Guide to the Pittsburgh Railways Company Records, 1872-1974 AIS.1974.29

Arrangement

Repository
ULS Archives & Special Collections
Title
Pittsburgh Railways Company Records
Creator
Pittsburgh Railways Company
Collection Number
AIS.1974.29
Extent
23 Linear Feet (16 boxes, 1 map-case folder and 2 map tubes)
Date
1872-1974
Abstract
These Records consist of reports, appraisals, maps, photographs, ledgers, court proceedings, materials on labor relations, and histories of the Pittsburgh Railways Company (PRC), 1872-1974. The PRC was the largest provider of mass transit in the Pittsburgh area from its creation in 1902 until its demise in 1964, when it was absorbed into the Port Authority of Allegheny County. Digital reproductions of some of the photographs in the collection are available online. Other images of Pittsburgh Railways streetcars can be found online in the Robert G. Pflaum Slide Collection, 1910-2000, AIS.2010.01.
Language
English .
Author
ASC Staff. Revisions occurred to the finding aid as a part of the encoding process in July, 2004.
Publisher
ULS Archives & Special Collections
Address
University of Pittsburgh Library System
Archives & Special Collections
Website: library.pitt.edu/archives-special-collections
Contact Us: www.library.pitt.edu/ask-archivist
URL: http://library.pitt.edu/archives-special-collections

History

Pittsburgh Railways Company (PRC) was originally chartered in 1900 as the Southern Traction Company. By 1902, the PRC became the operating manager of 193 street railway properties owned or controlled by the Philadelphia Company, Consolidated Traction, United Traction and Southern Traction. The latter three companies were merged to form Pittsburgh Railways. By 1910, before the automobile revolutionized urban transportation, Pittsburgh Railways was transporting some 600,000 passengers daily over 581 miles of track. By 1918, its peak year of operation, the company had 606 miles of track accommodating 99 trolley routes. However, largely because of its obligations to investors previously associated with independent streetcar companies, Pittsburgh Railways was in financial difficulty from the outset. Eighteen of its first 50 years were spent in bankruptcy proceedings.

Fares rose from three cents to five cents, then to six cents in 1917 and 10 cents in 1919. In that year, 3,000 motormen and conductors walked off the job after their demands for a 12-cent hourly pay raise were rejected. Pittsburgh Railways Company was under constant pressure from the City administration and Chamber of Commerce to improve service and equipment. Traffic congestion on downtown streets was another major concern, dating back to 1902 when the first of many proposals were made for a downtown subway system. A bond issue to provide $6 million in City funds for subway construction was approved by voters in 1919, and in 1926 City Council was asked to issue $26 million in additional bonds. But these, along with subway plans advocated in 1926 and 1932, were abandoned because of disagreement over routing and conflict and indecision among public officials.

Although beset by continuing financial problems and declining ridership during the depression years, in 1936 and 1937 Pittsburgh Railways placed into service the first 100 Presidents' Conference Cars (PCC) trolleys. By 1949, a total of 666 PCC cars had been purchased. With post-World War II escalation of automobile production, highway construction and suburban growth, transit service, ridership and revenue plummeted at a more rapid rate. In addition, during the 1950s, service was disrupted three times by major labor strikes for prolonged periods, once for nearly two months. Within a 13-year period between January, 1948 and December, 1961, the fare structure was adjusted upward 13 times. The base cash fare increased from 10 to 30 cents on trolleys and from 15 to 35 cents on buses. By 1963, ridership fell to 74.4 million riders. The company was reorganized in 1951 but continued on a course of self-liquidation. During a six-year period through 1960, Pittsburgh Railways' net profit averaged 1.6 percent of its gross revenue. In three of the six years, the company had net losses ranging from $144,000 to $309,000. In 1963, the base wage rate for operators was $2.90 per hour, equal to those in Boston and exceeded only by operators employed by the New York City transit system.

During the 1950s, in addition to Pittsburgh Railways vehicles, 16 independent lines operated buses into downtown Pittsburgh and 21 others provided service to suburban areas. This resulted in intense competition and inadequately maintained and obsolescent rolling equipment. Each line had its own fare structure and there were no transfer privileges between any of the separate bus lines. The Pittsburgh Railways Company operated Pittsburgh's vast electric trolley network until 1964, when the Port Authority of Allegheny County used its power of eminent domain for the first time and assumed control and the railways became part of the Port Authority Transit (PAT) system. In 1967, the remaining companies of the PRC were combined into the Pittway Company.

