[PRCo] Assorted old Pittsburgh

[Schneider Fred]

While typing in the route card for route 317 Haberman Avenue  
Franchise Car, an old name came up again and this I began to look on  
line to see if I could find it.   You guys ever hear of the Bell  
House?   I never did but then I'm not from Pittsburgh.   It was also  
mentioned in the Mount Lebanon and Brookline route cards ... an  
important enough location that everyone in old Pittsburgh knew it.

Well, turns out it was an old tavern on Washington Road ... ah.   But  
all the street names have been changed.   That portion of Washington  
Road was changed first to Warrington Avenue and then to Saw Mill Run  
Blvd.   The tavern was half way between the portion of Washington  
Road with later was renamed West Liberty Avnue (at the portal of the  
Liberty Tubes) and the bridge over Saw Mill Run Blvd., the portion of  
Washington Road which is the only part today which still has the name  
Warrington.

The link below shows leads to some pictures of the old Bell Tavern or  
Bell House (1850-1938).

http://www.spdconline.org/history/Gallery/BellHouse.html

If you want to find it on a map, go to:

http://images.library.pitt.edu/cgi-bin/maps/showmap.pl? 
client=maps...lheight6624&fullwidth=9283&level=1&size-2&image.x=885&imag 
e.y=373

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Ed Lybarger and I were having a conversation the other day ... he  
said something to the affect that the youngsters would have no idea  
what a "franchise car" is.

Perhaps this is a good opportunity to explain it.   In one sentence,  
it is a trolley operated only to preserve the right of the company's  
franchise.

Now the example: when South Hills Tunnel opened in Ninteen Aught and  
Four, the trolleys coming in through West Liberty Borough (now  
Brookline) no longer had to go all the way up Washington Road to the  
head house of the Pittsburgh Incline and then down the other side of  
the mountain on Brownsville Road (now Arlington Avenue).   They went  
into Tunnel yard and through the Tunnel. The lines on top of the hill  
(Arlington, Beltzhoover, Knoxville) went into the tunnel by a new  
right of way beginning at Haberman Avenue.   This left a big piece of  
Washington Road, later named Warrington Avenue (more than a mile)  
potentially without rail service ... from Haberman on the north to  
almost the foot of the hill.

So either to satisfy a city franchise agreement that they provide  
service or to keep competitors out of the picture, Pittsburgh  
Railways continued to run a franchise car.   That sort of thing never  
made money but it kept the big cats at bay.   Each division had its  
franchise car and some had several.  Some made one trip a day; some  
made multiple trips. ,  The "Haberman Franchise car" made eleven  
trips daily from Haberman Avenue to Bell House crossover.   Lest  
anyone question it, the Sarah Street Horse Car was listed on the  
route cards as a "franchise route."   Operating it kept an upstart  
bus company out of Birmingham.

What was my first acquaintance with a franchise car?   I had gone to  
Johnstown in 1958 with two friends to ride the Southmont franchise  
car, which ran once a day on weekdays at o'dark:30 in the morning.   
When we got off the night train and called the dispatcher we were  
told, "Sorry, this is a holiday.  Doesn't run today."   The three of  
us got there but it cost $7.00 each for a chartered car.   The  
holiday?   It was Good Friday.