[PRCo] Re: did i miss the comments on this?

[robert netzlof]

--- Fred Schneider <fwschneider at comcast.net> wrote:

> ..'This was the Panhandle tunnel that PAT (the T) uses now.   
> Never rode through the tunnel on a train;...

In November of 1959, a board comprosed of my friends and neighbors,
acting on behalf of the President of the United States, invited me to
join in the defense of the Free World. After much milling about in
the old post office building, we went to the PRR station and boarded
two Pullman cars. I was in the Greensburg Inn, a nice touch since the
aforesaid draft board had its office in Greensburg.

The train departed through the tunnel in question but, as it was late
at night, everything was dark both inside and outside the tunnel.
Didn't see much even though I had taken up station in the rear
vestibule.

Watched until we were out around Carnegie, then went to bed. Awoke in
the small hours as the cars were shunted onto another train
(Columbus?) and again in the early dawn (Cincinnati?). Passed on
breakfast so as to watch the Kentucky landscape recede, again from
the rear vestibule. Was startled at one point to see the train was
running down a street in some small Kentucky town, have no idea what
town.

Arrived in Louisville on the L&N. Went from there to Ft. Knox by bus.

> But Union Station never included the non PRR carriers. The
> closest  
> we ever came to a true "Union" station was the P&LE station which
> the  
> B&O also used.

Well now, depends on how you look at it. From around 1870 to 1917,
the railroads west of Pittsburgh were controlled by The Pennsylvania
Company. Yes, the Penna Company had been created by the PRR, but in
many ways the western lines ran their own show(s). PRR had its
engineering offices at Altoona, but Lines West had a similar
organization in Fort Wayne. Locomotive design and car design differed
between the two, as did operating practices.

There were differences at a higher level also. The PRR, for the most
part, owned or leased lines east of Pittsburgh for its exclusive use,
with very few joint operations with other railroads. The Penna Co.,
in contrast, was a member of several syndicates (e. g. Little Kanawha
Syndicate, Green County Syndicate) and part owner (Lake Erie and
Pittsburg with NYC, Monongahela with P&LE and B&O).  

The genesis of the Penna Company lay in an attempt by the Pittsburgh,
Ft Wayne and Chicago to build a line into Pennsylvania to connect
with railroads other than the PRR. That miffed the PRR which had been
encouraging the Ft Wayne to turn eastward traffic over to PRR and
which had been assisting the Ft Wayne in the hope that "friendly
relations" would pay off.

But the relationship after the early 1870s seems to have been in the
area of strategy or even grand strategy, rather than tactics. In
effect, the PRR didn't much care how the Ft Wayne and the Panhandle
did their deeds, so long as PRR got the traffic destined for the
seaboard.

Indeed, internal PRR documents, such as "List of Stations and
Sidings" didn't breathe a word about Lines West until after the WW1
era transfer of the western lines from the Penna Co. to the PRR.

So, while it may seem a bit of a stretch to call the Pittsburg(h)
station "Union Station", its not a great stretch in my opinion.
"Lines West of Pittsburgh and Erie" was not just a convenient name
for a part of a monolith, but recognition of real financial and
operational divisions.


Bob Netzlof a/k/a Sweet Old Bob



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