|
|
The 60N East Pittsburgh - Turtle
Creek route could trace its history back to the McKeesport Transit Company.
The route goes back to 1929 when McKeesport Transit Company applied for and received a
certificate of operation for the route from the Pennsylvania State Public Service
Commission. From 1929 through 1964 the 60N changed very little in terms of its routing
under McKeesport Transit. Under PAT it was a different story as many route changes
occurred.
Garages assigned to the 60N:
- Trafford Garage - ? (Not known if the route ran from
Trafford but schedules were issued)
- Homewood Garage - ? (Reports are that the route ran from
here for a short period of time)
- McKeesport Garage - 03/19/64 - 11/22/69 (may have started
at this garage on 09/05/65)
- West Mifflin Division - 11/23/69 - 02/18/84
Destination Signs:
 
GM split sign examples above
GM full size readings above
AMG Example above
RTS example above
Neoplan example above |
Split signs and full size signs were similar to the
examples shown above.
The 60N also had window cards which were used.
Routing:
1966 routing from East Pittsburgh - Wilson Way at Beech via Beech,
Braddock Avenue, Penn Avenue, Grant Street, Maple Avenue, James Street, Boone, Locust
Avenue, Maple Avenue, James Street, James Street Extension, Stepp Drive, Longview Drive,
James Street Extension, Center Street, Miller Avenue, Ridge Street to James Street
Extension (original terminus).
1966 routing from Ridge at James - Ridge Street at James Street
Extension, Longview Drive, Stepp Drive, James Street Extension, James Street, Monroeville
Avenue, Albert Street, Maple Avenue, Locust Street, Boone, James Street, Monroeville
Avenue, Albert Street, Maple Avenue, Grant Street, Penn Avenue, Braddock Avenue, Electric
Avenue, Linden, Cable, Wilson to Beech.
Alternate 1966 routing from East Pittsburgh - Regular route to Ridge
Street at James Street Extension, Upper Turtle Creek - Monroeville Road, Northern Pike,
Center, PA Route 22 to Miracle Mile Shopping Center.
Alternate 1966 routing from Miracle Mile Shopping Center - Miracle Mile
Shopping Center at Thrift Drugs to PA Route 22, Center, Northern Pike, Upper Turtle Creek
- Monroeville Road, James Street Extension, Center, Miller Avenue, Ridge Street and via
regular route to East Pittsburgh.
Very limited service on Harper Drive to Watson Drive was in place by
1966 on school days only.
04/18/71 routing from East Pittsburgh - Dynamo Way at Beech Street via
Beech Street, Braddock Avenue, Penn Avenue, Shaw, Triboro, Grant Street, Maple Avenue,
James Street, Boone, Locust Avenue, Maple Avenue, James Street, James Street Extension,
Stepp Drive, Longview Drive, James Street Extension, Center Street, Miller Avenue, Ridge
Street, James Street Extension, Upper Turtle Creek - Monroeville Road, Northern Pike
(Monroeville Blvd), Jamison Lane, Monroeville Mall, Jamison Lane, Northern Pike
(Monroeville Blvd), Center, PA Route 22 to Miracle Mile Shopping Center.
04/18/71 routing from Miracle Mile Shopping Center - Miracle Mile
Shopping Center at Thrift Drugs to PA Route 22, Center, Northern Pike (Monroeville Blvd),
Jamison Lane, Monroeville Mall, Jamison Lane, Northern Pike (Monroeville Blvd), Upper
Turtle Creek - Monroeville Road, James Street Extension, Center, Miller Avenue, Ridge
Street, James Street Extension, Longview Drive, Stepp Drive, James Street Extension, James
Street, Monroeville Avenue, Albert Street, Maple Avenue, Locust Street, Boone, James
Street, Monroeville Avenue, Albert Street, Maple Avenue, Grant Street, Triboro, Thompson,
Penn Avenue, Braddock Avenue, Electric Avenue to Dynamo Way.
By 04/18/71 an alternate routing was put in bypassing Stepp Drive and
Longview Drive and simply proceeding straight on James Street Extension.
