[PRCo] The complexity of Pittsburgh back when

[Fred Schneider]

When I first journeyed to East Berlin (it was East Berlin in our  
vernacular and just Berlin in the language of the D. D. R.) before  
the wall came tumbling down, I was amazed by the multiplicity of tram  
lines.   A huge apartment complex would have routes going to all over  
the city so that people didn't need to transfer.   You just came out  
of your flat and waited five minutes and the car for your destination  
would be along.   Well, as automobiles came to eastern German after  
the reunification, people learned to make do with longer streetcar  
headways and to transfer like the rest of the "free world."

Looking at the Pittsburgh Railways route cars shows PRC operated a  
system at one time not at all unlike what I had seen in Berlin in the  
1980s.   Only in Pittsburgh it was in 1915 and earlier.  Are we to be  
amazed at how far behind they were in communist east Germany?   Or  
how far behind we are?  Something to think about.   It does not  
require an answer.

Virtually every street in the core section of Pittsburgh's east end  
had multiple routes.   Highland Avenue had the North and South  
Highland lines.   North Highland went from Highland Park into  
Pittsburgh via Ellsworth, Center, Craig and Forbes.   South Highland  
went from Highland Park the entire length of Highland over to 5th  
Avenue and into town.   And there was also the Negley - Highland line  
which ran on Ellsworth.   There three or four different lines on  
Ellsworth before 1915.

Now remember that 75 Wilkinsburg line?   It evolved out of 703 West  
Wilkinsburg via 5th and Penn and 704 West Wilkinsburg via Penn.  Both  
703 and 704 ran over Penn Avenue from Wilkinsburg to East Liberty.    
Then 704 shared Penn Avenue in through Lawrenceville and the Strip  
District with the East Liberty Express route.  And 703 ran over  
Ellsworth and 5th Avenue.  What was 75?  Well that was 718 which was  
part of 703 and part of 704 after August 25, 1918.

At one time there was enough business between Wilkinsburg and  
Wilkinsburg Junction (Forbes and Braddock) that three routes ran  
through there: 64, 66 and 78.

I wonder how many of you realize that many or most of the shuttle  
routes actually ran into downtown Pittsburgh at one time and they  
were shortened because there simply were not enough customers.
A good example was the neighborhood on Charles Street on the North  
Side.   I remember PRC running a 7 Charles - PRR Station car.   They  
eventually gave up running it up to 11th Street because there just  
wasn't enough business, and then they gave up altogether.   Some of  
you remember a 9 Charles car that shuttled from Perrysville and  
Charles to the end of the 7 line until the early 1950s.   But how  
many know that 9 was once Charles via Perrysville from dawntawn while  
8 ran to Perrysville and East Streets?

Route 17 Reedsdale was a remnant of another through route.   Once the  
Manchester Bridge got route 20, the shuttle on the lower north side  
was created to connect 20 with North Side business districts it once  
serviced.

51 Bon Air had through service to downtown at one time.   The 52 line  
-- the shuttle at the end of East Carson Street -- was once served by  
Carson via 10th St as opposed by route 53 Carson via Smithfield Street.

(See, once in a while Fred will post a Pittsburgh message.)