[PRCo] Re: An early motoring vacation?

[Fred Schneider]

No memory of Coatesville or Parkesburg on the way home, eh.

That John, is why I loved commuting to Harrisburg on the train.  I could have 25 minutes in each direction, morning and evening, in the "no memory phase" or "low-energy state."   On those Silverliners, the cab signal whistle when they passed the restricting signal entering CORK interlocking approaching Lancaster was loud enough to arouse me from a sleep.   One night it didn't work and the brakeman came down the aisle, kicked my food, and yelled, "Hey Schneider ... LANCASTER."   

That beat the hell out of the traffic on the expressway.  


On Sep 15, 2010, at 6:04 PM, John Swindler wrote:

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> The trolley was a great technology advance over .........  walking.  (horse ownership was not universal)
> 
> The the auto was a great technology advance over ......... waiting.
> 
> I was at Elmwood again today.  We use transit, but it wastes a lot of time.  Takes 2.5 hours to travel from Lancaster - have to allow transfer time at Lancaster train station.  And on return trip, allow connection time at 30th St.  (Although on trip home, I have no recollection of the Coatesville nor Parkesburg train stops.  Can't do that while driving a car.)
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> And that doesn't include the lack of a convenient Amtrak train when audit completed at Elmwood.  But this helps explain why business trips shifted from train/interurban to auto years ago.  Wasted time.
> 
> About 15 years ago I came across an article that discussed the time it took to travel from Mon Valley to the court house in Washington, Pa.  It was a two plus day trip - packet boat to Pittsburgh and train to Washington.  Then the Charleroi interurban reduced the time by making connection available at Finleyville with B&O.  The opening of the Washington interurban meant business at the court house could be done in less than a day.  The article was discussing why there was no longer a need to erect "Monongahela County" in Pennsylvania.
> 
> And as for my trips south, still can't believe it was 19 years ago.  
> 
> Cheers
> John
> 
> 
> 
>> Subject: [PRCo] Re: An early motoring vacation?
>> From: fwschneider at comcast.net
>> Date: Tue, 14 Sep 2010 12:31:51 -0400
>> To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
>> 
>> At least I know someone read it.   Thanks John.   I think it is important to the story of trolleys and interurbans because it is about why they disappeared.
>> 
>> On Sep 14, 2010, at 8:59 AM, John Swindler wrote:
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>>> That's close to the route I was using 19 years ago (has it been THAT long???) for my monthly trip from my parents house in Pittsburgh to Military Ocean Terminal-Sunnypoint near Wilmington.  Route 51 to I-70 to turnpike to Breezewood to I-70 to US 15 to US 17 to I-95 to I-40.  This was the 'inner' Washington bypass - the 'outer' bypass was to follow US 522 to Winchester to Culpeper (useful court house to visit) and 3 to Fredericksburg and I-95.  It was a long drive, but certainly faster than 55years earlier.  Cruise control is nice.
>>> 
>>> Cheers
>>> John
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>>> From: fwschneider at comcast.net
>>>> Date: Mon, 13 Sep 2010 15:09:54 -0400
>>>> Subject: [PRCo] An early motoring vacation? 
>>>> To: Pittsburgh-Railways at Dementia.Org
>>>> 
>>>> Some of you might enjoy this item. Before you open it, please be reminded, if you did not already know it, that the Pennsylvania Turnpike was conceived as an "all-weather road" across the Appalachian mountains and as a highway for truckers. The seven tunnels helped to make it an all-weather road, keep it several hundred feet lower and several degrees warmer in the winter, and, in the case of Sideling and Rays hills, out of the fog. 
>>>> 
>>>> This article is five years before the Turnpike. At this time we had no limited access highways in the United States. The best we could offer were some three lane roads with that suicide passing lane in the middle. Most of our roads in 1935 were two lane. Some in rural areas, particularly in rural states were still unpaved. 
>>>> 
>>>> Now here is a reference to an Azela tour of the south conceived in February 1935 by the Pittsburgh Automobile Club (AAA). Today we would head right down through the heart of West-by-God-Virginia on interstate 79 and 77. In 1935 it is possible or probable that some of that route would still be over gravel or dirt. I can recall even in 1955 how it could take literally hours just to drive from the north end of the West Virginia Turnpike (in name only) at Charlestown to Parkersburg on twisting two-lane roads. In the 1950s, U. S. 50 across West Virginia and Maryland was an all-day adventure. 
>>>> 
>>>> So look at the map on this and see that in 1935, the best way south from Pittsburgh was to drive route 30 over the mountains to Bedford and Breezewood, and then work your way southeast to Washington DC, and then south and southwest where the sea breezes be just a little more clement that going directly south farther inland. 
>>>> 
>>>> http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=ZHEbAAAAIBAJ&sjid=kksEAAAAIBAJ&pg=4218%2C4330287
>>>> 
>>>> As a post script: my grandfather from Pittsburgh was an early auto tourist. He used to try to make us understand what it was like going from Pittsburgh to Virginia Beach in the summer in an automobile with a gravity fuel system. At the base of each of the mountains in Pennsylvania or Maryland, depending on which route you drove, he would turn around, and then back the car up the mountain in order to keep the fuel tank higher than the carburetor. And you thought you have it rough when heavy traffic on the Interstate forces you down to 55 mph!!! 
>>>> 
>>>> My father remembered riding with the "Pap" one day in northwestern Pennsylvania. Grandpa stopped outside of Meadville, pulled out a rag, and dusted off the car. There were still a lot of dirt roads and the old man didn't want to be seen driving into town in a dirty car. 
>>>> 
>>>> Remember these stories when you think about NCL taking the business away from the trolleys. The trolleys were handy when our wagons sunk up to their hubs in mud during the spring melt. After the roads were paved, we loved our cars. Yes, Phillip, I am going to editorialize. We bought cars because the man with a car ended up with a girl friend and later a wife. That was a little more difficult forcing the date to ride on the streetcar and not nearly as much fun. 
>>>> 
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