Scope and Content Notes

The Records of the Pittsburgh Railways Company, 1872-1974, contain reports, proceedings, maps, diagrams, appraisals, labor relations, photographs, ledgers, film, and awards. This collection is organized into twelve series. Series I. contains the Snow Report, submitted in 1919 and covering the years 1872-1917, consists of inventories, historical costs, charts, and photographs of the 193 traction companies consolidated into the Pittsburgh Railways Company in 1902. Series II. contains Condemnation Proceedings, 1964-1966, and consist of appraisals, court exhibits, maps, architectural diagrams, photographs, and tables. Series III. consists of the Pittsburgh Railway's relationship with organized labor, 1949-1963. Series IV. contains the Annual Reports of the Philadelphia Company, Pittsburgh Railways Company, and the Pittway Corporation, 1918-1975. This series also includes the Annual Reports to the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, 1950-1963. Series V. contains thirteen volumes of the Official Report of Proceedings before the SEC in re the Indebtedness of the Pittsburgh Railways Company. Series VI. contains Reorganization Proceedings, December 31, 1946. Series VII. contains appraisals of Pittsburgh Railways Company land holdings arising from litigation brought by the City of Pittsburgh and certain other municipalities, 1918-1954. Series VIII. contains one volume of records consisting of the combined plan for reorganization under bankruptcy law, 1949-1950. Series IX. contains photographs of PRC car barns in the 1960s. Series X. contains miscellaneous maps, leases, reports, ledgers, and aerial film footage, 1898-1971. Series XI. contains a collection of safety awards and photographs from Pittsburgh Railways Company originally accessioned earlier as a separate collection but has been combined with this collection as this series. The series also includes pamphlets, maps, copies of stocks, and miscellaneous notes. Series XII consists of maps showing all or part of the Pittsburgh Railways Company track system and a table listing the types of passenger motor and trailer cars used by the company.

Additional descriptions of series are available at the series level.

Access Restrictions

No restrictions.

Acquisition Information

Gift of the Pittsburgh Railways Company, June 1, 1964 and October 18, 1974.

Preferred Citation

Pittsburgh Railways Company Records, 1872-1974, AIS.1974.29, Archives & Special Collections, University of Pittsburgh Library System

Previous Citation

Pittsburgh Railways Company Records, 1872-1974, AIS.1974.29, Archives Service Center, University of Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh Railways Company, Records, 1872-1966, 1971, ais 74:29, Archives of Industrial Society, University of Pittsburgh Libraries. Parts of this collection have also been cited as: Pittsburgh Railways Safety Awards and Photograph Collection, ais 64:34, Archives of Industrial Society, University of Pittsburgh Libraries

Existence and Location of Copies

Digital reproductions of some of the photographs in the collection are available online at http://historicpittsburgh.org/collection/pittsburgh-railways-company-records.

Processing Information

This collection was processed by ASC Staff in 1975 and Dan Horvath in July, 2004. Railroad maps were processed and added to the finding aid by Debbie Rougeux in June 2014.

Revision and rearrangement for the encoded version of the finding aid provided by Dan Horvath in July, 2004. Information about the collection title and the controlled access terms was extracted from the MARC record in the University of Pittsburgh catalog Voyager ID number: 1418946

Copyright

Permission for publication is given on behalf of the University of Pittsburgh as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained.

Subjects

    Corporate Names

    • Pittsburgh Railways Company

    Genres

    • Business records

    Other Subjects

    • Street-railroads -- Pennsylvania -- Pittsburgh -- History
    • Transportation -- Pennsylvania -- Pittsburgh -- History
    • Business and Industry
    • Street-railroads -- Pennsylvania -- Allegheny County -- Maps
    • Street-railroads -- Pennsylvania -- Pittsburgh -- Maps
    • Electric railroads -- Cars -- Pennsylvania -- Pittsburgh -- Tables
    • Transportation

Container List