  I feel like I have asked this question before. Why was the Drake
> > Loop built when they had an operating wye in place? Couldn't they
> > just use the wye like 42 Dormont cars?
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>