[PRCo] Facebook page for posting photos of old andabandonedbuildings in Western Pa.

Tue Apr 9 00:56:03 EDT 2013

John

I was on that trip too.  It was my very first enthusiast tour.  But it was 
not several months before the final abandonment, it was only about a month 
removed from that.  Some time I'll have to look thru my fots from that trip 
and see if I can spot a six year old.

Dwight

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "John Swindler" <j_swindler at hotmail.com>
To: "Western PA Trolley discussion" 
<pittsburgh-railways at mailman.dementix.org>
Sent: Tuesday, April 09, 2013 12:37 AM
Subject: Re: [PRCo] Facebook page for posting photos of old 
andabandonedbuildings in Western Pa.

It was the 711 trip several months before the final West Penn abandonment. 
But the worse part is being only 6 years old and having only a couple vague 
impressions from the trip.   If it were not for the two attached family pix 
would wonder if just wishful thinking.   > From: fwschneider at comcast.net
> Date: Mon, 8 Apr 2013 17:51:30 -0400
> To: pittsburgh-railways at mailman.dementix.org
> Subject: Re: [PRCo] Facebook page for posting photos of old 
> andabandonedbuildings in Western Pa.
>
> And now, how many of yins remember when route 21 was the last route in the 
> city to have full time scheduled service with a single - end yellow car? 
> I do not know, off hand, when it was but I remember it.   Was after we 
> moved from Pittsburgh to Lancaster.   That was 1949.  I remember going 
> back to Grandma's home and seeing it … so it was by the time I was 
> wandering around on my own.  Maybe by the time I was 12.   That could be 
> the spring of 1952.
>
> John Swindler always reminds me how a couple of years difference in our 
> ages makes a huge difference in the things we remember. Even though he 
> grew up in Edgewood and I was out in Penn Hills (called Penn Township 
> then), I remember DE low floor cars on route 78 Laketon Road and he has no 
> memory of them.
>
> I think I can come up with a memory I can guarantee he doesn't have.   A 
> rather famous 1937 animated Disney film was rereleased in 1944.   My 
> mother took me to downtown Pittsburgh on Deere Brothers bus to see it. 
> After enjoying Snow White and the seven little sons-a-bitches, I was taken 
> out to Grandma's home on the streetcar.   But during the war, Route 8 
> PERRYSVILLE did not have those modern 5500s.   No sir.   It had low-speed, 
> single-end low floor cars that had been removed from storage and returned 
> to work.   If memory serves, they might have been 5100 or maybe 5000s. 
> During the war, if it ran, they used it.   The speeded up cars were 
> rebuilt with helical years but those unrebuilt low-speed cars had spur 
> gears and the one I was one that day in '44 had probably the most badly 
> worn set imaginable.   They were so bad that to this day I can still 
> remember the pain to my ear drums caused by the loud grinding of those 
> worn gears.   There were probably some people on that car who long 
> remembered the pain my crying gave them.   I wonder why I like streetcars 
> after such an event so early in life.
>
> When we are that young, I think there is very little we remember unless it 
> is traumatic.   I have a German buddy who is a month younger than I am who 
> has some very stark memories of World War II while I have almost none. 
> Why?   His memories are of his mother carrying his younger brother on her 
> back while Helmut walked across Germany with bombs exploding around them. 
> We remember trauma.   And that is probably why one of the few things I can 
> remember from age 4 is a freaken noisy streetcar.
>
> But I am still jealous …
>
> John's next door neighbor took him for a ride on the final West Penn 
> fantrip.  He rode a West Penn 700 at about age 8 or 9 or 10.   I rode 289 
> for a few blocks in West Jeannette with my dad chasing the car in the 
> family Chevy.   You know all those stories about "shoulda, woulda, coulda? 
> I shoulda just stayed on the car and ridden into Greensburg instead of 
> worrying about what the old man might have said.
>
>
> On Apr 8, 2013, at 4:58 PM, Bob Rathke wrote:
>
> >
> >
> > Dwight,
> >
> >
> >
> > "The second half of the last trolley day" referred to the last regularly 
> > scheduled trip on 6/14-Avalon which occured immediately following the 
> > last regularly scheduled trip on 21-Fineview..
> >
> >
> >
> > The last regular service day for 21 and 14/6 was Saturday, April 30, 
> > 1966.  The last car on 21 arrived back downtown from Fineview  a little 
> > before Midnight, and then went to Tunnel CH.  A few minutes later  the 
> > last regular service car on 14/6 left downtown for Avalon, and returned 
> > back downtown around 2am on Sunday, May 1.
> >
> >
> >
> > I was  on the last regular service trips on both 21 and 6/14. I 've 
> > heard that there was a charter that ran on Finview after the last 
> > regular service trip there, but I don't know when that occured .  I'm 
> > not sure if there was also an after-service charter on 6/14.
> >
> >
> >
> > Bob
> >
> >
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> >
> >
> > From: "Dwight Long" <dwightlong at verizon.net>
> > To: "Western PA Trolley discussion" 
> > <pittsburgh-railways at mailman.dementix.org>
> > Sent: Monday, April 8, 2013 2:32:30 PM
> > Subject: Re: [PRCo] Facebook page for posting photos        of 
> > old        andabandonedbuildings in Western Pa.
> >
> >
> > Bob
> >
> > Not sure to what you refer.  I was on the last trip of Rt. 21 and then a 
> > few
> > of us retired to a Brass Rail in the Triangle (on Liberty or Penn??) to 
> > cry
> > in our beer over the loss.  What was the "last trolley day?"  Some
> > enthusiast tour?
> >
> > I'm sending this from my portable and don't have my records at hand or 
