[PRCo] Re: News From West Pittsburgh

[Herb Brannon]

The tragic part of all this is that if they had not waited since 2002 they
could have been in operation along the waterfront right now. Back then they
had the support of the city government and several local money granting
foundations plus federal grants were available back then for projects such
as this. They were waiting for more 'facts' (sound familiar) to appear from
someplace before they built. Now, sadly, it's all gone.
The second tragic part of all this is the Northern Ohio Railway
Museum buying six cars so they might "save" them. They have twenty cars at
their location in Chippewa which, over the years, have been reduced to hulks
of rust. Some of them are so bad there is no paint left on them, just rusted
metal. The really good looking cars out there have 60% to 85% of their paint
weathered away. Northern Ohio is not the place to leave metal items sitting
outside unless such items receive proper care. The "museum" has no working
overhead wire and no way to generate electricity if they did have overhead
up. The last time I was there, about four weeks ago, I asked when the
overhead was going up. The answer was, "we have decided to pull a
motor-generator off of that car over there, put it on a small flat car so it
can be towed behind whatever car we want to operate." Definitely a 2nd class
operation. The six cars, if they buy them, will be six piles of rust after
about three Northern Ohio Winters. Like "The Pittsburgh Book", I will never
see this "museum" become a reality in this lifetime.

Several of these cars have been removed from under Terminal Tower, also.
Other than the ones owned by RTA they will probably be gone soon. This
coming Labor Day (September 7) will be the last Subway Tour for 2009. If
anyone on The List is coming, let me know. If you want I can show you the
cars under Terminal Tower. I do have to work on the Red Line on Labor Day,
however, I make a Westbound relief at East 55th Stn at 7:20 PM. So, I have
all day to go to the Subway Tour.



On Wed, Sep 2, 2009 at 10:22 PM, Ken and Tracie
<ktjosephson at embarqmail.com>wrote:

>
> http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2009/08/cleveland_trolley_car_collecti.html
>
>
>


Herb Brannon
On America's North Coast
The Right Wing Economy: No Corporation Left Behind