[PRCo] Re: Assorted old Pittsburgh

[Schneider Fred]

August 15, 1939 first car outbound on Dawn Avenue ramp; August 28  
first car inbound on Dawn Avenue ramp.   That dates the end of  
service on the street from West Liberty Avenue and Dawn Avenue down  
past the portal of the Liberty Tubes and over Saw Mill Run Blvd. and  
up Warringtonton Avenue and into Tunnel Yard.

On Jan 29, 2009, at 1:56 AM, Mark McGuire wrote:

> 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&i 
>> m
>> 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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>>
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