[PRCo] Reading - Pgh. Press - March 1 thru 9.

Tue May 20 16:46:26 EDT 2014

A slightly different response, Ed, than the usual NCL killed off our toys.  I love it.   

On May 20, 2014, at 2:38 PM, Edward H. Lybarger wrote:

> Peak year for coal and coke was 1916.  Clairton opened full time in 1918.
> Last year West Penn paid the bond interest out of the fare box was 1920.  It
> all fits very precisely.  The terminals were joint ventures with the power
> company, which eased the burden a bit.  The 830s were part of a $400,000
> upgrade of AV Street Ry and were needed to convert to one-man operation.
> 
> They didn't exactly know when they finished the system in 1914 what loomed
> on the horizon.  And if they had dumped the railway company as soon as it
> became unprofitable in the fullest sense of the word, it would have killed
> the power company...the organization simply couldn't have taken that big a
> write-down and still been viable.  But since Railways owned (in 1916) 100%
> of Power, it wasn't an issue to subsidize one from the other.
> 
> Ed
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: pittsburgh-railways-bounces at mailman.dementix.org
> [mailto:pittsburgh-railways-bounces at mailman.dementix.org] On Behalf Of Fred
> Schneider
> Sent: Tuesday, May 20, 2014 11:01 AM
> To: Western PA Trolley discussion
> Subject: Re: [PRCo] Reading - Pgh. Press - March 1 thru 9.
> 
> Yup.   I chuckled two about Mitchell making it one of the most modern
> transportation companies in the country.  Maybe up to the early 1920s until
> the public quit riding.   
> 
> But we also know that the mines were already fading in 1910 when West Penn
> built their last routes.   If memory is working, it was about 1910 that the
> Clairton by-product recovery plant was built and that killed a lot of the
> beehive coke ovens along the West Penn.
> 
> The last investment was around 1927-1930 . the new terminals in
> Connellsville, Uniontown and Greensburg and the attempt to get the cars off
> some of the busiest downtown streets in Uniontown.  The 800 series cars for
> the Allegheny Valley were quasi-modern, meaning sealed gear boxes and 300
> volt motors but the brake and control package was anything but modern.   
> 
> 
> On May 19, 2014, at 8:40 PM, Dwight Long wrote:
> 
>> 
>> Fred
>> 
>> I love the part about Mitchell helping to make West Penn one of the most
> modern transportation companies in the country!
>> 
>> I think Federal pre-emption of local ordnances came as a result of lots of
> similar things to the McKeesport fiasco.
>> 
>> Dwight
>> ----- Original Message ----- 
>> From: Fred Schneider 
>> To: Western PA Trolley discussion 
>> Sent: Monday, May 19, 2014 8:07 PM
>> Subject: [PRCo] Reading - Pgh. Press - March 1 thru 9.
>> 
>> 
>> The Pittsburgh and West Virginia Terminal fire .. look in March 22, 1946.
> The fire happened over night Mar. 21-22.
>> 
>> Philadelphia Company wins delay
>> 
>> 
> http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=E1MbAAAAIBAJ&sjid=1kwEAAAAIBAJ&pg=3000%
> 2C15764
>> 
>> No page forward to page two, same edition.  Bottom of column one.   Look
> at that picture at the bottom of the first column of
>> the clothing department in Albert J. Mannsmann's department store in East
> Liberty.   Hard to believe a neighborhood department store when we don't
> even have them downtown in our cities any longer.
>> 
>> The next link is two columns over to the right . same page.  I put this
> in for Ed Lybarger.   AFL and CIO are battling over who should represent the
> employees at Champion Stores, the company store for Pittsburgh Consolidation
> Coal Company.   So when "I owe my soul to the company store" and it is shut
> down and I have no money, do I starve?   Or do I stick my shot gun in
> someone's face to get money to eat?  
>> 
>> 
> http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=E1MbAAAAIBAJ&sjid=1kwEAAAAIBAJ&pg=3639%
> 2C25910
>> 
>> 
> http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=FlMbAAAAIBAJ&sjid=1kwEAAAAIBAJ&pg=2188%
> 2C938893
>> 
>> It is hard to believe how primitive aviation was back then.   This is
> also for Ed but the rest of you might get a kick out of "Moon Township
