[PRCo] Pittsburgh Railways Vol One by Gordon Beal

[Schneider Fred]

Those of you who have a copy of Gordon Beal's First Book on  
Pittsburgh Railways may wish to print this out as a partial errata  
sheet.  It is by no means complete and represents only those items I  
found on a cursory reading.

Page 12:  Mr Beal continues to perpetuate the illusion that the 62  
1/2 inch gauge was to keep freight trains off city streets in spite  
of the fact that Ed Lybarger did some rather extensive research on  
this subject and published it in Trolley Fare several years before  
Beal published his book.   There were a wide variety of gauges, at  
least three common wide gauges 62 11/4, 62 1/2 and 63 inches within  
Pennsylvania.

Page 50, Para. 5:   I fail to comprehend how the distance between  
North Avenue and the Perrysville Plank Road on Federal Street can be  
3.5 miles.   Other sources say the line might have gone as far as the  
original Brashear observatory which was part of the university  
complex that was later moved to Oakland.  This still isn't a mile.

Page 133:  Lower Photo credit should be University of Pittsburgh,  
Archives of an Industrial Society.

Page 161:  Definition of reason for high floor car is absurd.   All  
one needs to do its look at the picture he published and see the  
clearance between theground and the resistors, compressor and air  
tanks to realize that was not the reason for the floor height.   The  
real reason was the size of the low speed motors used on those  
cars.   That was thoroughly documented in all the trade journals  
starting in 1913.

Page 169:  Instruction car 4405 did not have low speed and high speed  
controls.  Impossible.   The speed was a function of the motors.    
The car, however, had both a drum controller on one end and HL-remote  
control on the other end.   It also had a self-lapping brake valve on  
one end and a manually lapped valve on the other.   Therefore an  
operator who ran it would understand any possible low floor car he  
could ever receive except those with Jones or Westinghouse VA control.

Page 174:  Double deck cars were used basically on the Highland  
Routes?   He should read the route cards.   They were used on one  
line only except during a period of street construction.

Page 178:  One needs to drive around the city to locate where the  
picture was taken on this page and once you do, then you will not  
suggest it was for the inaugural  date of MU operation on route 82.    
The picture was taken on Forbes Avenue at Wilkinsburg Junction (or  
Braddock Avenue, however you want to know the intersection) ... it is  
where route 67 split off routes 64 and 66.  It is no where near the  
82 line.    The people in the doorway are company officials.   Our  
late friend Tom Phillips recognized one of the people as a relative  
of his who was a company treasurer.   The route cards do not show MU  
operation on route 82 however I have one acquaintance who claims he  
rode MU cars on that line.   The route cards also do not show MU cars  
on 37.   Both lines, however, had trailers.  Route 88 Frankstown used  
MU cars only from Dec. 10, 1924 until March 8, 1925.

Ibid:  Beal claims there were only 243 city MU cars.  Because the  
3750s were rapidly withdrawn from the interurbans and put on  
Sewickley and Castle Shannon, I would increase that number to 263.

Ibid:  The Invention of MU control on the Chicago South Side Elevated  
Railway by Frank J. Sprague was 1897, not 1895.   Westinghouse  
followed with their version for Brooklyn in 1898.

Ibid:  Under Six Motor Trains, last line, where he writes, "And the  
system offered a lot of flexibility, as each car could also be run  
independently."  He should point out that the trailer only had a hand  
brake and a single point hostling control to allow it to be inched up  
to the motor car.   It could not be run out on the line.   That  
scheme was only to allow it to be run in the yard.

Page 182  Under general specifications:  Jones cars were not limited  
to HL or K-43 control.   The double-end cars, converted trailers,  
4700s, were built with Jones remote control.  Those cars designed to  
pull motorized trailers, i.e. the 4800s and 4900s and I think the  
5500s had K-43.   The 5400s had K-35KK.  The 5000s, 5100s, 5200s and  
3750s had something made by Westinghouse called HL but it was really  
a knock off of General Electric type M.  Some 4700s later got  
Westinghouse variable automatic (VA).   Anything that had Jones and  
was rebuilt got either HL or some form of K-control.  In other words,  
there were not two versions of control as he wrote but five.

Page 183  Westinghouse HL was never an automatic acceleration  
controller.  The letter H in the generic designation stands for H  
controlled progression.   Westinghouse schemes with automatic  
progression used the letter A, such as AL or AB or ABLFM or ABF or ALF.

Page 185  He suggests in line 2 that the railways were intimidated by  
motor buses.   Au contraire.  The railways used them to survive and  
preserve the corporations for many more years.   They were worried  
about the automobile and they knew it.   (In partial recognition that  
Pittsburgh was different, many of the independent must companies that  
competed with PRC developed from jitney operators around World War I  
but if that is what he meant, he should have said so.)

Page line 185 para 3:  The VA control cars had hand control from the  
gitgo.

Page 185 Para 4:   The trucks were similar in only that they were  
inside frame trucks.

Page 185, Para 7:  Balancing speed in the Electric Railway Journal  
was listed as 37 miles per hour (not 40).   The 15 to 24 miles per  
hour up hill is meaningless because he fails to specify the car load  
and the gradient.

Page 185, Last Para:  He claims that 413 cars became high speed and  
286 remained low speed.   That totals 699 out of 618 cars.

Page 187, Para. 2:  The word triple valve suggests that perhaps he  
does not understand air systems.   A triple valve is device used on  
automatic air brake systems.   Those systems are used only on  
railroads, subway and elevated trains, and interurban railways that  
operated long trains (CNS&M, CSS&SB, CA&E).   The triple valve under  
each car sense changes in the brake pipe pressure and if the pressure  
increases, it releases the brakes and charges the reservoirs under  
each car.   If the pressure drops because the engineer made a brake  
reduction, then it takes air from the car reservoirs and feeds it  
into the brake cylinder.  Triple means three pipes essentially --  
brake pipe, reservoir, cylinder.   Streetcars with straight air  
systems generally do not have triple valves.

