Pittsburgh Railways

Pittsburgh Railways was one of the predecessors of Pittsburgh Regional Transit. It had 666 PCC cars, the third largest fleet in North America and Chicago ). It had 68 streetcar routes, of which only three are used by the Port Authority as light rail routes. With the Port Authority's Transit Development Plan, many route names will be changed to its original, such as the 41D Brookline becoming the 39 Brookline. Many of the streetcar routes have been remembered in the route names of many Port Authority buses.

History

1895 to 1905 was a time of consolidation for the numerous street railways serving Pittsburgh. On July 24, 1895 the Consolidated Traction Company was chartered and the following year acquired the Central Traction Company, Citizens Traction Company, Duquesne Traction Company and Pittsburgh Traction Company and converted them to electric operation. On July 27, 1896 the United Traction Company was chartered and absorbed the Second Avenue Traction Company, which had been running electric cars since 1890.
The Southern Traction Company acquired the lease of the West End Traction Company on October 1, 1900. Pittsburgh Railway Company was formed on January 1, 1902, when STC acquired operating rights over CTC and UTC. The new company operated 1,100 trolleys on of track, with 178.7 million passengers and revenues of $6.7 million on the year. PRC had over 20 car barns in the city as well as power stations. 1918 was the company's peak year, operating 99 trolley routes over of track.
The lease and operate business model proved hard to support and the company declared bankruptcy twice, first in 1918 lasting for 6 years and then again in 1938, this time lasting until January 1, 1951. Company costs rose in the early twentieth century. PRC faced constant pressure from the city to improve equipment and services. Workers walked out when a pay raise was rejected.
On July 26, 1936, PRC took delivery of PCC streetcar No. 100 from the St. Louis Car Company. It was placed in revenue service in August 1936, the first revenue earning PCC in the world.
Large scale abandonments of lines began in the late 1950s, usually associated with highway or bridge work.

Duquesne-McKeesport

Highway improvements in the Duquesne-McKeesport area resulted in the replacement of trolley services with buses on September 21, 1958.

West End lines

The replacement of the Point Bridge with the Fort Pitt Bridge precipitated the abandonment of many routes to the West End, all on June 21, 1959. PRC was engaged in ongoing litigation over the failure of the Pennsylvania Public Utilities Commission to provide streetcar tracks on the new bridge. In the end the company was allowed to abandon of street track in situ and was awarded $300,000 as compensation. The litigation marked the beginning of significant abandonments: 90 percent of the network was dismantled over the next decade.

Interurban

PRC Interurban Division ran an interurban trolley system linking Pittsburgh with towns in Washington County such as Washington, Charleroi and Roscoe.

Charleroi

The origins of the Charleroi interurban line began in 1895 in Monongahela City, with the construction of a small street railway by the Monongahela City Street Railway Company. In 1900 the line was extended north to Riverview and in 1901 extended south to Black Diamond Mine. Here it turned inland, south along Black Dam Hollow. It met the northern end of the newly constructed Charleroi & West Side Street Railway at the now-disused Lock number 4 in North Charleroi.
The Charleroi interurban line was cut back to the Allegheny County border at Library in June 1953 It continued to operate until the 1980s as 35 Shannon-Library and became the southern portion of 47L Library via Overbrook when Light Rail Vehicles replaced trolleys. The trolley loop was removed in 2004. In 2010 this line became the Blue Line – Library, and in 2020 was renamed the Silver Line - Library.

Washington

The Washington line was cut back to the county boundary at Drake in August 1953 and eventually became the 36 Shannon-Drake.
This in turn became the southern portion of 42 South Hills Village. The final portion of the interurban from Dorchester to Drake was renamed 47 Drake, finally closing in 1999 and bringing to an end PCC Streetcar operation in Pittsburgh.

Diversification

The company acquired G. Barr & Co., a manufacturer of aerosol cans, in 1962, and bought Alarm Device Manufacturing Company in 1963. It received $16.558 million for the sale of the streetcar system to the Port Authority in 1964. In 1967, it was renamed to Pittway Corporation. Later, Pittway became best known as a manufacturer and distributor of professional fire and burglar alarms and other security systems. On February 3, 2000, Pittway was acquired by Honeywell.

Rolling stock

Early types

were used by PRC between 1913 and 1924, a rarity for such cars in the U.S. Conventional single-deck stock formed the majority of the fleet.

PCC types

PRC operated 666 PCCs on 68 routes; the second-largest fleet of new cars, starting with number 100, the first PCC to enter revenue service. The company took delivery of car 1600 in 1945, which was the prototype for the over 1,800 post-War “all-electric” PCCs built in North America. Cars 1700–1724, which were delivered in 1948, were equipped with special features for use on the interurban lines to Washington and Charleroi. These included B-3 trucks and a roof-mounted sealed-beam headlight.