> > could
> > tell you the exact date.  It was in 1966 for sure.
> >
> > Dwight
> >
> > ----- Original Message ----- 
> > From: "Bob Rathke" <bobrathke at comcast.net>
> > To: "Western PA Trolley discussion"
> > <pittsburgh-railways at mailman.dementix.org>
> > Sent: Monday, April 08, 2013 1:17 PM
> > Subject: Re: [PRCo] Facebook page for posting photos of old
> > andabandonedbuildings in Western Pa.
> >
> >
> >>
> >>
> >> Dwight,
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> There was a Brass Rail on E. Ohio St. Did you skip the se cond half of 
> >> the
> >> "last trolley day" on 4/3 0/66?
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> That night I rode the last 21-Fine view car out to Fineview and back to
> >> downtown, then caught the last 6/14 trolley and rode out to Avalon and
> >> back. I took the attached photo as a group of fans on Penn Ave. made 
> >> the
> >> dash to board 1799.
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> Bob
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> ----- Original Message ----- 
> >>
> >>
> >> From: "Dwight Long" <dwightlong at verizon.net>
> >> To: "Western PA Trolley discussion"
> >> <pittsburgh-railways at mailman.dementix.org>
> >> Sent: Monday, April 8, 2013 11:43:33 AM
> >> Subject: Re: [PRCo] Facebook page for posting photos of old and
> >> abandonedbuildings in Western Pa.
> >>
> >>
> >> Bob
> >>
> >> My last (somewhat faint) memory of the Brass Rail is consuming mass
> >> quantities of beer in one of their outlets after I had ridden the last
> >> ever Rt. 21 Fineview car,
> >>
> >> Dwight
> >>
> >> From: Bob Rathke
> >> Sent: Monday, 08 April, 2013 12:23
> >> To: Western PA Trolley discussion
> >> Subject: Re: [PRCo] Facebook page for posting photos of old and
> >> abandonedbuildings in Western Pa.
> >>
> >>
> >> Fred,
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> While you're remembering Fifth and Liberty Avenues, don't forget Frank 
> >> &
> >> Seder, Spear and May Stern department/furniture stores. Also 5&10's 
> >> G.C.
> >> Murphy and Grants; the Brass Rail and Bards (similar to Isaly's, but 
> >> Bard
> >> stores were in the neighborhoods, not downtown ).
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> My grandmother worked at Rosenbaums before she was married. The 
> >> Rosenbaum
> >> building was a solid structure , and it took months to dem olish it 
> >> before
> >> they could start building the parking garage that's on the site now. My
> >> grandfather worked at Boggs & Buhl and was an office boy for R.H. 
> >> Boggs,
> >> but his family encouraged him to leave the store and learn a trade. The
> >> R.H. Boggs home on the Mexican War Streets is now a B&B.
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> My paternal great grandfather was fire engineer at the City of 
> >> Allegheny
> >> fire station No. 2 on Concord St. from 1868 to the early 1900's (see
> >> attached photo). I also have a photo of him working in Johnstown after 
> >> the
> >> 1889 flood (I assume that Allegheny sent fireman to Johnstown to help
> >> out). And I have copies of his Civil War records and pension.
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> About the Brass Rail: the restaurants had a large (probably 5 'X10 ') 
> >> copy
> >> of a painting behi nd the bar. The painting depicted a 1930-style bus, 
> >> but
> >> the bus was five stories tall and looked like a cruise ship on wheels. 
> >> The
> >> title of the painting was, "A bus salesman's dream in 1960". I wonder 
> >> if
> >> that painting survived the restaurants.
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> Bob
> >>
> >>
> >> ----- Original Message ----- 
> >>
> >>
> >> From: "Fred Schneider" <fwschneider at comcast.net>
> >> To: "Western PA Trolley discussion"
> >> <pittsburgh-railways at mailman.dementix.org>
> >> Sent: Monday, April 8, 2013 10:43:23 AM
> >> Subject: Re: [PRCo] Facebook page for posting photos of old and 
> >> abandoned
> >> buildings in Western Pa.
> >>
> >> You know you are old, Bob, when someone asks "What's a McCrorys?" Think 
> >> of
> >> all those old store names that are no longer there. I will confine 
> >> myself
> >> to western Pennsylvania … Woolworths, Gimbels, Kaufmans, Joseph Horne,
> >> Rosenbaums, Boggs and Buhl, Isalys.
> >>
> >> Yup…. And you now have to be in your 40s to understand what communism 
> >> was
> >> like in eastern Europe. In a way, I guess I am rather glad that I
> >> vacationed in East Germany before the wall came down and saw it. I 
> >> guess,
> >> as ugly as history can be, I guess it was also good for me that I
> >> experienced the segregated southern states … black and white drinking
> >> fountains, toilets, restaurants, etc.
> >>
> >> Now, how the hell do I explain to my granddaughter and her husband, who 
> >> is
> >> of African descent, what it would have been like living in this country 
> >> 60
> >> or more years ago?
> >>
> >>
> >> On Apr 4, 2013, at 1:19 PM, Bob Rathke wrote:
> >>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> Here's a Facebook page containing photos of old and abondoned 
> >>> structures
> >>> in Western Pa. It contains a few rail photos. I've posted some of my
> >>> 1956-82 photos in the section for, "Recent posts by others".
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> See:
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> https://www.facebook.com/pages/Abandoned-Old-Interesting-Places-Western-PA/237114536307967?sk=photos#!/pages/Abandoned-Old-Interesting-Places-Western-PA/237114536307967
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
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> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
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