[PRCo] Re: Assorted old Pittsburgh

[Mark McGuire]

Thanks!  I guess the trackage in that photo was seeing its last days also.

-- Schneider Fred <fwschneider at comcast.net> wrote:
Saw Mill Run Boulevard from West End Circle.


On Jan 29, 2009, at 12:40 AM, Mark McGuire wrote:

>  First link, third photo(the 1938 one). What is the road in the  
> foreground to the right where the car is peeking out? I'm trying to  
> get my bearings here and it just ain't workin'
>
> -- Schneider Fred <fwschneider at comcast.net> wrote:
> 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&im 
> ag
> e.y=373
>
> +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>
> 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.
>
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