Page 187:   Here he claims that Dan Bell invented the Westinghouse  
514PR motor.   I doubt it.

Page 259:  Upper photograph was from a Kodachrome slide by Russell E.  
Jackson.

Page 262:  Upper photo was taken by John Bromley and, according to  
John, was used without permission.

Page 266:  Only certain rush hours on route 7 (trippers) short turned  
at Brightridge (Brighton Place).   That was not made clear.

Page 269:  Route 8 was not extended to Keating Car House when PCCs  
came in 1940.   He missed that by 14 years.   The route cards claim  
the company believed it happened February 19, 1926.  It did not  
happen when Keating opened but shortly thereafter, probably to  
eliminate congestion at Perrysville and East streets.

Page 273:  Upper Photo appeared in one of the PCC books by Schneider  
and Carlson.   It was copyrighted by Fred Schneider.   The copyright  
is filed in the Library of Congress.   Beal copied it from the PCC  
book and used it without asking for permission.

Page 275:   He claims that Route 9, a short turn of route 8 was  
eliminated in 1951.   He is confusing Route 9, the tripper version of  
route 8 that lasted until 1926 with the Charles Street Shuttle which  
was later given the number 9 after the service on Perrysville Avenue  
no longer required it.   There is evidence that the Charles Street  
cars were extended to Milroy St. on the same day in 1926 that the  
Perrysville cars were extended from East Street to Keating Car  
House.   When the company simply decided to use all those double end  
cars with the 9 CHARLES roll signs on Charles Street, a very logical  
idea, was not recorded in the route cards.   It didn't matter.

Page 278: Upper photo should have been credited to Edward S. Miller.

Page 334, Upper Photo appeared in one of the PCC books by Schneider  
and Carlson.   It was copyrighted by Fred Schneider.   The copyright  
is filed in the Library of Congress.   Beal copied it from the PCC  
book and used it without asking for permission.

Page 344:  Upper photo was copied out of one of the Schneider and  
Carlson PCC books ... you can see the Benday pattern where the two  
engraving screens collided.   The photo should have been credited to  
Edward S. Miller.

Page 350, Photo appeared in one of the PCC books by Schneider and  
Carlson.   It was copyrighted by Fred Schneider.   The copyright is  
filed in the Library of Congress.   Beal copied it from the PCC book  
and used it without asking for permission.

Page 344:  Upper photo was copied out of one of the Schneider and  
Carlson PCC books ... you can see the Benday pattern where the two  
engraving screens collided.   The photo should have been credited to  
John Stern.   The same applies to the upper photo on page 361.

Page 374:  Upper photo should have been credited to Edward S. Miller.

Page 375, Upper photo appeared in one of the PCC books by Schneider  
and Carlson.   It was copyrighted by Fred Schneider.   The copyright  
is filed in the Library of Congress.   Beal copied it from the PCC  
book and used it without asking for permission.

Page 377, Photo appeared in one of the PCC books by Schneider and  
Carlson.   It was copyrighted by Fred Schneider.   The copyright is  
filed in the Library of Congress.   Beal copied it from the PCC book  
and used it without asking for permission.

Page 382:  Westinghouse cars were never assigned to Ingram  
Carhouse.   The 1111 was out there on a fantrip.   Would have been  
nice if that had been noted.

Page 385:  Car 1630 was assigned to Tunnel and was running as a  
fantrip.  Would have been nice to have noted this.

Page 392:   See comment for page 385.

Page 413:   For much of its life, route 32 ran from West End Circle  
to Smithfield Street.   Ed Miller has pictures of cars at West End  
Circle in 1952 possibly disproving the routing listed on this page.

Page 415:  The photo of 4411 on this page is a C. J. Dengler photo  
from the Miller Library.   It was taken long after route 33 quit  
running.   One can only suspect that Dengler turned the roll sign.   
It is still in its unrebuilt two-man Jones control configuration in  
the 1940s.

Page 434:  Lower photo may have been borrowed from Miller Library, PTM.

Page 436:  Lower photo may have been borrowed from Miller Library,  
PTM.   It was taken by Charles Dengler.

Page 440:  Lower photo was taken by Fred Schneider.   Used without  
permission.   It was previously published in Headlights magazine.
                   Upper photo may have been borrowed from Miller  
Library, PTM.  That is where I've seen the negative.

Page 441:  An original print of this is in the Miller Library, PTM.

Page 464:  I suspect the MU was greatly over emphasized.   It was  
abolished before the 5100s were received.   The company was already  
converting to one-man operation at the same time it was buying  
multiple unit cars.  A train of MU cars required two people.   Two  
one-man cars required two people.   There was no labor saving.   The  
ignored the plan.

Page 479:  In this case I admit to picking nits.  He claims that  
Schenley Park had no trolleys.   The picture on page 107 is  
technically within the park boundary on land that I think later  
became part of Carnegie Mellon University.

Page 481:  Beal claims that trailers were operated Dream City Park.    
If they were, Pittsburgh Railways neither recorded the use of the  
cars nor the crew hours in the route cards.  Therefore I suspect that  
trailers were not used.

Page 482:  Mr. Beal claims West View Park was the last amusement park  
in the United States which you could reach by trolley cars.   Perhaps  
he does not consider light rail cars to have any relationship to  
trolley cars.   You can ride the San Jose light rail to Great America  
amusement park.   You can also ride Denver RTD to Elitch Gardens.      
http://www.elitchgardens.com/     If subways count, there is still a  
roller coaster at Coney Island in Brooklyn.