Pittsburgh, Knoxville & St. Clair Electric Railroad
Encyclopedia
Pittsburgh, Knoxville & St. Clair Electric Railroad was one of the earliest electric street railways. A licensee of the Daft System, the line struggled with difficult terrain, required expensive bridges, and failed financially within just 3 years of opening.
While the line opened June 25, 1888, , it was already in financial trouble, and promptly stopped operating. 5 12-ton motors with the Daft propulsion design drew 16 foot trailers to haul passengers over a line with a maximum grade of 15.48%.
By December 26, 1890, the line failed, leaving the connecting Suburban Rapid Transit Company, another Daft system, without power, as that system lacked its own substation.
At the demands of the creditors, the line was sold in 1892. While the buyer was an individual, a portion of the line was used by the Pittsburgh & Birmingham Traction Company to provide service to the hilltop communities of Knoxville, Allentown and Beltzhoover. The line was abandoned on the hillside below Washington (now Warrington) Avenue.
At about the same time this line was acquired by Birmingham Traction, the adjacent Mount Oliver Incline
was acquired, triggering a lawsuit over the legality of company with a street railway charter owning an inclined railway. This suit, combined with the purchase of the Pittsburgh, Knoxville & St. Clair Electric Railroad property which was then not operated, suggests the possibility that if the suit failed, the Birmingham Traction company would have an alternate connection to its extant hilltop lines prior to those lines being directly connected by rail down the side of the hill to the river valley below, but there is no documentation of this plan.
History
Chartered June 22, 1886, the Pittsburgh, Knoxville and St. Clair Street Railway Company began at Carson Street, followed South 13th south to a ramp which included a toothed rack system, and after crossing the Pittsburgh, Virginia and Charleston Railroad, ran to the top of the hill, then along the ridge line on Arlington Avenue to the city line at Brownsville Road.While the line opened June 25, 1888, , it was already in financial trouble, and promptly stopped operating. 5 12-ton motors with the Daft propulsion design drew 16 foot trailers to haul passengers over a line with a maximum grade of 15.48%.
By December 26, 1890, the line failed, leaving the connecting Suburban Rapid Transit Company, another Daft system, without power, as that system lacked its own substation.
At the demands of the creditors, the line was sold in 1892. While the buyer was an individual, a portion of the line was used by the Pittsburgh & Birmingham Traction Company to provide service to the hilltop communities of Knoxville, Allentown and Beltzhoover. The line was abandoned on the hillside below Washington (now Warrington) Avenue.
At about the same time this line was acquired by Birmingham Traction, the adjacent Mount Oliver Incline
Mount Oliver Incline
The Mount Oliver Incline was a funicular in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. It was designed in 1871 by the Prussian engineer John Endres and his daughter Caroline Endres. Its track was 1600 feet long, and rose to an elevation of 377 feet. It ran from South Twelfth Street at Bardford at its lower...
was acquired, triggering a lawsuit over the legality of company with a street railway charter owning an inclined railway. This suit, combined with the purchase of the Pittsburgh, Knoxville & St. Clair Electric Railroad property which was then not operated, suggests the possibility that if the suit failed, the Birmingham Traction company would have an alternate connection to its extant hilltop lines prior to those lines being directly connected by rail down the side of the hill to the river valley below, but there is no documentation of this plan.