[PRCo] Re: Rankin Car House

[Fred Schneider]

It was an east end car house that closed when a loaded work car went  
through the Rankin Bridge circa 1937 and temporarily ruined the  
access to the barn.  It was never reopened as a regular division,  
only as a storage building.   I think McKeesport closed sometime  
before that.   Carrick also closed in the 1930s, then reopened during  
World War II, and then was closed around 1950.   Dates are  
approximate.    The point I'm making is that after PRC built all  
those new barns in the 1920s and consolidated operations (Ingram  
replacing Point Bridge, West Park and Carnegie, Keating replacing  
Taggart Street, Charles Street and East Ohio Street, Carrick  
replacing some some old barns on the South Side and up on the  
hilltop, and so forth and so on), by the 1930s it was time to make  
another round of closures because the business simply wasn't there to  
justify all those cars.   Another 1930s change was closing Castle  
Shannon and moving the interurban cars to Tunnel.  Another change in  
the 1930s was the elimination of time based inspections and the  
substitution of mileage based A, B and C car inspections and the  
closure of South Hills Shop and the consolidation of all inspection  
and overhaul work at Homewood.    I'm not sure when the Pittsburgh,  
Allegheny and Manchester shop in Mancester closed ... might have been  
in the 1920s.

The collapse of the bridge was just a good excuse to convert Rankin  
from an operating division to a place to put the cars that were  
retained in the rate base but were not being operated.   Even in  
World War II it never became a operating base.    In 1945 it filled  
up with low-speed low floor cars (5100s).   Then as high speeds  
became surplus, they went to Rankin and low-speeds were scrapped.    
Then the low-floors were scrapped and older PCCs went into Rankin.     
It would be really nice to get into people's minds and find out if  
they really thought they were saving cars for future use or whether  
they knew they were only storing them to keep them in the rate base.   
Both are logical.

On May 9, 2007, at 3:29 PM, Ken & Tracie wrote:

> Thanks, Fed.
>
> Rankin...that's what I meant, Fred. Why I typed in Craft, I don't  
> know.
> Rankin was an East End car house, wasn't it?
>
> K.
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Fred Schneider" <fwschneider at comcast.net>
> To: <pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org>
> Sent: Wednesday, May 09, 2007 12:10 PM
> Subject: [PRCo] Re: For Boris
>
>
>> Without looking at any rosters to see where cars were stored, I am
>> assuming it was Rankin.   There were a lot of 1200s stored there in
>> the late 1960s.   I remember Norm Vutz telling me that PAT had askd
>> PRC if they could have some of them and PRC countering with, "Why ask
>> us, you condemned the property, they're yours."  At that point PAT
>> would not touch them with the proverbial ten foot pole for fear of
>> admitting ownership.  And in the long range, in the out of court
>> settlement, PRC gave up and PAT won and PRC scrapped the cars in
>> Rankin and PRC sold the building.
>>
>> On May 9, 2007, at 2:14 PM, Ken & Tracie wrote:
>>
>>> I haven't come through on several promises...I've been wanting to  
>>> put
>>> together some disks with R. Hill pix on them for some of you and
>>> Boris has
>>> been after me to rescan some pix of PCCs being scrapped and of some
>>> unused
>>> cars (rejected by PAT) which were stored in a car house (Craft?).
>>> I haven't dug out all the pix nor have I made the time to put
>>> together any
>>> disks, but here's a photo taken on January 13th, 1967. I dunno,
>>> 1606 appears
>>> to look better than some of the 1600s PAT kept. Must have had some
>>> serious
>>> mechanical issues.
>>>
>>> I wish I could whip up those CDs and get 'em sent out, but I may
>>> have to
>>> wait until I take some time off from work and have several
>>> uninterrupted
>>> days to scan and put them together.
>>>
>>> Anyway, enjoy the photo. It proves Pittsburgh can be as dusty as
>>> Mohave
>>> Desert.
>>>
>>> K.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> -- Attached file removed by Ecartis and put at URL below --
>>> -- Type: image/jpeg
>>> -- Size: 52k (54017 bytes)
>>> -- URL : http://lists.dementia.org/files/pittsburgh-railways/
>>> 12681606.jpg
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>