Bryant Schmude

This rare Pittsburgh timetable from the early decade of the PAT ((now Pittsburgh Regional Transit)) transit system--from the archives of Bryant Schmude--includes the long abandon bus route #19A. The #19A operated over a grid system throughout Bellevue and Avalon, Pennsylvania. It dated back to the 1940's era as a Pittsburgh Railways bus shuttle to feed riders to the local light-rail trolleys on runs #13-EMSWORTH, #14-AVALON ONLY and #15-BELLEVUE WEST VIEW.

In 1966, all remaining "T" lines from Avalon Loop and those of Pittsburgh North Side were abandon by the "new" PAT system. Bus route #19A continued to operate until it was cut due to low ridership in 1969.

This folder also include the run #19B MANCHESTER--EVERGREEN and the #24B McKEES ROCKS BRIDGE.....This later route linked Brighton Heights with West Park over in McKees Rocks.

An unidentified lady is shown here with Bryant Schmude many years ago in a sweet little moment.

This still from an actual silent movie from the pre-WW1 era, shows a high-speed interurban trolley of the fabled PITTSBURGH, HARMONY, BUTLER & NEW CASTLE RAILWAY as it came boiling down the tracks, hissed to quick stop to discharge riders ((including the man in the white hat)) and in a flash, was gone again. Off on its run between New Castle and Pittsburgh, PA.

This was filmed at WEXFORD "T" STATION.

As a child decades later, yours truly often visited Aunt Dorothy & Uncle John's farm along Hope Lutheran Road in what is now Cranberry Township. Snaking along their farm property was the long abandon scar of this "T" systems right of way.

These big interurban "T" cars included plush seat, a restroom and one of the cars was set up to show movies. They would snake down into Pittsburgh's North Side in the valley which now carries highway I-79 North, then into Pittsburgh proper over the rails of the Pittsburgh Railways---now PRT.

Operations carried on until August of 1931. At many spots, scars of this long ago light-railway can be noted through the Pittsburgh North Hills.

Here with "MR CONDUCTOR", a young family from Pittsburgh's East Side recalls the tracks to Squirrel Hill's Forbes & Murray Avenue.

Long ago in happier times as "MR CONDUCTOR" gave a little girl a taste of the cab seat of a subway//surface light-rail trolley. It was a long ago era.....

On Sundays and Holidays, you could once board a Pittsburgh Railways ((later PAT and then PRT)) streetcar or bus, drop 65-cents into the farebox and ride allover the vast bus and "T" system. This is a rare example of once of these passes. It dates to the 1950's.

This from the collection of Bryant Schmude

Olivia smiles with "MR CONDUCTOR" in the operators cab of "THE YULETIDE SHUTTLE", a long ago light-rail "T" link to The South Pole.

A young man gets to try out the operator's seat of a Pittsburgh Railways PCC type streetcar w/"MR CONDUCTOR" on a day long, long ago.

In the time just before WW1, a crude bus line was established to link Pittsburgh's suburb of Emsworth, Pennsylvania with the somewhat affluent community of Ben Avon Heights.

The primitive transit link connected the Emsworth Station of the Pennsylvania Railroad ((with regular local passenger trains operationing to and from Pittsburgh as well as westward to Beaver County, PA)) and the countless homes where many of the riders worked as maids. Hence the local run came to be referred to as "The Maid's Bus".

This bus also made further connections in Emsworth, PA with electric "T" trolleys operating as run #13-EMSWORTH. Countless home attendants connected from the trolleys or trains in Emsworth to their jobs.

The run continued to serve riders into the pre-PRT era as Port Authority route #20A BEN AVON HEIGHTS until 1970.

These 1960's era "old look" GM buses were once found all over Pittsburgh's PAT ((now Pgh Regional Transit)) transit system. Known as the 1800-series coaches, they were basic old look types but w/a boxy air conditioning unit affixed to the upper rear end.

You often found these on local community runs such as the 44A SHADYCREST or the many local runs in the Braddock or Mon Valley areas. These were very common on the 65E NORTH BRADDOCK-SWISSVALE, 65F BESSEMER TERRACE and 65J BRADDOCK-GREENSBURG PIKE routes. They were even used on the busy 54C NORTH SIDE-OAKLAND-SOUTH SIDE line after the "T" route 77/54 was abolished.

Yours truly recalls the odd starry ceiling tiles inside and the snap switches to open and shut the entry doors. As a child growing up in Dooker's Hollow, in the shadows of the once mighty Edger Thomson Steel Mill near Braddock, I recall these passing our home on the #65E many times day and night.

A little princess gets a visit to the cab of a streetcar w/"MR CONDUCTOR" on a long ago rail run.

Once upon a time, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania was home to many mountain climbing cable railways known locally as "inclines". Of the many that once operated all over the region, one of the most massive was the 17th Street Incline. It was operated as part of the vast Pittsburgh Railways light-rail system.

Here you are looking down the railway from the other car as they pass at the center point of the track. Passing below you see Liberty Avenue at 17th Street with the Old Patrick's Church off to the right.

The lower station of the incline was in an ally between Liberty and Penn Avenue. In today's world, Wooley's Fish Market is just ahead and to the right.

Built as the Penn Incline in 1883, it crossed over the grade that is now Bigelow Boulevard to come up to the Hill District. For a time, a resort was located near the upper station.

