[PRCo] Mount Lebanon

[Schneider Fred]

Back to Mount Lebanon and how the area south of Mount Washington  
matured....

Some of you might be interested in how many cars Pittsburgh Railways  
scheduled on route 304 (38) Castle Shannon - Mount Lebanon -  
Pittsburgh in the rush hour as a measure of how the population  
increased over time and then how ecomonic conditions affected riding.

1903 -- 8 single truck cars.  You don't need many cars to serve the  
farmers out in the countryside on the back side of Mount Washington.

1916 -- 4 double truck cars  -- no traffic lights.  That might be a  
car every 20 minutes.

1919 -- 8 double truck cars ... probably left over from War schedules

1925 -- 14 cars.   Remember that the Liberty Tubes opened in 1924 and  
now the South Hills are beginning to fill with people.   What had  
been a hard to get to location is now prime real estate.

1926-- 20 cars.   By the end of the year 22 cars.

1927 -- 26 cars.  By the summer of 1927 it had increased to 29 cars.

Then the economy started softening.   We talk about the depression  
beginning in 1929 but the economic indicators started turning down  
before that.   The automobiles are become more numerous.

1928 -- 27 cars at the beginning of the year, 22 at the end of the year.

The the Liberty Bridge opens now making it so much easier to get  
downtown.   You don't have to go through the tunnels, turn right onto  
McArdle, turn left onto Arlington, fight your way into traffic onto  
Carson.   Now you simply zip across to the traffic light at the  
Boulevard of the Allies, and turn left and in a few minutes your're  
dawntawn.

1929 --  19 to 21 cars depending on the month.

1931 -- 22 cars

Now we've reached the bottom of the Depression.

1932 -- 20 cars at the beginning of the year and 18 by July.

1935 -- 17 cars.

Things begin to slowly improve.   Unfortunately the little guy still  
doesn't have credit and the rich man still has all the toasters and  
washers and automobiles he can use and without credit to stimulate  
the economy it took a long time to get out of that business downturn.

1936 - 20 cars morning, 23 evening.

Now we're in the worst of World War II and everything the Railways  
Company has that will run is running.   I wonder if they were not  
sorry they had scrapped the 4000s, 4100s and the trailers and so many  
4700s.   But Pittsburgh was truly a production center for the war.    
Had the railways the cars, would they have had the operators to run  
them?  Doubtful isn't it.

1943 -- they were only able to muster 24 to 26 cars on route 38.    
Can you imagine the standees when the average bloke could only buy 3  
1/2 gallons of gasoline a week for his automobile?