[PRCo] Re: 20 Rebecca & 17 Reedsdale Lines to be converted - temporary basis

Sun Aug 29 11:09:29 EDT 2010

Here's a link to the origin of the term "yellow journalism." 

Ed

-----Original Message-----
From: pittsburgh-railways-bounce at lists.dementia.org
[mailto:pittsburgh-railways-bounce at lists.dementia.org] On Behalf Of Dwight
Long
Sent: Sunday, August 29, 2010 12:39 AM
To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
Subject: [PRCo] Re: 20 Rebecca & 17 Reedsdale Lines to be converted -
temporary basis

Fred

In my childhood home in Beaver, Pa., the Press was the Pittsburgh paper of
record, inasmuch as my mother despised the Hearst empire and they published
the competing Sun Telegraph,  which she called "yellow journalism,"
whatever that meant.

It was this very article that spurred me to get my young butt into da Burgh
and ride both 17 and 20.  Regrettably, I did not take my Box Brownie with
me!

The tracks and wire, outside of the Fancourt St. loop, remained intact or
mostly intact for many years after the 1951 "temporary" conversion--well
into the late 50s.  I guess PRC really wanted to give the replacement buses
a fair test.

Dwight

  ----- Original Message -----
  From: Fred Schneider
  To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
  Sent: Friday, 27 August, 2010 22:12
  Subject: [PRCo] Re: 20 Rebecca & 17 Reedsdale Lines to be converted -
temporary basis

  On May 19, 2010, at 3:33 PM, Barry, Matthew R wrote:

  > October 1951 - 20 Rebecca & 17 Reedsdale lines to be converted to bus,
but only on a temporary basis - because of the Gateway Center development.
  >
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=fwMiAAAAIBAJ&sjid=g00EAAAAIBAJ&dq=troll
ey%20buse&pg=5998%2C298779
  >
  >
  > Continuation of story:
  >
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=fwMiAAAAIBAJ&sjid=g00EAAAAIBAJ&dq=troll
ey%20buse&pg=1526%2C356403
  >
  >
  > matt
  Matt:

  You wish to proof-read my typing?

  By the way, route 17 was nothing more than a shuttle established when 20
was routed over the Manchester Bridge on June 1, 1925.    The original PA&M
horse car ran over the covered bridge.   The steel Manchester Bridge was
built with rails but nothing apparently used them until 1925.   So what you
found here ... the bus being diverted over Shore Road was nothing more than
a restoration of the original 112 Reedsdale route.

  I have started to type the stuff you put on line.

  Fred

  _____________________

  > 

  Pittsburgh Press, Oct. 2, 1951, Page 1

  Buses Sidetrack Trolleys on Two North Side Routes

  Motor Coaches to Replace Cars No. 17, 20 on Temporary Basis; Conversion
Hailed

     Pittsburgh Railways today bowed to Pa Pitt's parade of progress and
decided to try buses on two street car routes.

     Although trolley officials explained buses will be introduced only on a
temporary basis on two North Side routes, some transit experts hailed the
move as a step forward in the solution of Pittsburgh's transportation
crisis.

     Trolley routes set for conversion Oct. 15 are the Rebecca line (Route
20) in lower Manchester and the Reedsdale shuttle (Route 17).

     A City Council committee is expected to approve the switch to buses
today.   Simultaneously, the Pittsburgh Railways will ask the Public Utility
Commission to authorize the conversion.

     Railway officials said the decision to switch to buses came after they
learned that construction in the Gateway Center necessitates closing the
Fancourt St. loop used by the Rebecca trolley.

     Elsewhere, transit authorities who have been urging replacement of the
City's 1200 trolleys with buses rejoiced.

     But in asking City Council permission to switch to buses, Pittsburgh
Railways insisted the door be left open for return of trolleys "if it seems
advisable in the future."

     In abandoning the Fancourt St. loop, the railways company asked City
Council to set up another loop in the lower Triangle for use by the trolley
firm if it decides to return to streetcars on the Rebecca line in the
future.

      This loop will run from Manchester Bridge, through the lower Triangle,
and back to the Manchester Bridge via Water Street.

      The railways will throw a switch into the tracks now swinging across
the point Bridge so that Eoute 20 can return to the North Side via
Manchester Bridge.

       "With this projected loop guaranteed us, we can always fall back upon
trolley service if the buses prove uneconomical to operate on these routes,"
a railways official said. 

      Buses on the Rebecca line will make pick-ups throughout the Manchester
district, but instead of coming Downtown via the Manchester Bridge, they
will proceed down Shore Ave. and General Robinson St. to Federal St.

      Then they will swing across the Sixth St. Bridge, down Penn Ave.,
around Stanwix St., and back to the Sixth St. Bridge via Duquesne Way.

      The present Rebecca route crossing Manchester bridge and making the
loop around Fancourt St. and Barbeau St. must be abandoned to facilitate
construction work in the Gateway Center, the railways said.

      Because buses will be operated along Shore Ave. and General Robinson
St. - the present route of the Reedsdale shuttle - this line will be
eliminated.

      "By eliminating the Reedsdale shuttle (Route 17), we expect some
savings without any curtailment of service," a railways official explained.

  Answering transit authorities who favor wholesale replacement of trolleys
with buses, he declared that the Pittsburgh Railways does not have enough
buses "to operate a permanent fleet on these lines."

      "Of course," he added, "more buses could be obtained if it seems
economically feasible to make these two routes permanently bus-operated."