If you look ahead to Penn Avenue, you can see PCC light-rail streetcars most likely running as a 87-ARDMORE, 88-FRANKSTOWN, 94-ASPINWALL of the 77/54 NORTH SIDE-OAKLAND-SOUTH SIDE making this image sometime after 1936.

Operated as a part of the vast Pittsburgh Railways light-rail "T" system way out on their West End Division, was a short "T" line referred to as the #29 THORNBURG or just the THORNBURG SHUTTLE.

In this rare image in the Bryant Schmude files, a Pittsburgh Railways ((later known as the Port Authority or more recently Pittsburgh Regional Transit)) low-floor trolley is shown at the Thornburg "T" Station. The light-rail track went down to West Steuben Street and then along that street to Ingram and Crafton.

In the early pre-WW1 years, the #29 continued into the West End and over the old Point Bridge to Downtown Pittsburgh. Later it was a feeder link running only to the Ingram and Crafton areas.

Light rail "T" service on the #29 ran until November 16th, 1952 when buses replaced the rail cars. In the early PAT years, service ran as bus route 29A THORNBURG with the #29 also lent to bus rout 29E MILLER RUN. Under the newer Pgh Regional Transit, the number lives on as the 29-ROBINSION.

Known locally as The Birdville Trolley, the Tarentum, Brackenridge & Butler Railway was an electric light-rail transit link which connected Tarentum, Pennsylvania with the hill top sections of Natrona Heights and Birdville, PA.

This small "T" system operated as an independent link without any physical connection to the West Penn Railways "VALLEY ROUTE" at Tarentum, PA.

The West Penn Railways operated it's "VALLEY ROUTE" serving Natrona, New Kensington, Springdale, and Aspinwall. This "T" in turn linked to the huge Pittsburgh "T" system at Brilliant Avenue in Aspinwall, PA. Service continued onto Pittsburgh as the #94 ASPINWALL or through as the #93 ALLEGHENY VALLEY via Butler Street and The Strip District.

The tiny "T" cars of THE BIRDVILLE LINE made there way from a West Penn transfer point on Tarentum's Ross Street up onto Morgan Street and then way out to Natrona Heights, PA. Their small two-track carbarn with a repair shop was along Morgan Street.

Originally this "T" was intended to continue onto Butler, Pennsylvania but it was never completed past Natrona Heights. Service continued until 1940 making this the last local light-rail streetcar in Pennsylvania's Allegheny Valley.

If you look to the center right of this rare image from the Bryant Schmude Collection, you can see the tracks on the West Penn Railways "viaduct" which carried the VALLEY ROUTE "T" over the busy tracks of the Pennsylvania Railroad train system.

It was a very cold and grey December day after a snow dusting as the STREETCAR NAMED LEVI stops beside an old Monongahela Railways caboose. The balloons observe that this may be an old "MR CONDUCTOR" Birthday Trolley run.

A snowy day before a Christmas long long ago, Little Olivia hugs "MR CONDUCTOR" prior to a ride to The South Pole on a streetcar once known as The Yuletide Shuttle".

During a short stopover in Dallas, Texas while heading to a gathering in Corpus Christi, TX---was "drafted" to assist with some "car shuffles" at the local historic light railway. The "T" is actually a W2 type from Melbourne, Australia but operated by the Dallas system.

This image by Bryant Schmude was taken in the Dormont, Pennsylvania area in the aftermath of the all night BIG SNOW.

You are looking south from the Potomac Station along the 1904-main trolley line through Beechview and Dormont. Once this was the Pittsburgh Railways line #42 DORMONT and then later in the PAT era the #42 / 38 MOUNT LEBANON via BEECHVIEW.

In later times, it was dubbed the RED LINE. At the time this image was taken, nothing was running on these tracks or the nearby streets.

Taken in aftermath of the Blizzard of 1993 by Bryant Schmude, this shows a Pittsburgh (PAT~~~>Port Authority // later Pittsburgh Regional Transit) bus operating along Fifth Avenue in Downtown as the route 61F HOMESTEAD PARK.

The 61F continued from the city ((shown here)) east along Forbes Avenue through Oakland ((passing The University of Pittsburgh and then Carnegie Mellon University)) to reach Squirrel Hill. Then the 61F headed right onto Murray Avenue and then down Brown's Hill to enter Homestead over the High Level Bridge. 61F then went on to service the Homestead Park area much as an early Debolt Bus Lines run once did.

As a stand alone run, the 61F was abandon in 2010 with parts of its service area covered by bus route #53.

McKEES ROCKS, PA #26 WEST PARK "TROLLEY"

Coming along Chartiers Avenue approaching Island Avenue is a Pittsburgh Railways PCC-class light-rail "T" trolley operating as a route #26 WEST PARK.

The trolley is passing under the PC&Y RR overpass which carried this railroad to the coal mines of the Painter's Run and West Hills.

This trolley will continue up Chartiers Avenue and along Broadway Avenue serving West Park. There were turnout switch tracks which also led to Island Avenue.

Here is where "T" trolleys ran as the #23 SEWICKLEY-via NEVILLE ISLAND as well as the rush hour only #25-ISLAND AVENUE ONLY. After the outer portion of the #23 was cut in 1952, trolleys ran only to Flemming Park Loop as the route #25.

Once apon a long ago time, you could connect from the trolleys on Island Avenue to a funicular known as the Norwood Incline. It operated from Island Avenue up to West Park from 1901 until 1923.

Light-Rail operations to McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania ran until June 21st, 1959 when the closure of the old Point Bridge severed all West End//West Side "T" links to Pittsburgh.