[PRCo] Re: Question about 69 Squirrel Hill Route

[John Swindler]

  Never knew that there was Kennywood service via Second Ave., but does make some sense. Probably a quicker route than 68 for non-east-enders.  (might have just made up a new word)   Perhaps someone can ask Art Ellis.
 > From: dwightlong at verizon.net
> To: pittsburgh-railways at dementix.org
> Subject: [PRCo] Re: Question about 69 Squirrel Hill Route
> Date: Tue, 1 May 2012 17:05:36 -0400
> 
> 
> Herb
> 
> I think that's a 55A car, not a 55.  A 55 going to Kennywood would be very 
> misleading, the paper sign not withstanding.  However, a 55A going to 
> Kennywood would just be a logical extension of the route.
> 
> Dwight
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Herb Brannon" <hrbran at cavtel.net>
> To: <pittsburgh-railways at dementix.org>
> Sent: Tuesday, May 01, 2012 4:37 PM
> Subject: [PRCo] Re: Question about 69 Squirrel Hill Route
> 
> 
> > The June, 1937 PRCo Trolley & Bus Guide indicates to reach Kennywood Park
> > customers should take Route 60 from East Liberty or Route 68, and any 
> > other
> > route with a "Kennywood Park" destination sign, from downtown Pgh. This
> > hints that several different routes were used to get people to the park.
> > The photo of 1600 and 1609 shows a Route 55 car sitting behind 1600 with a
> > 55 Destination Sign and a cardboard "Kennywood" sign on the dash. Thus,
> > another route which ran Kennywood direct service.
> > Also, It would be nice to know the date of the 1600/1609 photo. The Car
> > Assignment List from 1/1/1952 shows both 1600 and 1609 housed at Craft
> > Avenue CH.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > On Tue, May 1, 2012 at 16:09, Fred Schneider 
> > <fwschneider at comcast.net>wrote:
> >
> >> My transcription of the route cards, Phil,  does not include any 
> >> reference
> >> to route 69 being extended on down Murray and out to Kennywood.   But two
> >> cars side-by-side at Kennywood with that sign up suggests it was done on
> >> peak days.   It would be very logical on Sundays or those days when 
> >> schools
> >> were having their picnics at the park.
> >>
> >> Sixty-nine was essentially the same route except from the 1918 until 1958
> >> except for changes in the downtown loop and the fact that it was rush 
> >> hour
> >> only before Oct. 28, 1927.   The Diamond, Ferry, Ross, Diamond loop was
> >> used was used from 1937 until the end.
> >>
> >> Why was it rush hour only until 1927?   Probably because there was simply
> >> no demand until then.   For one thing, Squirrel Hill has long been a
> >> heavily Orthodox Jewish neighborhood, so that there would limited lower
> >> demand for through riding on route 69 than in other neighborhoods on the
> >> Sabbath.   Why not just let the folks transfer from route 60 to the trunk
> >> lines?   Second point ... Oakland, Shadyside and Squirrel Hill were low
> >> density neighborhoods ... homes of the rich ... mansions.   The students
> >> who later filled the cars were not there until the teens and later. 
> >> Frick
> >> Park, which is off base but it gives some idea, was part of Henry Clay
> >> Frick's own back yard, until 1919.   It was private land.   Carnegie Tech
> >> was founded in 1900 and construction was going on in 1905 in an empty 
> >> field
> >> in Oakland; it was probably about 1909 that the first class graduated and
> >> it only had about 100 students.   University of Pittsburgh adopted its 
> >> new
> >> name in 1908 and began relocating to!
> >>  Oakland in 1909; the monstrous Cathedral of Learning was a vision of
> >> chancellor John Bowman in 1920 which he wanted to build on empty land in
> >> Oakland ... part of the Schenley Farm.   It was finished sometime early 
> >> in
> >> 1930s ... I have a picture of my mother standing on the unfinished roof
> >> slab of that building in 1930.   Several sources say Squirrel Hill began 
> >> to
> >> mushroom because of construction of the Boulevard of the Allies which was
> >> completed in 1923 to Oakland.
> >>
> >> Both those pictures have that certain smell like Charlie Dengler's hand
> >> was on the camera.?   One of the clues is that CD never spent any money 
> >> on
> >> panchromatic film as long as there was cheaper orthochromatic film 
> >> around.
> >>   Verichrome was good enough even if the reds were rendered as black and
> >> the blue skies washed out to white.
> >>
> >> That 1600 certainly exemplifies how one-off or one-of-a-kind cars lead
> >> orphan lives.  It was all over the system, from barn to barn, only 
> >> lasting
> >> ten years until the fire.  We have pictures of it working out of Craft,
> >> Tunnel, Homewood, Herron Hill, Highland Park.  And yet it differs very
> >> little from the Johnstown and Philadelphia (2100s and 2700s) and Boston
> >> all-electrics.   But in Pittsburgh, the accelerator, the master 
> >> controller,
> >> the line breaker, the window sash and many other parts were different 
> >> from
> >> other cars.  Anything goes wrong, you wait for a part.
> >>
> >>
> >> On Apr 30, 2012, at 3:17 PM, Edward H. Lybarger wrote:
> >>
> >> > Route 60 cars went to Kennywood at times.  Not sure about 69.
> >> >
> >> > -----Original Message-----
> >> > From: pittsburgh-railways-bounce at lists.dementix.org
> >> > [mailto:pittsburgh-railways-bounce at lists.dementix.org] On Behalf Of
> >> Barry,
> >> > Matthew R
> >> > Sent: Monday, April 30, 2012 2:59 PM
> >> > To: pittsburgh-railways at dementix.org
> >> > Subject: [PRCo] Question about 69 Squirrel Hill Route
> >> >
> >> > A few weeks back, there was a photo being offered on eBay of 58
> >> Greenfield
> >> > on Loretta Street between Murray and Greenfield Avenue, with a date of
> >> June
> >> > 1958.   The abandonment dates of routes 68 and 69 were in Sept. 1958. 
> >> > I
> >> > noted in this photo, that the wiring that would've taken route 69 on 
> >> > its
> >> > loop from Greenfield Avenue back to Murray Avenue, had been removed.
> >> If
> >> > the date of the photo was accurate, I wondered if in the latter years 
> >> > of
> >> > service, route 69 cars travelled further, perhaps to Munhall Loop or to
> >> > Kennywood Park.
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >
> >
> > -- 
> > Herb Brannon
> > In Cuyahoga Valley National Park
> >
> >
> > 
> 
>