[PRCo] More reading from Pittsburgh Press

[Fred Schneider]

Guys, 

I began reading local newspapers about 50 … maybe 51 … years ago hunting local trolley history.   It wasn't long before I realized that it wasn't just the trolley stuff I should be reading, but also the movie and amusement and industrial history too because that told me a lot about why people rode the cars.   Eventually I built up quite a file about local history in Lancaster.   Amazing when you make notes about when a certain building was erected or when the power lines were buried, how easy it is to date anonymous pictures.   Over the years I found I can't just pick up an old newspaper and read about trolleys.   I have to scan the whole thing.   It can be fun.

And here are some of the things that caught my eye while hunting stuff on Pittsburgh Railways.  It isn't necessarily about telling the search engine to find stuff about trolleys or street cars or streetcars or Pittsburgh Railways but just scanning the whole newspaper.

Man contests right of way with trolley in Homestead; man loses.   Sadly he is too old for a Darwin Award….gets nothing for his efforts.   All kidding aside … Dixon St. appears to have been a relatively busy street.   Today it is protected by a traffic light.  

   http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=HSsbAAAAIBAJ&sjid=CE0EAAAAIBAJ&pg=4495%2C637741

Here is the famous (or infamous if you prefer) story about the Red Arrow plunging off the rails at Bennington Curve below Gallitzen.

   http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=HSsbAAAAIBAJ&sjid=CE0EAAAAIBAJ&pg=4495%2C637741

Not all footballs are pigskin and not all the crazies are today's kids….

     http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=HisbAAAAIBAJ&sjid=CE0EAAAAIBAJ&pg=3041%2C782740

South Shore train slices through a loaded bus … the bus was filled with the railroad's own track gang … driver didn't stop at the grade crossing even though he could see forever … wiped out 13 workers.   Yes a CSS&SB train made the Pittsburgh papers.   I have since found a former CSS&SB employee who said when he started there in the 1980s, there were still people affected by this one.  

     http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=HisbAAAAIBAJ&sjid=CE0EAAAAIBAJ&pg=2713%2C785604 

Mayor orders crackdown on trolleys going through red lights.

     http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=HisbAAAAIBAJ&sjid=CE0EAAAAIBAJ&pg=4131%2C820580

There is no direct link to this article… this leads to one four columns to the right of the one I thought was interesting.   Click on the link and then move to the left edge of the page.   The AF&L and the CIO had been fighting for for over four months over which should have jurisdiction over the breweries and bars and truck drivers in Pittsburgh.  Here is an admission that the American Federation of Labor had spent what might be $5 million in todays dollars beating up people, breaking windows, bombing bars, etc. just to get their way.  

    http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=HysbAAAAIBAJ&sjid=CE0EAAAAIBAJ&pg=4179%2C1133280

This next one involves the sale of a major utility holding company.   Remember the story about how the government passed legislation in 1938 breaking up the utility holding companies?  The last two I know were New Orleans Public Service and Transport of New Jersey, both in the 1980s.  This news item is about Electric Bond and Share.

    http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=HysbAAAAIBAJ&sjid=CE0EAAAAIBAJ&pg=1595%2C1268104

PRR lost money in 1946 for the first time in 100 years; blames the ICC.

     http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=HysbAAAAIBAJ&sjid=CE0EAAAAIBAJ&pg=1633%2C1275278

Here is an example of how knowing when something disappeared or was built helps to date a picture.   A simple story about someone hurt when a crane fell on him during the demolition of the old downtown post office.   Now we know it happened early in 1947.

     http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=ISsbAAAAIBAJ&sjid=CE0EAAAAIBAJ&pg=2362%2C1983403

Same day … a 13 inch snow storm hits Pittsburgh but all the car lines were running.  

     http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=djft3U1LymYC&dat=19470221&printsec=frontpage&hl=en

Time for beddy-by.