Number	Order Date	Builder & Order Nº	Price	Notes
100	Apr 6, 1936	St. Louis Car 1603		first PCC to enter revenue service
1000–1099	Jul 18, 1936	St. Louis Car 1604	$15,715
1100–1199	Apr 1, 1937	St. Louis Car 1610	$16,000
1200–1299	Oct 16, 1937	St. Louis Car 1620	$15,900	1230 & 1278 equipped with B-3 trucks
1400–1499	May 27, 1941	St. Louis Car 1633	$17,034
1500–1564	Jun 16, 1942	St. Louis Car 1639	$19,000	1547 St. Louis Car order no. 1646
1600–1699	Jan 14, 1944	St. Louis Car 1646	$20,000	1600 was All-Electric prototype ; destroyed May 18, 1955 1601-1699 Air-Electrics Some given B-3 trucks in the late 40's for interurban service 1630 equipped with ceiling fans & monitor roof; some rebuilt and renumbered into the 1700-series
1700–1799	Sep 22, 1947	St. Louis Car 1669	$28,350	1700–1724 B-3 trucks; 1725-1799 B-2B trucks
4000–4013		Port Authority Transit	c. $100,000

In 1950 the 100 was converted to instruction car M-11. Because replacement parts were no longer available, cars 1784 and 1779 were rebuilt in 1976 and 1977 respectively, with LRV-style flat fronts. In 1981 PATransit constructed cars 4000–4013 on new frames that utilized a mix of new parts and components salvaged from retired 1700-series cars. The last four PCCs were finally retired on September 4, 1999, having been replaced by Siemens SD-400 Light Rail Vehicles.

New Nº	Original	New Nº	Original	New Nº	Original
4000	1702	4005	1719	4010	1757
4001	1720	4006	1767	4011	1733
4002	1740	4007	1729	4012	4000
4003	1731	4008	1709	4013	1762
4004	1739	4009	1700	-	-

Preservation

A number of Pittsburgh streetcars have been preserved.

Nº	Type	Built by	Year	Preserved at	Notes
1138	PCC	St. Louis Car Company	1936	Pennsylvania Trolley Museum
1440	PCC	St. Louis Car Company	1942	Seashore Trolley Museum
1467	PCC	St. Louis Car Company	1941	Pennsylvania Trolley Museum
1644	PCC	St. Louis Car Company	1945	Northern Ohio Railway Museum
1705	PCC	St. Louis Car Company	1948	Midwest Electric Railway	sold Feb 2018 to Donald Kirk
1711	PCC	St. Louis Car Company	1948	Pennsylvania Trolley Museum	Operable
1724	PCC	St. Louis Car Company	1948	Heinz History Center
1799	PCC	St. Louis Car Company	1945	Pennsylvania Trolley Museum	Built as 1613. Renumbered 1799 when overhauled in 1979.
3487	Conventional	St. Louis Car Company	1905	Pennsylvania Trolley Museum	Converted to wreck car M132 in 1934. Converted back to passenger configuration in 1956.
3756	Conventional	Osgood Bradley Car Company	1925	Pennsylvania Trolley Museum	Operable
4001	PCC	PATransit	1981	South Hills Village Rail Center	Static display.
4002	PCC	PATransit	1981	Colorado Springs	Undergoing restoration at the Pikes Peak Trolley Museum.
4004	PCC	PATransit	1981	Pennsylvania Trolley Museum	Operable
4006	PCC	PATransit	1981	Cleveland, Ohio	Last seen in 2016 at the west end of the Detroit–Superior Bridge labeled "Buckeye Trolley".
4007	PCC	PATransit	1981	Bethel Park, Pennsylvania	Static exhibit with numbers removed.
4008	PCC	PATransit	1981	San Francisco Municipal Railway	Acquired for the F Market & Wharves line.
4009	PCC	PATransit	1981	San Francisco Municipal Railway	Acquired for the F Market & Wharves line.
4011	PCC	PATransit	1981	Buckeye Lake, Ohio	Privately owned.
4012	PCC	PATransit	1981	Buckeye Lake, Ohio	Privately owned ; originally numbered 4000.
4140	Conventional	Pressed Steel Car Company	1911	Pennsylvania Trolley Museum	Built in McKees Rocks. Converted to snow plow M200 in 1940, then tow car in 1955.
4145	Conventional	Pressed Steel Car Company	1911	Pennsylvania Trolley Museum	Built in McKees Rocks.
4398	Conventional	St. Louis Car Company	1914	Pennsylvania Trolley Museum	Restored 1970's to 2012; operable
M1	Pay car	Pullman Car Company	1890	Pennsylvania Trolley Museum	Originally built as an 8-wheel car for the Pittsburgh, Allegheny & Manchester Street railway, it was underpowered for Pittsburgh's hills and was converted to a 4-wheel pay car in the 1890s. Pittsburgh Railways assigned it the number M1.
M37	Snow sweeper	McGuire-Cummings Manufacturing Company	1896	Pennsylvania Trolley Museum	Built as Consolidated Traction Company number 9. Renumbered M37 by Pittsburgh Railways.
M56	Snow sweeper		1918	Pennsylvania Trolley Museum	Built for the Philadelphia Company and assigned to Beaver Valley traction line as number 1. Transferred to Pittsburgh Railways in 1935 and renumbered M56.
M210	Line car	Pittsburgh Railways Company	1940	Pennsylvania Trolley Museum	Built in Homewood shops using components salvaged from two other cars.
M283	Crane car	Differential Car Company	1929	Pennsylvania Trolley Museum	Operable
M551	Side-Dump car	Differential Car Company	1922	Pennsylvania Trolley Museum	Operable