> Airport Due to Get Funds."   
>> 
>> 
> http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=E1MbAAAAIBAJ&sjid=1kwEAAAAIBAJ&pg=3707%
> 2C83272
>> 
>> Personnel action at Pittsburgh Railways
>> 
>> 
> http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=E1MbAAAAIBAJ&sjid=1kwEAAAAIBAJ&pg=3707%
> 2C8327
>> 
>> We won't give up harassing the power company
>> 
>> 
> http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=FFMbAAAAIBAJ&sjid=1kwEAAAAIBAJ&pg=1579%
> 2C291182
>> 
>> The Pittsburgh, Shawmut and Northern Railway was sold in March for 1.5
> million dollars.   Doesn't say so here but the last trains ran about 27 days
> later.
>> 
>> 
> http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=FVMbAAAAIBAJ&sjid=1kwEAAAAIBAJ&pg=3055%
> 2C650711
>> 
>> 
> http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=FlMbAAAAIBAJ&sjid=1kwEAAAAIBAJ&pg=2557%
> 2C905732
>> 
>> 
> http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=GVMbAAAAIBAJ&sjid=1kwEAAAAIBAJ&pg=1940%
> 2C2206355
>> 
>> Pittsburgh Railways unhappy that Montour Bus Company wants to serve
> Spring Hill
>> 
>> 
> http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=FlMbAAAAIBAJ&sjid=1kwEAAAAIBAJ&pg=2136%
> 2C940320
>> 
>> This link is about eight hurt on a Greensburg-Blairsville bus when an oil
> truck slid into it on the Lincoln Highway west of Latrobe.   But the story
> to it's right is a real winner too.
>> 
>> 
> http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=FlMbAAAAIBAJ&sjid=1kwEAAAAIBAJ&pg=5161%
> 2C1032106
>> 
>> Baldwin Locomotive Company shut down temporarily because they could not
> get steel.   There were peripheral stories that I did not send about coal
> strikes and a lack of gas that also affected steel mills.   The second link
> comes a few days later when the United Mine Workers and John L. Lewis lost
> in the Supreme Court for breaching a contract with the government.    The
> entire page of the paper in the third link gives some idea about what was
> going on in the coal fields in 1947.
>> 
>> 
> http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=FlMbAAAAIBAJ&sjid=1kwEAAAAIBAJ&pg=1546%
> 2C1062045
>> 
>> 
> http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=GFMbAAAAIBAJ&sjid=1kwEAAAAIBAJ&pg=5426%
> 2C1466133
>> 
>> 
> http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=GVMbAAAAIBAJ&sjid=1kwEAAAAIBAJ&pg=1945%
> 2C2013973
>> 
>> This guy must have loved his work.   H. L. Mitchell of West Penn achieves
> 45 years in harness.
>> 
>> 
> http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=FlMbAAAAIBAJ&sjid=1kwEAAAAIBAJ&pg=5121%
> 2C1062595
>> 
>> Philadelphia Company's hearing is recessed
>> 
>> 
> http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=F1MbAAAAIBAJ&sjid=1kwEAAAAIBAJ&pg=5770%
> 2C1287583
>> 
>> Same old - same old.   I love this.   They had clean coal back in 1947
> except that they were unable to find it.   Coal industry accused of
> attempting to sabotage Pittsburgh's smoke control program.   I find the
> whole thing rather amusing.  This is the only item I have posted so far but
> the papers have been filled with it.   One of the better items prior to this
> was an editorial cartoon showing Harrisburg aiming a canon at Pittsburgh's
> attempts to clean up the city because the coal companies were buying the
> legislators.
>> 
>> 
> http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=F1MbAAAAIBAJ&sjid=1kwEAAAAIBAJ&pg=6205%
> 2C1324122  
>> 
>> Sounds like this chap employed the law firm of Dewey, Cheetum and Howe to
> sue Pittsburgh Railways.   
>> 
>> 
> http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=GFMbAAAAIBAJ&sjid=1kwEAAAAIBAJ&pg=2250%
> 2C1494659
>> 
>> Fantastic article about all the rules McKeesport inflicted on the B&O.
> I can only wonder when the ICC or the FRA told the city to go pound sand.
> I know of similar cases where cities were told that they had no control over
> railroads.
>> 
>> 
> http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=G1MbAAAAIBAJ&sjid=1kwEAAAAIBAJ&pg=4302%
> 2C2502871
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
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