[PRCo] "This Streetcar Mess" Pittsburgh Press Editorial - December 1948

Mon Apr 29 20:42:12 EDT 2013

Come on Ed.    Yellow Coach Acceptance Corporation would lend money ……………….as long as you bought a General Motors bus and had some chance of paying the money back.   Johnny Myers, who owned a little company called Penn Highway Transit in Lancaster, Pa., grumbled in the 1950s that YCAC would loan money to Conestoga Transportation Company but not to him …. all he could buy were used buses with a few thousand miles left in them.   Even they were careful loaning money to the little guys for fear of not getting it back.

There were some reorganization plans that wiped out all the underliers but they also had plans to wipe out the rail system too.   Here in Lancaster, Pa., the 1900 reorganization eliminated the underliers existing at that time (their stockholders got stock in the new company) and the 1931 bankruptcy wiped out the underliers created after 1900.   They had been paid a percentage of the construction expense of their individual railwasys but in 1932 the new company began demolishing those assets.   After 1933, there was only 15 miles of track left built after 1900.  

I think the 1939 PRT bankruptcy may have dissolved a lot of those underliers;  George Gula may know.   They had some crazy ones like the L. A. Thompson Mountain Railway Company, which was nothing more than the roller coaster in Willow Grove Park.     

Who had money in the 1950s to invest in new rail cars?

     Hudson and Manhattan bought a few new cars in 1958 … they were still tied to the Pennsylvania Railroad.

     Cleveland Transit equipped their new Rapid in the 1950s using public money.

     New York City Transit Authority bought a lot of subway cars … again public money.

     Boston's MTA built the line to Orient Heights in the 1950s … more public money … and Riverside in 1959 after the Boston and Albany Railroad had lost enough money.

     Chicago built hundreds of "Spancans" mostly out of recycled PCC cars throughout the 1950s … still more from the public trough.

     Don't forget Toronto's Yonge Street subway.

But was anyone in the private sector investing money in rail cars for public transit in our cities?   You got to be kidding.  I think the very last order of PCCs using private capital might have been the Pittsburgh 1700s in 1948-1949.     We didn't know how bad the migration was from our cities until the 1960 census was released about 1961 but the companies knew what was happening to their the money going through the fareboxes.   

Their fares were going into gas tanks to drive the owners from the 'burbs into the cities.   In 1944 we had 30.4 million registered motor vehicles in the United States.  By 1960 that number had risen to 74.4 million.   In 2002 it was 233.9 million.   The population slightly more than doubled (2.007 times) but motor vehicles advanced 7.694 times in the same 58 years.   

Hey guys … don't forget the East Penn Traction Club meet at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center in Oaks PA this Saturday.   Oaks is off route 422 northwest of Valley Forge and King of Prussia.   I understand the fantrip on Sunday is sold out.

http://www.eastpenn.org/meet.html

On Apr 29, 2013, at 3:40 PM, Edward H. Lybarger wrote:

> I wouldn't believe everything I read in "Transit in the Triangle."  The
> problem was the out-of-town folks who bought up the securities for pennies
> on the dollar and then held out for big payouts.  But there has been no
> reliable research done on just what occurred there, and it's badly needed.
> Those people's claims, however, were legal, just as the ones by heirs of the
> original investors were.
> 
> I seriously doubt that there would have been any further investment after
> the final reorganization in the face of deteriorating passenger counts and
> rising costs.  No one in his right mind believed that public transit was a
> growth industry, so no one was willing to lend money to the industry.  Let's
> not let emotion supersede economics!
> 
> Ed
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: pittsburgh-railways-bounces at mailman.dementix.org
> [mailto:pittsburgh-railways-bounces at mailman.dementix.org] On Behalf Of Herb
> Brannon
> Sent: Monday, April 29, 2013 3:02 PM
> To: Western PA Trolley discussion
> Subject: Re: [PRCo] "This Streetcar Mess" Pittsburgh Press Editorial -
> December 1948
> 
> According to "Transit In The Triangle" the investors did receive their money
> even though most of the people receiving that money were distant relatives
> of the original owners/investors. This really did bankrupt PRCo.
> We would have probably seen more new PCCs purchased and more fixed plant
> improvements in the early 1950s had the contingency fund not been wiped out
> by a bunch of money-mongers who I would have told to "step off" long before
> they even made a claim to any money. That is what the bankruptcy process is
> all about. I am at a loss as to why these people were awarded anything.
> 
> 
> On Mon, Apr 29, 2013 at 1:11 PM, Edward H. Lybarger
> <trams2 at comcast.net>wrote:
> 
>> It's easy to say that the investors in the underliers had no rights to 
>> the cash, but they did.  There wouldn't have been a company if it 
>> weren't for them.
>> 
>> But those folks also had the right to see their investment wiped out 
>> in a reorganization...that's why debtors love the bankruptcy process.
>> 
>> When it's not your money, it's easy to say anything!
>> 
>> Ed
>> 
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: pittsburgh-railways-bounces at mailman.dementix.org
>> [mailto:pittsburgh-railways-bounces at mailman.dementix.org] On Behalf Of 
>> Barry, Matthew R
>> Sent: Monday, April 29, 2013 12:42 PM
>> To: Western PA Trolley discussion (
>> pittsburgh-railways at mailman.dementix.org)
>> Subject: [PRCo] "This Streetcar Mess" Pittsburgh Press Editorial - 
>> December
>> 1948
>> 
>> I put the whole editorial into one jpeg, so you'll probably need to 
>> use the
>> + key in your viewer, or enlarger in whatever photo program you open 
>> + the
>> file with.  Paint works pretty well.
>> 
>> Matt
>> 
>> 
>> 
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> 
> 
> 
> --
> Herb Brannon
> Back In The Burgh !
> 
> 
> 
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