[PRCo] Grant Hill tunnels

[Bob Rathke]

My family always referred to the PRR station as "Union Station."

I rode through the Panhandle Tunnel a couple of times in 1946, and remember 
looking up the hillside along Carson Street to see the Iron City Beer (time) 
sign. I also rode through the tunnel in 1958, and I photographed a PRR train 
emerging from the Monogahela River side of the tunnel in 1966. After the 
tunnel was daylighted for the U.S. Steel Bldg. in 1968, it was covered again 
but not used for rail service until the PAT subway was built. After 1967, 
PRR trains from Pittsburgh to St. Louis used the tracks north from the PRR 
station, across the Allegheny River at 11th St, and then south across the 
Ohio River where they joined the PRR Panhandle Line through Crafton.

Bob 1/23/08

-----------------------------
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "robert netzlof" <wb3iqe at rocketmail.com>
To: <pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org>
Sent: Tuesday, January 22, 2008 10:20 AM
Subject: [PRCo] Re: did i miss the comments on this?


> --- 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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