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

[Fred Schneider]

Oh, as in shouting?   BBC opined last April that it didn't matter what the media said ... that he who shouted the loudest got the best ratings.


On Aug 29, 2010, at 11:09 AM, Edward H. Lybarger wrote:

> 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."
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
>