[PRCo] Re: PRCo Electric Shovel

Sun Nov 7 11:24:35 EST 2010

Fred

What you say is true, but the very first CERA enthusiast charter was over Gary Railways' interurban line to Valparaiso, Ind., (my home town from 1971-76) on 1 May 1938.

Dwight

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Fred Schneider 
  To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org 
  Sent: Saturday, 06 November, 2010 17:10
  Subject: [PRCo] Re: PRCo Electric Shovel

  Probably scarce for several reasons ....

  (1) because the plant gestapo attempted to scare off photographers 

  (2) Pityburg was one of those places where railfan photos were scarce in the early years of the hobby because railfans who lived there escaped on vacations and no sane person took a vacation in hell.  

  There are places where they are very common early.   The NRHS was formed by merger of two groups in 75 years ago this past summer.   One was the Lancaster Railway and Locomotive Historical Society.  The other was the Interstate Trolley Club, a group of young men in northern New Jersey and New York City.   It follows that we had loads of pictures from those areas.    Chicago had the CERA very early or at least its roots.   Those guys were running fantrips on the Indiana Railroad back in 1938.   

  But Pittsburgh?   There was a small NRHS group just before the war, which fell apart when the army drafted all or most of its members.   It's club room was a PRC low-floor trailer body out it Penn Township, which probably then disappeared in a WW2 scrap drive.   Many of those guys organized the Pittsburgh Electric Railway Club after the war.   But if you consider it as a percent of population, it was probably less than 5% of what we had here in Lancaster a few years earlier. 

  And what happened over time?

  Today I had to pull out the Lancaster Birney in Manheim for a 75th anniversary celebration of the founding of the NRHS.  There were men from all over the east.  The youngest might have been in his late 60s.  The average was older than me.   The oldest was probably 90.   What does that say for the hobby?  I suspect it is getting smaller but I also suspect a lot of people are communicating the way we are now instead of meeting in clubs.   

  On Nov 6, 2010, at 4:25 PM, Derrick Brashear wrote:

  > If you happen to run across anything on East Carson above 10th that's interesting, I'd love to see it, notably at the railroad crossing at 21st, and outside J&L. Photos have been scarce, I guess because the 50 just... ended
  > 
  > 
  >> 
  >> On Fri, Nov 5, 2010 at 16:24, Russell Cashdollar
  >> <cashdollarr at earthlink.net>wrote:
  >> 
  >>> Search criteria....!!!
  >>> 
  >>> Normal search criteria works only so far...
  >>> To turn up all the hidden goodies...
  >>> one has to look at everything...
  >>> 
  >>> I began with 1928 PRCo Trolly guide that lists all streets every route
  >>> operated over.
  >>> I wrote all the street names on a PRMA produced PRCo system map, and I
  >>> included
  >>> the names of all the neighborhoods in Pgh. which were also listed in the
  >>> 1928 guide.
  >>> I made a list of key words to search....Repair,construction,bridge,track,
  >>> repave, etc. (it is a long list)
  >>> 
  >>> THEN... I started by searching through one street, or avenue, or district,
  >>> or neighborhood, or key word at a time.
  >>> 
  >>> I am about 1/2 of the way through the list. I checked out and checked off
  >>> my favorite
  >>> and most promising search words first... and have therefore reached the
  >>> point of
  >>> diminishing returns and thus I now have less incentive trudge through.
  >>> 
  >>> But having faith that there are still prizes to be found, keeps me
  >>> searching... but not as often.
  >>> 
  >>> ... And that is the only way I know to find the hidden jems.
  >>> 
  >>> The Electric Shovel turned up under a search of Steuben as is the street
  >>> name.
  >>> 
  >>> Russell
  >>> 
  >>> 
  >>> -----Original Message-----
  >>>> From: BobDietrich <bob.dietrich1 at verizon.net>
  >>>> Sent: Nov 5, 2010 3:40 PM
  >>>> To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
  >>>> Subject: [PRCo] Re: PRCo Electric Shovel
  >>>> 
  >>>> I asked the question before and found it was not on the roster.  I've
  >>>> included another photo of it working in Homestead.  Note the contraption
  >>>> that it is riding on, who needs rails in the street?  I've started
  >>>> collecting parts to make a model of this critter so all the photos I can
  >>>> find will help.
  >>>> Russ, what search criteria did you use to find this?
  >>>> 
  >>>> Bob
  >>>> 
  >>>> -----Original Message-----
  >>>> From: pittsburgh-railways-bounce at lists.dementia.org
  >>>> [mailto:pittsburgh-railways-bounce at lists.dementia.org] On Behalf Of Herb
  >>>> Brannon
  >>>> Sent: Friday, November 05, 2010 2:24 PM
  >>>> To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
  >>>> Subject: [PRCo] Re: PRCo Electric Shovel
  >>>> 
  >>>> Interesting pics, Russ. Possibly Ed L or FWS would know if it is on the
  >>> PRCo
  >>>> roster.
  >>>> On Fri, Nov 5, 2010 at 11:28, Russell Cashdollar
  >>>> <cashdollarr at earthlink.net>wrote:
  >>>> 
  >>>>> Steuben Street August 26 1924
  >>>>> Pittsburgh City Photographer
  >>>>> Ed and Fred,
  >>>>> 
  >>>>> Is this PRCo critter the "electric shovel" that is on The PRCo work car
  >>>>> roster?
  >>>>> 
  >>>>> Russell
  >>>>> 
  >>>>> 
  >>>>> 
  >>>>> -- Attached file removed by Ecartis and put at URL below --
  >>>>> -- Type: image/jpeg
  >>>>> -- Size: 119k (122483 bytes)
  >>>>> -- URL :
  >>>>> 
  >>>> 
  >>> http://lists.dementia.org/files/pittsburgh-railways/Steuben%20Street%20Augus
  >>>> t%2026%201924.a.jpg
  >>>>> 
  >>>>> 
  >>>>> -- Attached file removed by Ecartis and put at URL below --
  >>>>> -- Type: image/jpeg
  >>>>> -- Size: 156k (160210 bytes)
  >>>>> -- URL :
  >>>>> 
  >>>> 
  >>> http://lists.dementia.org/files/pittsburgh-railways/Steuben%20Street%20Augus
  >>>> t%2026%201924.b.jpg
  >>>>> 
  >>>>> 
  >>>>> 
  >>>>> 
  >>>> 
  >>>> 
  >>>> --
  >>>> Herb Brannon
  >>>> In Cuyahoga Valley National Park
  >>>> 
  >>>> 
  >>>> 
  >>>> 
  >>>> -- Attached file removed by Ecartis and put at URL below --
  >>>> -- Type: image/jpeg
  >>>> -- Size: 80k (82838 bytes)
  >>>> -- URL :
  >>> http://lists.dementia.org/files/pittsburgh-railways/02-shovel.jpg
  >>>> 
  >>>> 
  >>>> 
  >>> 
  >>> 
  > 
  > 