[PRCo] Re: Question about 69 Squirrel Hill Route

[Dwight Long]

John

OMG!  Where did you dredge that one up?  I think it was gone before the 
Great War.

What was its routing?  The names don't make sense in sequence as I knew the 
track arrangement--but perhaps it was different then.

Dwight

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "John Swindler" <j_swindler at hotmail.com>
To: <pittsburgh-railways at dementix.org>
Sent: Tuesday, May 01, 2012 6:28 PM
Subject: [PRCo] Re: Question about 69 Squirrel Hill Route


>
> It may have been rush hour only because of route 80.  When did 80 
> expire???  > Subject: [PRCo] Re: Question about 69 Squirrel Hill Route
>> From: fwschneider at comcast.net
>> Date: Tue, 1 May 2012 16:09:45 -0400
>> To: pittsburgh-railways at dementix.org
>>
>> 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.
>> >
>> >
>> >
>>
>>
>>
>
>