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Fred Maloney photo, all rights reserved. Used with permission.
Car No. 1440 from Pittsburgh, an air-electric model built by St. Louis Car in 1942, was the first PCC acquired by the Museum, arriving in 1968. Although delivered after U.S. entry into World War II, it was produced before wartime materials restrictions took effect, and is thus a pre-war model. It is particularly appropriate that a PCC represents Pittsburgh in the National Collection of City Streetcars, for that city was unique in having modernized its entire system, rather than just major routes as did most others. PCC operated shuttle lines and single track operation in outlying suburbs were part of a relatively complete countywide rail system of some 40 routes that lasted well into the 1960s, along with a private company that endured long after most public agencies. The Port Authority of Allegheny County took over the Pittsburgh Railways Company in 1964 under condemnation after a long legal wrangle. The company, still primarily a rail operation, contended that theirs was very valuable property, whereas the authority argued that it was mostly junk that they planned to scrap anyway. The ultimate ruling came in favor of the authority, which got the system for a salvage value of five million dollars. As promised, the Port Authority began wholesale scrapping of rail lines.
History from Historic Cars: The National Collection at the Seashore Trolley Museum by Ben Minnich
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