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Pittsburgh Streamlined Trolleys (PA)
Pittsburgh Streamlined Trolleys covers the history of the trolley car system that once had the third largest fleet of Presidents' Conference Committee trolley cars in North America. Pittsburgh Railways Company was very innovative and constantly made design improvements in its trolley cars. This led to increased ridership, as these streamlined trolleys were quiet, fast, and had comfortable seating. With the increased use of automobiles, ridership declined. After the Port Authority of Allegheny County took over Pittsburgh Railways, most of the trolley routes were abandoned. However, a number of trolleys were refurbished with paint schemes that included psychedelic commercial advertising and community messages. The last runs of these trolleys occurred in 1999, and new light rail vehicles are now in service.
128 pages, Paperback
First published November 29, 2006
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April 30, 2019
This book desperately needed an editor. The pictures are fine, a real trainspotter's delight, but my guess is that most were originally in color (judging by the descriptions). This would have been a much more interesting book with color photos, although I know that doesn't fit the Arcadia mold.
Why does every picture need a credit to the author? Couldn't there have been ONE credit up front? Why couldn't the captions use abbreviations for common phrases instead of writing them out 200 times? Some paragraphs are just strings of repetitive facts that would have been better printed in a table for easy digestion.
Bravo to the author for spending years tracking down the various routes and cars, and taking the pictures. But we could have benefitted from a little more attention to the surrounding scenery (besides just naming streets), and some explanatory info for those of us who have not lived in Pittsburgh. I rode the #39 trolley several times as a child while on visits to my grandmother, and I would have loved some more detailed pictures of the trolley tunnels and yards. Instead there are hundreds of shots of trolley cars in identical poses, with boilerplate captions. A missed opportunity.
Why does every picture need a credit to the author? Couldn't there have been ONE credit up front? Why couldn't the captions use abbreviations for common phrases instead of writing them out 200 times? Some paragraphs are just strings of repetitive facts that would have been better printed in a table for easy digestion.
Bravo to the author for spending years tracking down the various routes and cars, and taking the pictures. But we could have benefitted from a little more attention to the surrounding scenery (besides just naming streets), and some explanatory info for those of us who have not lived in Pittsburgh. I rode the #39 trolley several times as a child while on visits to my grandmother, and I would have loved some more detailed pictures of the trolley tunnels and yards. Instead there are hundreds of shots of trolley cars in identical poses, with boilerplate captions. A missed opportunity.
Displaying 1 of 1 review