Effective 04/18/71, the 60N began serving Monroeville Mall with 3
stops, Penney's, Gimbels and Horne's off of Northern Pike (Monroeville Blvd) via Jamison
Lane. Not all trips continued on to Miracle Mile however.
09/02/73 - A change occurred in the James Street - Locust Street loop
for trips from East Pittsburgh (no change on trips from Monroeville) - Regular 04/18/71
route to Maple Avenue, Locust Street, Boone, James Street, Monroeville Avenue, Albert
Street, Maple Avenue, James Street and via regular route. This change was due to Turtle
Creek making Locust a one way street.
04/14/74 - Several short term reroutings occurred due to highway
construction in East Pittsburgh. These detours were not documented in the schedules and
lasted a very short time.
11/07/76 routing from East Pittsburgh - Dynamo Way at Beech Street via
Beech Street, Braddock Avenue, Penn Avenue, Thompson, Triboro, Grant Street, Maple Avenue,
Locust Street, Boone, James Street, Monroeville Avenue, Albert Street, Maple Avenue, James
Street, James Street Extension, Stepp Drive, Longview Drive, James Street Extension,
Center Street, Miller Avenue, Ridge Street, James Street Extension, Upper Turtle Creek -
Monroeville Road, Northern Pike (Monroeville Blvd), Oxford Drive, Monroeville Mall, Oxford
Drive, Northern Pike (Monroeville Blvd), Center, PA Route 22 to Miracle Mile Shopping
Center.
11/07/76 routing from Monroeville - Miracle Mile Shopping Center at
Thrift Drugs to PA Route 22, Center, Northern Pike (Monroeville Blvd), Oxford Drive,
Monroeville Mall, Oxford Drive, Northern Pike (Monroeville Blvd), Upper Turtle Creek -
Monroeville Road, James Street Extension, Center, Miller Avenue, Ridge Street, James
Street Extension, Longview Drive, Stepp Drive, James Street Extension, James Street,
Monroeville Avenue, Albert Street, Maple Avenue, Locust Street, Boone, James Street,
Monroeville Avenue, Albert Street, Maple Avenue, Grant Street, Triboro, Thompson, Penn
Avenue, Shaw, Triboro, Electric Avenue to Dynamo Way.
11/21/82 routing from East Pittsburgh - Dynamo Way at Beech Street via
Beech Street, Braddock Avenue, Penn Avenue, Thompson, Triboro, Grant Street, Maple Avenue,
Locust Street, Boone, James Street, Monroeville Avenue, Albert Street, Maple Avenue, James
Street, James Street Extension, Stepp Drive, Longview Drive, James Street Extension, James
North to Monroeville Mall, Oxford Drive, Northern Pike (Monroeville Blvd), Stroschein
(Center), PA Route 22 to Miracle Mile Shopping Center.
11/21/82 routing from Monroeville - Miracle Mile Shopping Center at
Thrift Drugs to PA Route 22, Stroschein (Center), Monroeville Blvd (Northern Pike), Oxford
Drive, Monroeville Mall, James North, James Street Extension, Longview Drive, Stepp Drive,
James Street Extension, James Street, Monroeville Avenue, Albert Street, Maple Avenue,
Locust Street, Boone, James Street, Monroeville Avenue, Albert Street, Maple Avenue, Grant
Street, Triboro, Thompson, Penn Avenue, Shaw, Triboro, Electric Avenue to Dynamo Way.
09/12/83 - The limited Harper Drive school service was discontinued.
A one way trip on the 1966 regular routing took approximately 27
minutes and 22 minutes under the 1982 routing.
Route Highlights:
Started: 03/19/64 (Date of McKeesport Transit acquisition).
Ended: 02/18/84 when redesignated as the 65N E. Pgh - Turtle Creek.
The 60N initially ran 7 days a week including holidays. This was
changed on 11/21/82 when Sunday and holiday service was eliminated due to low patronage.
3 fare zones were crossed under the original fare zone structure
between East Pittsburgh and Monroeville.
