[PRCo] Re: Cleveland_--_Shaker

[Herb Brannon]

All of both Van Aken and Shaker Blvds have been upgraded with a new signaling system. If the autos cross in front of a car and have an accident then the auto driver is guilty of running a red signal. In addition to the signals, regulatory traffic signs indicate "Do Not Block Transit Tracks." Shaker Heights and RTA police also ticket auto drivers who do not obey the signs and signals. Prior to this upgrade the accident rate between autos and lrv's was out of control.
Also, the stops between Shaker Square and Terminal Tower/Public Square are: *Shaker Square; East 116th St.; *Woodhill/Buckeye; East 79th Street; *East 55th Street; East 34th/Campus; *Public Square. I have been acquanted with the SHRT operation since about 1955 and these stops have always been in place. Those stops where I have placed an (*) are heavy patronage stops. The remaining three stops without the (*) have light patronage. 
Herb Brannon



----- Original Message ----
From: Fred Schneider <fwschneider at comcast.net>
To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
Sent: Thursday, February 1, 2007 7:39:56 PM
Subject: [PRCo] Re: Cleveland_--_Shaker


Just going through the file trying to catch up on some old stuff.

Pittsburgh Railways interurban PCCs had retrievers, not catchers  
Jim.   If you get your finger caught in one, you'll know the  
difference.   They did in the 1950s at least.   And the 1700 at PTM  
has a retriever.

I recall a Shaker motorman back in 1959 telling me just how much the  
line had been tamed down because of motorists making left turns in  
front of the cars, particularly out on Van Aken where the tracks were  
flanked by the highway on both sides.   He commented, in essence, the  
more motorists did it and got away with it, the more they continued  
to do it and further slowed down the cars.

This same phenomena was explained to me by Donald Duke as a curse or  
pox on Pacific Electric.  Henry Huntington built many of the PE lines  
to serve housing projects that he also created.   Sadly, a lot of  
those records are locked up in the Huntington Library for something  
like 100 years after the death of Huntington ... one can only suspect  
there was some monkey business.   Don recalled that a lot of the  
lines originally had grade crossings a mile apart on PE.   Then the  
communities forced crossings in between ... a half mile apart.   Then  
more intermediate crossings.   And pretty soon the trains that were  
barreling through towns  at 50 mph were now running at 25 down the  
middle of paved streets.    The automobile had won the war.

O doubt of the average on Shaker was over 20 mph because they made  
far more stops that the Pittsburgh interurbans and the top speed was  
still nothing more than a standard PCC but modified with 1 inch  
larger wheels  ... the balancing speed might have been 43.5 unless  
they were governed to a lower speed but we need to remember it still  
takes a mile to get up to that speed.   You might have gotten 45  
downhill into the terminal with a full car in the AM rush but up hill  
in the evening rush hour with standees ... I would bet that 30 mph  
was pushing the envelope even with no stops for a full mile.   And  
once you passed Shaker Square, you would have no more than a quarter  
mile between stops.    The advantage that Shaker Heights had was that  
long haul with only two intermediate stops between (I my mind is  
working ... E. 55th and E 34th)  between Shaker Square and the  
Terminal.   You could not do that with a bus or a car or your own  
automobile on city streets.