BOOK REVIEW
Transit in the Triangle, Volume 1 By Blaine S. Hays and James A. Toman. Published by the Central Electric Railfans’ Association, Dept. RR, P.O. Box 503, Chicago, IL 60690;
www.cera-chicago.org. Hardcover, 224 pages, 11³/₈″×10⁵/₈″; b&w and color; stock no. B-145. $65.00 postpaid in the U.S.; IL residents add sales tax.
Subtitled “A Century Look at Pittsburgh Public Transit 1900- 1964,”
this CERA
Bulletin No. 145 is the first of two vol- umes and traces the Steel City’s public transportation
sys-
tem from its earliest beginnings through 1964, when the Pitts- burgh Railways sys-
tem was taken over by the Port Authority of Allegheny County.
The story begins with a bit of background on the Steel City’s ferries, canal boats, and horse-drawn stages of the early 19th centu- ry. As the need for public transportation de- veloped in the Golden Triangle, first horse- cars and then inclines, cable cars, and finally interurbans came into use before the dawn of the 20th century. As the region’s industri- al base took root and began to rapidly ex- pand, the street railways were established and spread out through the city and sur- rounding areas. The competing and parallel- ing routes of over 150 street railway compa- nies combined with poor financial conditions led to their consolidation into three systems: Consolidated Traction, United Traction, and Southern Traction, which shared the busi- ness with a few remaining independent lines. Then in 1902 Pittsburgh Railways took over Consolidated and United, acquired new rolling stock and changed operating patterns. The streetcar system was hard pressed to adjust to changing economic con- ditions, labor problems, and the loss of traf- fic to the personal automobile. Pittsburgh Railways acquired its first motor buses in 1925 with its parent company’s purchase of a bus line which became known as the Pitts- burgh Motor Coach Co. New rail equipment was also acquired, including low-floor cars and experimental lightweight cars from Os- good-Bradley as the company transitioned to one-man crews. Pittsburgh Railways con- tinued to acquire competitors until 1928, when it bought the Homestead & Mifflin Street Railway.
The Depression brought the Electric Rail- roads Presidents Conference Committee, which eventually designed the well-known streamlined PCC streetcars that helped slow the steady decline in ridership. In fact, Pittsburgh Railways received the first PCC, No. 100, from St. Louis Car in 1936 and would eventually own 800 production mod- els. In addition to operating motor buses, PRC also dabbled in trackless trolleys, oper- ating a demonstrator on a three-block loop, but the electrified bus could not knock the PCC cars from their pedestal. After World War II the company was reor- ganized and in 1953 the last interurban op- erations were discontinued and various streetcar lines were consolidated or convert- ed to buses. In 1955 it was announced that the new Fort Pitt Bridge would replace the
old Point Bridge, but without streetcar tracks, cutting off six routes on the west end. Then in 1957 a road project in Duquesne forced the abandonment of a major streetcar route and a Pittsburgh road project forced two more lines to convert to buses. In 1960, PRC was asked to pay to install track on the new 62nd Street Bridge, which resulted in the abandonment of two more routes. More strikes and abandonments ensued until the Port Authority ultimately took over the Pittsburgh Railways system in 1964. Transit in the Triangle is exhaustively re-
searched and covers nearly every aspect of the system in appropriate detail. A good se- lection of maps help depict the system’s growth into the early 1900s, and one full- page map is keyed to the ownership of 96 routes. These maps are quite detailed, but some readers might want to have a magnifi- er at hand. The book’s cartographic high point comes in the center, where four beautiful, highly de- tailed fold-out maps include a Pittsburgh Railways system track map that includes the locations of car barns, powerhouses, and sub- stations; another PRC map circa 1918 that al- so shows West End Traction, Washington & Canonsburg, Mount Washington Street Rail- way, and Pittsburgh & Castle Shannon track- age; a third map shows feeder bus lines as well as trolley routes; and a fourth map that shows later trolley and bus routes. These maps are all highly detailed.
The photographic coverage is excellent, with over 350 well-chosen and well-printed images that show nearly every aspect of Pittsburgh Railways’ history. You’ll find horsecars crossing the Sixth Street Bridge, double-truck cable cars, Knoxville Incline, laborers
the curved building new
track in a cobblestone street with neat stacks of Belgian blocks lining the side- walks. There’s a four-wheel Consolidated Traction Railway Post Office, a Pittsburgh, Knoxville & St. Clair motor car pulling a four-wheel trailer, open cars in single and double-truck configurations,
arch-windowed wooden interurbans,
handsome city
scenes and rural scenes, rolling stock, struc- tures, intricate trackwork, and bridges. Low- floor cars, double-deck cars, experimental Osgood Bradley lightweight cars, and the South Street horsecar, which lasted until 1923. Like buses? How about a 1926 double deck sightseeing bus, or a luxurious Safeway six-wheel bus? You’ll also find more prosaic commuter buses by GMC, Mack, and Ameri- can Car & Foundry, among other builders. One striking photo shows a pair of deck- roof cars on Penn Avenue with water almost up to their roofs during the 1936 St. Patrick’s Day flood. The PCC cars are well covered of course, from prototype No. 100 right up through the last order. There’s a PCC painted in a War Bonds scheme and car 4116 painted in a special white scheme to promote the Rege Cordic comedy program on KDKA Radio; the script of one program is provided.
Most photos are b&w, but there are also 16 pages of fine color images that feature a good variety of equipment operating across the system that were shot from the mid-’50s to the early ’60s. The color endpapers fea- ture ads for PCC cars and many tables and a thoroughly researched rolling stock roster complete the coverage. There’s almost too much information to mention it all in one re- view— WALT LANKENAU
(CONTINUED) 51
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64