Effective 11/16/69, limited through routed trips between McKeesport
and Monroeville was started and combined with the 60M McKeesport - East Pittsburgh route
for the through routed service. A schedule of through routed trips only with the 60N
appeared in the 60M schedule (folder W-16).
The 60N was more of a local community route rather than a feeder
route although it did serve as a feeder to connections in East Pittsburgh.
Millers Corner (Center, Miller, Ridge loop) was the original terminus
under McKeesport Transit. PAT extended the line to Miracle Mile Shopping Center in
Monroeville shortly after acquiring the route and the loop became a short on certain
trips.
McKeesport Transit was restricted from service on Braddock and Penn
Avenues in East Pittsburgh so used side streets (trying to locate the names currently)
around that area. PAT was not restricted from operations on those streets and used them
for the route instead of the side streets.
The major difference between the McKeesport Transit service and PAT
with the 1964 60N routing occurred with the James Street - Locust Avenue portion.
McKeesport Transit Locust Avenue service looped on Locust at Boone but returned via Locust
where as PAT used Boone to James and made a large loop that had the 60N travel the same
section of James Street twice in the same direction. When Locust was made one way, you had
both inbound and outbound trips traveling the same direction on James multiple times while
doing the loop.
Schedules were issued from Trafford Region and the Homewood garage
for the 60N. It is currently being researched where the route actually ran from as
sometimes schedules were issued out of one region with the bus running out of another
region or if the two garages shared the route for a period of time. The fact that there
was a schedule issued out of Homewood and McKeesport on the same date leads to speculation
that PAT may have run the route from both garages at the same time for a short period of
time after Trafford garage closed.
Schedules (Known PAT issued schedules are listed):
The 60N had 3 distinct styles of schedules.
Trafford Garage Schedules were folder T-3.
- T-3A - Reported that T-3A was never printed
- T-3B - 04/14/65
Homewood issued schedules were folder PH-34
- PH-34A - 09/05/65
McKeesport Garage schedules were folder M-8 and originally were a plane
white multi-panel fold out schedule with just the 60N on it (it is presumed that the
Trafford and Homewood schedules were the same). Later the 65A was included in the schedule
and it became a late 60's design fold out schedule.
- M-8A - Reported that M-8A was never printed
- M-8B - 09/05/65
- M-8C - ?
- M-8D - ?
- M-8E - 02/13/67
- M-8F through M-8Q - ?
- M-8R - 06/29/69
West Mifflin Schedules were folder W-17 and were a multi-panel fold out
schedule in both the late 60's design and the MOD era design. The schedules included the
65A as well as the 65U for a few years.
- W-17A - ?
- W-17B - ?
- W-17C - ?
- W-17D - ?
- W-17E - 04/18/71
- W-17F - W-17L - ?
- W-17M - 11/18/73
- W-17N - 04/14/74 - MOD era schedules start
- W-17P - 09/01/74
- W-17Q - ?
- W-17R - ?
- W-17S - ?
- W-17T - ?
- W-17U - 11/07/76
- W-17V - 02/20/77
- W-17W - 06/05/77 - Reissued twice without correction **
- W-17X - ?
- W-17Y - 02/12/78
- W-17Z - ?
- W-17A - 11/19/78
- W-17B - 11/18/79
- W-17C - ?
- W-17D - 04/19/81
- W-17E - ?
- W-17F - 01/03/82
- W-17G - 11/21/82
- W-17H - 02/20/83
- W-17J - ?
- W-17K - ?
There may have been additional schedules before T-3B as very early
schedules tended to be reprints of former operator schedules.
Folder numbers were re-used after 24 issues. Letters I and O were not
used as folder suffix indicators.
Route Disposition:
The 60N was redesignated as the 65N East Pittsburgh - Turtle Creek on
02/19/84. The redesignation took place primarily to fit the number into the PAT numbering
system as the 60 routes served as feeders for McKeesport routes while the 65 numbers were
feeders for East Pittsburgh routes.
The 65N history will be posted at a later date.
Click on images for larger view
Route map showing the early routing of the 60N. |
|
