[PRCo] Re: Rankin Car House

[John Swindler]

Concerning Rankin Bridge collapse: Is that when 80 disappeared, or was it 
already gone?

John


>From: Fred Schneider <fwschneider at comcast.net>
>Reply-To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
>To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
>Subject: [PRCo] Re: Rankin Car House
>Date: Wed, 9 May 2007 17:38:55 -0400
>
>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
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >
> >
> >
>
>

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