Great Depression, automobiles led to decline of inclines, street railways

The transportation of goods and people in the early days of Pittsburgh's development as an urban center was crucial to the city's overall success.

Horses, mules and various modes of wagons conveyed produce to markets, coal to factories, and people to work and shopping. But with the advent of electricity came new opportunities in transportation technology -- inclines and street railways.

"Samuel Diescher came into the United States in the mid-1860s and built the first incline in Ohio," said Howard Worley Jr., of Saxonburg, Butler County, the author of "Pittsburgh Inclines and Street Railways." "Diescher moved to Pittsburgh and hooked up with John Endres, another engineer, who was working on the Monongahela Incline."

The Mon Incline made its first trip on May 28, 1870, and is the oldest operating incline in the United States.

"The Mon was one of 17 inclines in the Pittsburgh area," said Bob Grove, assistant director of media relations at the Port Authority of Allegheny County. The Port Authority owns and operates the Mon Incline, the T subway system, and light rail service throughout Allegheny County.

"The first incline was the Kirk Lewis, which opened in 1854 and was used to haul coal up and down the mountain. It was located in about the same area as the Duquesne Incline. The Mon, however, was the first passenger incline," Grove said.

Endres was the engineer of the Mon and Mt. Oliver inclines, while Diescher is credited with the design of eight inclines in Pittsburgh. They were the Duquesne, which continues to operate; Fort Pitt; Penn, which was designed to carry 20-ton coal cars and passengers and was the largest of all inclines built in the city; Troy Hill; Nunnery Hill, which had a curved track; Castle Shannon #1 and #2; and Clifton.

Both Endres and Diescher worked on the Mon freight incline, built in 1883.

"Incline technology was borrowed from German patents," Worley said. "Diescher developed the center gear in which the gear engages with a slotted rail. That was used for the steeper inclines such as the Knoxville and St. Clair. Most of the other inclines were a continuous cable that the car was attached."

Diescher also created a pneumatic bumper system to improve the incline cars' stopping capabilities.

Coal was the freight typically hauled to the top of Pittsburgh's steep hills.

"One of the water works pumping stations was on the hill near the 17th Street incline, and they needed coal to fuel their pumps," Worley said. "More and more people began using the inclines; even funeral processions used the inclines."

The first renovation of the Mon Incline was in 1935 when the steam engine was replaced with electrical motors. Established in 1964, the Port Authority took over the operation of the incline that year.

"We closed the incline in July 1983 for a $3 million renovation project," Grove said. "The double wooden tracks were replaced with steel girders, the upper and lower passenger stations were rehabilitated and restored to their original appearance, wheelchair lifts were put in, and body work on the cars was completed."

Last year, 698,000 passengers rode the Mon Incline. Residents of Mt. Washington have used it as a commuting vehicle for more than 100 years. It is also one of the biggest tourist attractions in the city.

"There are five functioning inclines in the United States today, and we are very fortunate to have two in Pittsburgh. There is an incline in Johnstown, one in Altoona, and one in Chattanooga, Tenn.," Grove said.

While the Mon Incline saw continual use throughout its history, the Duquesne Incline barely survived in the early 1960s.

"My husband and others went up to the incline to go to work on the day after Thanksgiving in 1962 and there was a sign that said it was closed," said Ruth Miller, of Friendship Village, in Upper St. Clair. "When the incline closed, it left Duquesne Heights' residents without transportation. We were isolated. The incline had been there so long, the idea that it could be closed was stunning."

Miller and her husband, David, an engineer with the Jones and Laughlin Steel Co., got together with other volunteers to save the Duquesne Incline. They founded the Society for the Preservation of the Duquesne Heights Incline in 1962.

"We had an agreement with the owners to have the incline repaired within six months," she said. "With the help of the neighbors, we were able to raise $20,000."

The incline was in dire need of repair. Three cables needed replaced, wheels that had been ordered and delivered needed to be paid for and installed, and the lower station needed new windows and floors.

"I went to someone in J&L and told him we needed 3,000 feet of cable," David Miller said. "The man said the company would give us the cable. We then paid for the wheels with our $20,000 and the tradesmen who lived in the neighborhood installed them."

"It really was a neighborhood spontaneously working together," Ruth Miller said. "There isn't much that we haven't repaired or replaced in both stations in 43 years with the exception of the original driving equipment, the big drum and big drive gear. They are original. We did, however, replace the brass bearings."

The society members also took precautions with the 793 feet of steel bridgework.

"None of the track sits on the ground," said David Miller. "And 35 percent of the track runs high in the air over railroads. So we had to be careful of the maintenance of that. In those days, locomotives were still steam-driven and the ash and steam acted like a grinding machine."

Although the Duquesne Incline reopened in July 1963, improvements continued through the years. One such improvement was the construction of an observation deck.

"The deck cost the incline only $14 -- the money we spent to have a letter reproduced and sent out asking for donations," Ruth Miller said. "We got donations from all the big corporations. They realized that here was a fading symbol of what Pittsburgh used to be like and they didn't want it thrown on the scrapheap."

