[PRCo] Re: Route 86 East Liberty

[Jim Holland]

 > f3 wrote:
.
 > There are a lot of book projects I've wanted to do
 > before I die. One was the evolutionary history of
 > the streetcar, sort of in parallel to a series that used
 > to be on the learning channel called Connections,
 > where we take invention a and follow it. Another
 > project I wanted to do is a book on those streetcars
 > in our museums that are significant and deserve to be
 > preserved based on a engineering and evolutionary
 > perspective instead of "I rode it" perspective ...
 > sort of a bible for the museum archivists. A third
 > project is a legible route directory for Pittsburgh,
 > starting with the route cards, and going
 > forward and backward.

 > Obviously, for a man who is 67, I dream a lot.
.
You plan on living for quite a while, Y~e~s~?~?~?
.
Thought you were cool to cold on writing books after the PCC experience.
.
All sound very interesting.    You emphasized in the books that the PCC 
is Evolutionary but there are some Dudes in Oz or NZ or thereabouts that 
say that modern lrvs are totally new creations and totally unrelated to 
anything else - according to them they reinvented the wheel And Much 
More~!~!~!
.
Will be interesting to see the criteria by which TrolleyCars are 
classified as Significant from engineering perspective.
.
I was going to change the sub line to  PROJECTS  but will leave it as I 
found the very brief study on the 86 to be quite Fascinating.     This 
led to the latter day 87, a combo of two routes - one from downtown to 
E.Liberty // Tioga and one from Wilkensburg to E.Pgh / Ardmore.     
Every little detail could be boring  --  limits need to be set.     
Since both Penn and Liberty were solid two way double track 
thoroughfares for at least a decade or more, it would be interesting to 
know what lines served each street.     Maybe some routes served both  
--  IB on one and OB on the other then crossover back to regular route!
.
Wonder how 'Express' was defined then  --  A Faster Ride Between Two 
Points than Alternative travel?     Would seem that the 86 would still 
run locally but offered a route between E.Lib and dntn that was faster 
than traditional 88.     Today an Xpress is used to make for faster 
trips for those who live at the outer ends of a line - stops are local 
to a point then the vehicle dead heads to dntn for instance - reverse in 
the PM.
.
Just got the news on the radio coming home at 2-AM Wed/night Thur/morn 
that Pavarotti has passed - Just 71 (hit my inet news just an hour 
earlier.)     We were in a restaurant in North Beach about 25+ years ago 
when he came in with others  --  every so often they would belt out a 
few bars  --  private concert that was Far More Than Exhilarating~!~!

-- 
*Jim Holland*

Studying *Pittsburgh Railways Company*

....................From 1930 -- 1950

*Pennsylvania Trolley Museum (PTM)*

http://www.pa-trolley.org/

*N.M.R.A.*

http://www.nmra.org/