[PRCo] Re: PRCo Electric Shovel
Dwight Long
dwightlong at verizon.net
Sun Nov 7 12:34:01 EST 2010
Fred
I was referring specifically to CERA charters.
I recognize that there were charters for a variety of groups from a very early age.
The first recognized "steam railway" enthusiasts' charter was one back in 1934 by what is now the Mass Bay RRE covering the Hoosac Tunnel & Wilmington RR.
Dwight
----- Original Message -----
From: Fred Schneider
To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
Sent: Sunday, 07 November, 2010 12:24
Subject: [PRCo] Re: PRCo Electric Shovel
There was a charter over Conestoga Transportation in the fall of 1937 to commemorate the Lititz and Columbia lines which were to abandoned the following February.
The earliest railfan charter that I can document was one sponsored by a group of young men organized under the name of the Baltimore Society of Model Engineers. I believe the group still exists. They chartered a Maryland and Pennsylvania Railroad gondola with benches, two open platform coaches and a 4-4-0 steam locomotive for a round trip from Baltimore to York, PA on November 10, 1935.
I have been told that this trip caused "The Big Red Subway" to take notice. About a year later the Pennsy sponsored their first Off the Beaten Track excursion for the fans from Philadelphia to Harrisburg using the Downingtown and Lancaster Branch. Ultimately the D&L was worked from both ends and the middle was torn up in 1956; today only the west end from New Holland to Lancaster remains.
Of course charters were not unheard of before that. It was simply that charters for us crazies were never run. One of my favorite pictures shows seven Conestoga Traction double-truck open cars lined up on North Queen Street in front of the Keppel Candy factory. They chartered for the candy company's annual employees' picnic. That year ... it was in the early 1920s ... the picnic was being held at Carsonia Park, an amusement venue, east of Reading PA and this involved an interline operation between Conestoga Traction and Reading Street Railway. Chartered cars for church picnics were very common between 1890 and 1925.
On Nov 7, 2010, at 11:24 AM, Dwight Long wrote:
> 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
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>
>>
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