[PRCo] Re: Historical Question

[John Swindler]

Fred and I often discussed the difference seven years made in our recollections.  He remembers low floor cars in Pittsburgh.  My earliest recollection is PRC operating PCC cars.  

My wife has also commented that I can mention things that happened 20-30-40 years ago, but not remember what we had for dinner earlier this week.  I'll get into trouble if I mention anything else.

Cheers
John




> From: dwightlong at verizon.net
> To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
> Subject: [PRCo] Re: Historical Question
> Date: Sat, 5 Mar 2011 09:49:34 -0500
> 
> John
> 
> I rode West Penn on three dates in late '51 and '52, one on an enthusiast excursion (Latrobe to Irwin and return the day after the Irwin line crumped) and the others on family excursions engineered by me.  Covered all lines then operating, and I have quite clear memories of the trips.
> 
> Just don't ask me to recall what happened yesterday.
> 
> Dwight
>   ----- Original Message ----- 
>   From: John Swindler 
>   To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org 
>   Sent: Friday, 04 March, 2011 16:25
>   Subject: [PRCo] Re: Historical Question
> 
> 
> 
>   Hi Dwight
>    
>   Yes, but it is still frustrating to have been on two West Penn trips and not have any recollection - other then a handful of faded photos.  It's as though it never happened.  Maybe railfans tend to also be photographers as a means of keeping the memory alive.  
>    
>   Prior to digital age, it was surprising how many people did NOT take pictures.  Fred and Ed might recall a certain wedding back in 1993 when almost all the photographs came from the three railfans in attendence.  
>    
>   Cheers
>   John
>    
>    
> 
>    
>   > From: dwightlong at verizon.net
>   > To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
>   > Subject: [PRCo] Re: Historical Question
>   > Date: Fri, 4 Mar 2011 13:06:15 -0500
>   > 
>   > John
>   > 
>   > It's clear which is worse--not being on the trips. As long as one was on the trip, assuming proof is available, one can count the mileage!!!!!
>   > 
>   > As the late, great E.M.Frimbo said, "It all counts, Buster!" ---even if one cannot remember it.
>   > 
>   > There is, however, an open question as to whether track traversed whilst in the womb counts or not, and I don't think this has ever been adjudicated with finality.
>   > 
>   > Dwight
>   > 
>   > ----- Original Message ----- 
>   > From: John Swindler 
>   > To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org 
>   > Sent: Sunday, 13 February, 2011 16:55
>   > 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
>   > > > 
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