[PRCo] Re: Early Enthusiast Charters
richard allman
allmanr at verizon.net
Mon Nov 8 23:23:34 EST 2010
thanks, Dwight-hopefully many of these clubs have some archives of the
early-and later-fantrips. I'm most familiar w/ those in Eastern PA and to
some extent, in Boston. RICH
----- Original Message -----
From: "Dwight Long" <dwightlong at verizon.net>
To: <pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org>
Sent: Monday, November 08, 2010 9:56 AM
Subject: [PRCo] Re: Early Enthusiast Charters
> Rich
>
> Railfans of Indianapolis, of which I am a member, was founded in 1937 and
> began running charters shortly thereafter. I had a list of their early
> trips but did not keep it. I think the CERA 1 May 1938 Gary Rys. trip may
> have preceded RFI's earliest, but am not positive without the list. At
> any rate, they were among the earliest groups running traction trips.
>
> Dwight
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: richard allman
> To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
> Sent: Sunday, 07 November, 2010 14:11
> Subject: [PRCo] Re: PRCo Electric Shovel
>
>
> INTERESTING subject to reflect upon, Fred-and Dwight!!!!
>
> Some mini-sleuthing on my part has unearthed the following on systems
> where
> I have a particular interest:
>
> LVT-Lehigh Valley NRHS had a fantrip in September, 1941 when car 1030 was
> introduced to Liberty Bell Limited service. Not sure of any earlier ones
> during the rollout of the modernization cars in early 1939. I know that
> chapter maintains an archive of all its fantrips. Will inquire of Joel
> Salomon.
>
> Philadelphia Suburban-I think it was Philadelphia Chapter that ran a trip
> in
> August, 1941 that coincided w/ the introduction of the Brilliners. They
> ran
> the Brilliner to Ardmore(and had a photo stop inbound at Ardmore Jct.
> when
> then-young Ed Miller and Jim Shuman-strangers to each other @ that
> time-scrambled up to the P&W station to catch great shots of the
> northbound
> LVT 1000 car.) Later that day, they ran one of the 40 series Jewett
> cars-as
> classic and beautiful a car as ever there was- to West Chester.
>
> Philadelphia Transportation Co.-a Birney trip to Chester in the Summer of
> 1941-Phila. Chapter-by that time had to be via Route 37-the only
> remaining
> link to Chester. Phila. Chapter has had a ton of trips over its history.
> I
> have not been a member-always a tad miffed that I was publicly
> reprimanded
> at one of their meetings in the 1970's for not wearinga tie to the
> meeting
> at the Philadelphia Engineers' Club on Spruce St., though around 15 years
> or
> so ago, I helped them secure the Faculty Club at Jefferson Medical
> College
> for their monthly meetings after they lost the Downtown Club in the old
> Curtis Publishing Building on Independence Mall (thanks for letting me
> vent!!!!).
>
> Boston Elevated Railway-a trip over wide stretches of the system,
> including
> East Boston, Sommerville, Cambridge lines-any that had loops on that
> largely
> double-ended system-w/ PCC 3001-the Queen Mary-Boston El's only St. Louis
> car on 6/19/38-more than 5 years before I was born. Probably one of the
> first fantrips in Boston.
>
> There was that famous trip on Wilkes Barre Railway-probably in the early
> 40's-pre-war when the guys-dressed is suits and ties and dress hats and
> as
> was the standard garb for fantrips-pushed the dead car through a section
> of
> the Edwardsville line. Probably an Antracite Division ERA trip And, some
> group also ran a WBRwy trip in 1939 that my friend and mentor Dave Cope
> attended.
>
> See what else I can dredge up!
>
> RICH
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Fred Schneider" <fwschneider at comcast.net>
> To: <pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org>
> Sent: Sunday, November 07, 2010 12:24 PM
> 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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