It's late afternoon on a warm July 19, 1917, as an open car on Liberty Avenue is about to roll past Rosenbaum's Department Store, a long-vanished Pittsburgh icon. Photo from Tony Schill collection
Pittsburgh Railways Company car 4304 loads inbound passengers at South Hills Junction, at the entrance to the 3,600-ft Mount Washington Tunnel. Photo from Tony Schill collection
The Pittsburgh Railways Company was not the largest North American streetcar system, but arguably it was the most interesting-- by a long shot. Nowhere else was there a trolley system so encumbered by hills and rivers, or with such an incredibly varied character of street and interurban operation. Our April program starts at the very beginning of the street railway in Pittsburgh in 1859, and winds its way through good times and bad to the very last days of rail operation by Pittsburgh Railways, February 28, 1964. Our presenter is Tony Schill, a native of Pittsburgh and a trolley fan since his very first ride on Pittsburgh Railways in the late 1940's. Tony is retired from a career in rail and bus transit operations in Chicago and Buffalo (unfortunately not in Pittsburgh, but he does now serve as a volunteer operator at the Pennsylvania Trolley museum!).
