[PRCo] Re: Historical Question

[BobDietrich]

Or being so old now that there is no recollection! 


-----Original Message-----
From: pittsburgh-railways-bounce at lists.dementia.org
[mailto:pittsburgh-railways-bounce at lists.dementia.org] On Behalf Of John
Swindler
Sent: Sunday, February 13, 2011 4:55 PM
To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
Subject: [PRCo] Re: Historical Question


Not sure which is worse, Fred.  Not being on some trips, or being on some
trips but so young that there is no recollection.



> From: fwschneider at comcast.net
> Subject: [PRCo] Re: Historical Question
> Date: Sun, 13 Feb 2011 14:21:56 -0500
> To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
> 
> Fantrip Herb!   ... M1, West Penn 832 and 3756 were operated under their
own power to the museum site.  The next Monday the scrappers cut the power
and continued ripping up the tracks from the museum site northward.
> Dick Steinmetz told a story at an NRHS meeting in the Lancaster or
Harrisburg area that he had the fastest imaginable ride ever up through
South Hills Tunnel that day in a single truck car.   He was in M-1 out of
Ingram that day and the operator had the controller against the peg up
through the tunnel.  
> 
> Either he or someone else told a neat story about stopping for lunch in
Canonsburg.   Here were hundreds of guys flooding town looking for food.
One restaurantier asked, "How did you all get here?"   He was told by
streetcar.   "But they quit running months ago?"   He was then told about
the museum excursion.
> 
> Sometime after that vandals chopped down the trolley wire at the museum
site and gutted some of the copper out of West Penn 832.
> 
> I remember how Herman Rinke used to be one of those obnoxious types in the
ERA office in New York City.   No matter what subject came up, he was old
enough to always be able to jump in and say he had been there and see it
all.   I guess I'm now old enough to be the same kind of S. O. B.   
> I have to admit guys there were things my mentors talked about that I
wished I had ridden.   I'm really not singing that song, "I've been
everywhere."  
> 
> Wouldn't it have been nice to have ridden the West Penn from Uniontown
through New Stanton to Connellsville like Steve Maguire did?    No I didn't
ride that.   I never even rode the mainline.   Only rode a few blocks in
Jeannette.   
> 
>  Or Altoona and Logan Valley from Altoona to Tyrone like my good buddy
John Bowman did back in 1933?   Johnny also rode the Wilkes-Barre and
Hazleton ... what a ride that must have been over two mountains.   
> 
> And Jim Shuman enjoyed the riding the Indiana Railroad from Indianapolis
to Peru to Fort Wayne to Anderson to Indianpolis to Louisville and even to
Terre Haute.   WOW!    Jim talked about going to Allentown to see the first
ex C&LE cars on display before they went into service in 1940.   I was just
born then.   I never even rode the Liberty Bell route ... only saw the city
cars in Allentown in 1952, the year before they quit.   
> 
> And my old vacation companion Donald Duke told this great story about his
dad's card playing buddy coming into the Duke home and saying, "Do you know
what your son has been doing after dinner?   Seem that one evening President
Smith got onto one of his cars and found the motorman studying for his
college classes and the conductor sitting back in the rear corner of the
car.   After chatting with both of them he asked, "And who is running the
car?"   Turns out that Don Duke used to go out after dinner and spell the
motorman so he could study ... Don made a round trip from San Marino to
Glendora.   "Your son is a good motorman ... better than a lot of our men
... but we have to stop letting him do this," Smith is alleged to have said
to Norman Duke.     Don could have written the book, "I was a teenage
motorman."    Don't I wish I had the same chance! 
> 
> Sad that all these old friends are now dead....
> 
> Friday night I drove to a Tractioneers meeting in Washington DC.   Ara
Mesrobian asked how I could still drive all the way down and back in one
night.   He said he would be camped in a hotel!    I guarantee in a few more
years I will understand Ara.   I no longer drive to Pittsburgh and home just
to get an Eat 'n Park hamburger!   
> 
> Oh well, my fun and games was pulling leverss at the Pennsy's interlocking
plant in Lancaster during the summer of 1957 when the regular block operator
was sick.    Then there was the chap at the local bus company who worked
evenings with me at Sears Roebuck ... after the store shut down, we would go
to the garage.   He would fuel the buses and I would drive them into the
garage.  
> 
> We all have our stories, don't we.....   
> 
> 
> On Feb 13, 2011, at 1:19 PM, Herb Brannon wrote:
> 
> > On or about February 7, 1954 a low floor car (3756?) was moved from
> > Pittsburgh to Arden. How was the car moved; under it's own power (if the
> > PRCo tracks to Washington PA were still intact) or on a truck?
> > -- 
> > Herb Brannon
> > In Cuyahoga Valley National Park
> > 
> > 
> > 
> 
> 
>