Father Pitt

Tag: Streetcars

  • The New Odd Fellows Livery for Trolleys

    Car 4326 in old livery

    For two decades Pittsburgh streetcars have worn their checkerboard coats, a design old Pa Pitt must confess he never really liked very much. A whole generation has grown from infancy to adulthood since the last time that livery was changed. Here comes a two-car train into Potomac station in Dormont, and the first car is still wearing its old Port Authority suit. But the second—

    Car 4312 in new livery

    —is dressed in the new Pittsburgh Regional Transit livery, which Father Pitt thinks is an improvement.

    Trolley 4312
    Kodak EasyShare Max Z990.

    He cannot stop himself from thinking of it as the Odd Fellows livery, since the three links have been the Odd Fellows’ emblem since the sixth day of creation. But we could do worse than to have Odd Fellows rolling down our streetcar tracks.

    Odd Fellows emblem

    The three links on the Odd Fellows lodge in Hazelwood…

    Odd Fellows Hall date stone in the West End

    …and on the Odd Fellows Hall in the West End.

  • Glenwood Division Office, Pittsburgh Railways Company

    Pittsburgh Railways Glenwood
    Samsung Galaxy A15 5G with ultra-wide camera (so don‘t expect too much it you enlarge it)

    Pittsburgh Railways, the streetcar conglomerate, had a big facility here in Glenwood (the southern end of what city planning maps mark as Hazelwood) with a car barn and this station and offices. The complex was adjacent to the Glenwood station on the B&O, where there was a large railroad yard with a roundhouse.

    Inscription: Pittsburgh Railways Company

    The building is now the Hazelwood Healthy Active Living Community Center, so it has been restored and is kept in exceptionally neat condition.

    Glenwood Station
    Kodak EasyShare Max Z990.

  • A Broad View of Steel Plaza

    Steel Plaza station

    An “ultra-wide” view of a Red Line car coming into Steel Plaza station, thanks to the five-megapixel “ultra-wide” auxiliary camera on Father Pitt’s phone.

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  • Streetcars in Allentown

    Two-car train on Warrington Avenue

    All summer long, all the rail routes have been detoured through Allentown. Stop and consider for a moment how thoroughly odd Pittsburgh transit is: do you know of any other subway system that keeps up an alternate route over the top for times when one of the tunnels has to be closed?

    Trolleys on Warrington at Beltzhoover

    The few riders who look up from their phone screens have a chance to notice that Allentown is changing. Over the past few years, the Warrington Avenue business district has been going through a rapid trendification. It’s full of weird little shops too low-budget for the high rents of Lawrenceville.

    Trolley and bus passing

    A bonus bus coming toward you, for the longtime fans.

    Trolley on Warrington at Allen

    While the trolleys are going over the top, they stop at Allen Street in the middle of the Allentown business district.

    “Nothing beats public transit” on a mural

    Many people in Allentown would like to have their Allentown Trolley back permanently. They have been enjoying their summer of streetcars.

    Two-car train
    Nikon COOLPIX P100; Kodak EasyShare Z981.
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  • Transit-Oriented Development

    Red line tracks on Broadway Avenue in Dormont
    Konica Minolta DiMAGE Z6.

    “Transit-Oriented Development” is a favorite catch phrase among urban planners. In the early twentieth century, it was just the way development happened. Most people used streetcars to get to work, to shopping, and to all their amusements, so of course development and transit had to go together. Here we see a typical pattern: a main spine street—in this case, Broadway Avenue in Dormont—divided in two parts, with a broad median for trolleys. Many neighborhood main streets were built this way. Red Line trolleys still run here in Dormont, and Silver Line trolleys on a similar plan in Bethel Park.

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  • Potomac Station

    Outbound Red Line car at Potomac station

    An outbound Siemens SD-400 car on the Red Line arrives at Potomac station in Dormont.

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  • Steel Plaza Subway Station

    Steel Plaza subway station

    Following the example of Montreal, Pittsburgh had each of its subway stations decorated by a different artist. The neon installation in Steel Plaza, called “River of Light,” is by Jane Haskell.

    Blue Line car entering Steel Plaza
    Steel Plaza

    The style of the station itself combines Brutalism with Postmodernism.

    Steel Plaza
    4201 car
    Fujifilm FinePix HS10.

    Trolley Number One, the very first car in the sequential numbering of current Pittsburgh trolleys.

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  • Outbound Trolley on Broadway, Beechview, in 1999

    Outbound Route 42S car

    Outbound car 4133 rounds the curve on Broadway, Beechview, in 1999, on route 42 (now the Red Line). The Siemens SD-400 car is in its original 1980s livery. It was later rebuilt as part of the 4200 series.

    And that should be enough numbers to leave the trolley geeks drooling.

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  • Station Square Station

    Blue Line car at Station Square
    Station Square station
    Red Line car at Station Square
    Fujifilm FinePix HS10.
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  • Freight Office for the Pittsburgh & Lake Erie

    Freight office
    Freight office in 1968
    David Wilson from Oak Park, Illinois, USA, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

    Back in 1968, the streetcar fan David Wilson from Oak Park, Illinois, USA, took this picture of a PCC car in front of the freight office for the Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Railroad. Except for looking cleaner, the building hasn’t changed much. Streetcars no longer pass in front of it, but they stop diagonally across the street at the Station Square station.

    Rear of the freight office
    Kodak EasyShare Z1285.