[PRCo] Re: Route 29 Thornburg

[Edward H. Lybarger]

There were no timetables in 1932, other than internal ones.  Unhappily, the
ones we have are from Rankin and don't help with Ingram routes.  Apart from
the clarity of the route card records, why would any sane company put a line
like Thornburg on as a through route in the middle of the Depression?

I would also interpret "OD" as "one door."  As in Washington, they blocked
the center doors on these "dinkey" lines.

-----Original Message-----
From: pittsburgh-railways-bounce at lists.dementia.org
[mailto:pittsburgh-railways-bounce at lists.dementia.org] On Behalf Of
Schneider Fred
Sent: Saturday, January 10, 2009 5:41 PM
To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
Subject: [PRCo] Route 29 Thornburg

Subject Beal's book, page 403:

Beal claims that route 29 Thornburg was again run from downtown  
Pittsburgh to Thornburg beginning 5 April 1932.   When I saw that, I  
went back to the route cards because I had just typed them into my computer
file last night.

The route cards are very clear.   Service to downtown Pittsburgh was  
suspended March 18, 1918.   There is no mention of it being restored  
at any time thereafter.

They show it going from double-truck to single-truck cars on June 3,  
1922.   However, Pittsburgh did not acquire the two second-hand  
Birneys that we are told ran on route 29 until 1926.   The notation  
of car type vanished in 1924 so we have no idea what they were running after
March 1924.  An annotation reappears in 1937 "OD" which might stand for
one-door car.

 From August 1930 until abandonment, route 29 only scheduled one car,  
Sunday through Saturday.   Considering the round trip from Thornburg  
to downtown Pittsburgh was nearly 14 miles and the operating speed is about
8 to 9 miles per hour average with a low-speed 4200,  I thing it is pretty
clear that the line wasn't running into downtown at any time in the 1930s.
The round trip would have consumed about 100 minutes.

The notation "high speed" was not put onto the route cards until 1937  
but cars were speed up starting in the early 1930s.   Had Pittsburgh  
Railways put high speed cars on routes 27 and 30, one would not expect them
to want a low speed 4200 screwing up the schedules on the same route from
Crafton to Pittsburgh, particularly because some of the more wealthy riders
(the ones they wanted to keep from using
automobiles) lived in Crafton.

Now if Beal or someone can show me a timetable from April 4, 1932 to prove
that the scribe forgot to record it on the route card............