Construction of the observation deck cost $500,000. A new viewing platform paid for by a federal grant opened to the public on May 20, 2004, the 127th anniversary of the opening of the incline.

"We handle about 350,000 to 400,000 rides a year," Ruth Miller said.

"The number of riders we attract are not all natives who live in the area. Much of the business is visitors to the city," David Miller added.

The society owns the upper station and operates the incline, while the Port Authority owns the incline and the lower station.

"We pay the Port Authority $1 a year for the lower station, and they pay us $1 a year for the upper station," Ruth Miller said. "We are expected to provide the necessary insurance and we are permitted and expected to do whatever is necessary for the operation of the incline."

The Pennsylvania Trolley Museum in Washington County also works to preserve the history of what was once a vital mode of transportation in the United States -- street railway cars or trolleys.

The first stirrings of interest in preserving streetcars began in 1946 when the Pittsburgh Electric Railway Club was organized. By 1953, three cars had been acquired for the collection and the club formally organized as a nonprofit corporation. A 2,000-foot section of the Pittsburgh Railways' Washington interurban trolley line in Chartiers Township was purchased and soon museum volunteers constructed storage tracks and a barn to protect the trolley cars.

"Our mission is to preserve trolley history from the 1890s up to World War II," said Scott Becker, executive director of the museum. "The early volunteers basically passed the hat to raise money for the museum and to purchase cars. The group paid $350 for the West Penn Railways Trolley 832, the first trolley for the museum and $500 for the second car, which was a West Penn trolley car that ran in Connellsville and Latrobe."

The Pittsburgh Railways Co. operated 666 President Conference Committee trolley cars, specially designed cars that were comfortable and could match the speed of an automobile.

"The first PCC car was delivered to Pittsburgh on July 26, 1936," Grove said. "Only two other cities had more PCC cars -- Chicago and Toronto. The PCCs went on to interurban service that carried passengers from Pittsburgh to outlying suburbs and this service continued until August 1953."

At the height of the trolley popularity in the mid-1930s, there were more than 600 miles of light rail tracks in the Pittsburgh area. In 1935, the Pittsburgh Motor Coach Co., a private bus company, carried 2,200 passengers on an average weekday. The average number of passengers on the trolley cars was 488,000.

"No town with a population of 5,000 or more was without a trolley system," said Ed Lybarger, archivist at the museum. "What killed most of the smaller trolley lines in Pennsylvania was the Depression in the 1930s. The automobile became a formidable competitor after the highway movement began in earnest. During World War II, however, gasoline was rationed and the trolley car business boomed."

More than 65 trolley lines ran 24 hours a day during the war, Becker added.

Pittsburgh continued to have the largest trolley car system in the country in the early 1960s. The Port Authority acquired the Pittsburgh Railways Co. in 1964 and converted the transit system to buses. By the early 1970s, the only streetcar routes that remained were the ones that used the Mt. Washington Tunnel to reach the South Hills area.

Much of the remaining system was rebuilt into a modern light rail system in the 1980s. The PCCs were replaced by light-rail vehicles and the tracks in downtown streets and on the Smithfield Street Bridge were replaced by a subway system, the T, which has an estimated ridership of 24,000 to 25,000 on an average weekday.

Trolley enthusiasts and novices to the long-gone mode of transportation can still ride a trolley at the museum. An operating trolley line will take visitors up the scenic Arden Valley along the right of way of an abandoned coal mine railroad spur. The museum completed a one-half mile extension of its demonstration trolley line in 2002. A display car house is filled with classic cars from J.G. Brill Co. in Philadelphia; and the St. Louis Car Co., and the museum's gift shop is housed in an 80-foot 1923 railroad baggage/passenger car. The visitors education center is filled with old photographs, maps and other exhibits, while a restoration shop building enables volunteers to restore streetcars to their original condition.

"We've spent over 12,000 hours restoring one metal car," Lybarger said. "We had to do a lot of research, including locating the colors of the paint used. A man who ran a paint store in Reading had the original paint, so we got lucky with that car.

"Last year our volunteers put in 27,000 hours or the equivalent of 13 full-time employees in restoring these cars."

"People from all walks of life, including retired and working transit employees volunteer," Becker said.

In the restoration department, a 1917 Pittsburgh Railways car #4398 is getting some tender loving care. Known as a "Yellow Car," it is the only survivor of the line.

"Pittsburgh had over 1,000 of these cars at one time," Becker said. "The cars were designed to last 20 years. This particular car ran from 1917 to 1952. Pittsburgh Railways got their money's worth out of this one."

A new streetcar display building about one mile from the museum has a collection of 30 cars, from a 1980s car rehabilitated by the Port Authority and in service until 1999, to an ancient horse-drawn streetcar.

"There is a wealth of material in this building," Lybarger said. "It is a complete cross section of the industry."