[PRCo] Re: Route 29 Thornburg

[Schneider Fred]

On Jan 10, 2009, at 6:28 PM, Edward H. Lybarger wrote:

> 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............
>
>
>
>