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

Tue May 20 17:51:09 EDT 2014

Fred

Do you know when the terminal in Clarksburg was built?  At same time as other three?

What is so wonderful about 300V motors?  I see a detriment. If one cripples, you have to take its paired motor out of circuit as well.  With 600V motors you only have to isolate the cripple.  What is the benefit?

AVSR 830s had a "somewhat" more modern control system--used a K75 rather than a K35.  But it was still a platform controller and I guess that is what you mean--automatic acceleration controllers were already available.  Now look at the contemporary M-WP versions--I do not believe they even had WN drive, and I believe the motors were 600V units.  But the interiors were somewhat more nicely finished than the AV version.  Regardless, neither version was state of the art in 1930, which is what you are saying, I think.

For what was basically just a country trolley line with mostly local ridership, WP did have deluxe terminals in its major cities.  However, I hardly think these would have been built if not for the fact that they were shared with the power company and held the latter's showrooms and offices.

Dwight
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Fred Schneider 
  To: Western PA Trolley discussion 
  Sent: Tuesday, May 20, 2014 11:00 AM
  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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