[PRCo] First Harmony Car Enters Pittsburg

Mon Nov 11 12:06:30 EST 2013

Ed

Compounding the felony, so to speak, was the fact that it was built to a non-standard gauge.  This meant even though it participated in the CERA freight interchange network, any interline freight at New Castle had to be physically transferred between vehicles, producing a high cost to perform the service that became the life blood of most of the Midwestern interurbans in their last years.  One thinks it would have made more sense to spend the extra money to lay a third rail along PRC track to attain downtown access.

But when one builds a railway to transport pax to one’s department store, or to satisfy one’s ego, what can be expected.

As you say, if we were talking about sense, it would have made more sense not to build it.  The P&W was hardly making a fortune hauling pax between New Castle and Pittsburgh and intermediate points back in those days—even before there were many autos. An additional railway line only diluted the available pool further.

Dwight

From: Edward H. Lybarger 
Sent: Friday, 08 November, 2013 17:24
To: 'Western PA Trolley discussion' 
Subject: Re: [PRCo] First Harmony Car Enters Pittsburg
You have to wonder how many other companies nationwide were built, like the
Harmony Route, to satisfy the gigantic ego of the guy behind it.  It went
the long way to Butler (and probably drew just enough traffic from the Short
Line to render it insolvent); New Castle was a long way off and although it
had people, not enough of them wanted to go to Pittsburgh.  In between was a
lot of nothing, plus Evans City and Ellwood City.  Oh, yes, there was also a
nice camping area along the Connoquenessing that Mr. Boggs favored.  He also
favored the most expensive construction that could be had...only the best.

Mr. Boggs built the line with the expectation that everyone adjacent to it
would come to his department store.  This just didn't happen.  David
McCahill compounded the misery by acquiring the Short Line out of
receivership in about 1919...now he had two companies that couldn't earn a
living, and when the bonds came due, there was no money.  Some of the
bridges sat for years after abandonment because no one could earn enough in
scrap value to justify the labor cost of dismantling them.

Just another company that never should have been built.

-----Original Message-----
From: pittsburgh-railways-bounces at mailman.dementix.org
[mailto:pittsburgh-railways-bounces at mailman.dementix.org] On Behalf Of Fred
Schneider
Sent: Friday, November 08, 2013 4:05 PM
To: Western PA Trolley discussion
Subject: Re: [PRCo] First Harmony Car Enters Pittsburg

The scary thing is that they were set up to haul a maximum of 52 passengers
per hour and we know they didn't even accomplish that.

What would they have had to have charged each rider in order to amortize all
the fixed and variable costs?    My guess is somewhere in the 4 to 8 dollar
range back in 1908 and they were probably charging a few cents a zone
because that was what they could get.   

Rather than have mortgages like you and I do on our houses where you pay
back part of the principle and interest every month, the interurbans
deferred the principal until one huge balloon payment at the end.   They
simply paid interest for 25 years (or whatever the term of years), and then
had to come up with the principle and interest at the end.   They bargained
on cheaper dollars thanks to inflation.   But when the time came . usually
about 25 years later .. we were in the Great Depression and almost none of
them had the money because they had never established adequate sinking funds
to pay off the mortgage bonds and the fares were probably never high enough
for the inadequate riding.   They also could no longer sell refinancing
bonds because the public was not buying streetcar bonds to help broke
interurbans in the 1930s.

So if we begin building the Harmony in 1906 and open in 1908 and then 25
years later the bonds are due (I'm speculating that was the cause because it
was in so many similar cases), we get to 1931 and we are in bankruptcy.  

Of course it sure didn't help that all the major highways had been paved
between 1920 and 1930 and we now had over 1.5 million cars and light trucks
on the state highways.   

Glad my grandparents didn't invest in those bonds for their retirement.

On Nov 7, 2013, at 2:54 PM, Bob Rathke wrote:

> Attached is from the Ross Twp. Historical Society - a scan of a newspaper
article dated 11/2/1908. 
> 
> 
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