Tag: Streetcars

  • Arlington Streetcar Loop

    Streetcar loop shelter

    This odd little building in the middle of a gravel lot is a remnant of the largest streetcar system in the United States.

    Arlington Avenue at the streetcar loop, 1968
    Arlington Avenue on March 30, 1968, with Route 48 streetcar coming out of the streetcar loop, by David Wilson from Oak Park, Illinois, USA, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

    We’ve already seen this picture of Arlington Avenue with the Route 48 streetcar poking its head out of the streetcar loop. That loop is still there, though the tracks have been taken up. You can see this little shelter right behind the trolley in the 1968 picture.

    In the 1960s. Pittsburgh had the largest remaining streetcar system in the country. We had lagged behind other cities in converting to bus transit, but the Port Authority, newly responsible for the transit system, was canceling streetcar lines right and left. (Some lines have survived—the lines that had their own right-of-way for most of the route, and thus would have been expensive or impossible to convert to buses.) The Arlington line would not survive long after that picture; the Route 48 streetcar became the Route 48 bus.

    Route 48 bus passing streetcar loop

    Here the Route 48 bus passes a mural with a picture of its predecessor, the Route 48 streetcar. The “Arlington Memories” murals are fading and will soon be memories themselves. The Route 48 streetcar line used to make a loop around the shelter and head back inbound on Arlington Avenue.

    Shelter again
    Shelter
    Front of the shelter
    Shelter with streetcar mural

    Shelter with wall of murals
    Canon PowerShot SX150 IS.
  • Arlington Avenue, 1968 and Today

    Arlington Avenue at the streetcar loop, 1968
    Arlington Avenue on March 30, 1968, with Route 48 streetcar coming out of the streetcar loop, by David Wilson from Oak Park, Illinois, USA, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

    Arlington Avenue was already looking a bit bedraggled in 1968, when David Wilson, a streetcar fanatic who documented the streetcar lines of Pittsburgh with hundreds of pictures, caught the Route 48 car peeking out of the streetcar loop.

    Most of the buildings in this picture are still there on Arlington Avenue, but the Arlington business district has mostly been abandoned by business. The storefronts that are not empty have been filled in for apartments.

    Arlington Avenue
    Buildings on Arlington Avenue

    This one, with a much-altered ground floor, is still going as a convenience store. Because the street plan in Arlington is irregular, many of the commercial buildings on Arlington Avenue are odd shapes.

    2403 Arlington Avenue
    2405 Arlington Avenue

    This little storefront has been filled in by a contractor who had no need of a busybody architect to tell him what to do. The original building is a pleasing little composition by someone who might have seen some of the German art magazines that circulated among architects in Pittsburgh.

    2439 Arlington Avenue

    A little of the Kittanning brick facing has come down from the front of this building, revealing the cheaper ordinary brick behind it.

    2439 Arlington Avenue
    Canopy with carved brackets
    2335 Arlington Avenue
    2233 Arlington Avenue
    Date stone with the date 1921
    2223 Arlington Avenue
    2311 Arlington Avenue
    2311 Arlington Avenue
    2311 Arlington Avenue
    Canon PowerShot SX150 IS.

    Now, about that streetcar loop: we’ll be seeing that very soon, because it is still there as well, or at least partly so.

  • Stevenson Stop on the Red Line, Dormont

    Trolley arriving at Stevenson stop

    In the terminology of Pittsburgh Regional Transit, Stevenson is a “stop” rather than a “station,” meaning that you board from the low-level door—the one old Pa Pitt calls the “Pittsburgh door”—and walk up three steps, whereas at a “station” you enter by one of the platform-level doors.

  • Mount Lebanon Station

    Mt. Lebanon Station

    A two-car train enters Mount Lebanon station from the subway tunnel that goes under part of Dormont and Uptown Mount Lebanon. Part of the platform is under reconstruction at the moment, so only the front car will open its doors.

    The Red Line is partly closed for the next two months as Pittsburgh Regional Transit sorts out an accumulated backlog of construction projects. The section from Potomac south to Overbrook Junction is still open.

    Two-car train at Mount Lebanon
    Outbound train, with stairway
    Kodak EasyShare Z981.
  • Trolleys at Penn Station

    Penn Station

    Although the subway spur to Penn Station is not in regular use, it is kept in working order for emergencies and special events. The subway downtown has been interrupted at Wood Street for track reconstruction, so trolleys are diverted to Penn Station, with a shuttle bus to Gateway.

    Penn Station
    Pair of trolleys
    Fujifilm FinePix HS10.
  • First Avenue Station

    First Avenue Station

    The distinctive sweeping roofline and steel columns of the First Avenue subway station, with the Try Street Terminal in the background. Below, an inbound rush-hour train of two 4200-series Siemens cars stops at the station.

    Inbound train stops at First Avenue Station
    Canon PowerShot SX150 IS.
  • Boarding the Silver Line at Gateway Station

  • Christmas in the Subway

    Interior of a trolley decorated for Christmas

    CAF car no. 4322 in the subway between Gateway and Wood Street. Someone put a lot of effort into decorating it: all the interior lights were replaced with alternating red and green, all the poles and grip rods were covered with spirals of electrical tape, and stick-on Christmas decorations were all over the windows. Whoever is responsible should get a raise and a promotion. In fact, whoever is responsible should be in charge of Pittsburgh Regional Transit.

  • Hampshire Stop, Beechview

    A two-car Red Line train stops at the inbound Hampshire safety island on Broadway in Beechview.

  • Fallowfield Station

    Red Line train at Fallowfield

    An inbound two-car Red Line train stops at the Fallowfield station in Beechview. The leading car is in the new chain-of-circles livery; the trailing car is in the older checkerboard livery.

    Fallowfield Station
    Two-car train at Fallowfield