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

Sun Aug 29 12:04:02 EDT 2010

I read a biography of Hearst a few years ago...definitely not a pleasant
fellow.  He was financially behind the Blocks' acquisition of the
Post-Gazette when that paper and the Sun-Telegraph were assembled in the
'20s.  The newspaper owners didn't want to sell to him but he scammed 'em.

-----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 11:52 AM
To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
Subject: [PRCo] Re: 20 Rebecca & 17 Reedsdale Lines to be converted -
temporary basis

Ed

Most interesting!  Thanks--I never knew what it meant, just that she did not
like it!

Dwight

  ----- Original Message -----
  From: Edward H. Lybarger
  To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
  Sent: Sunday, 29 August, 2010 11:09
  Subject: [PRCo] Re: 20 Rebecca & 17 Reedsdale Lines to be converted -
temporary basis

  Helps to attach the link. 

  http://www.pbs.org/crucible/frames/_journalism.html

  -----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."