Hi Gang,

I hope you won't mind a question that not "all business" .

One of my interests are the old trolley cars that used to run most everywhere. That interest got me into collecting the old transportation tokens. Well, transportation tokens include any token that was for a "ride" on any kind of transportation. In the listing catalog I've come accross a couple of tokens that wre used for ELEVATORS. Two are listed from Pittsburg, both 34 mm in dia. One simply says "ELEVATOR ADMIT ONE A.G.H. on one side and blank on the other. The second says "ALLEGHENY GEN'L HOSPITAL ADMIT ONE" and is also blank on the other side. I'd be interested if anyone knows anything of the history of these. When where they used ? Why were they used ? Were they actually for revenue or as a way of controlling access. Have any survived and what's my chance of ever locating them ? Thanks for taking the time to read this.

Dave Cremins - IUEC Local 4 (Boston)

-- Dave Cremins (D.Cremins@worldnet.att.net), November 22, 1997

Answers

Pittsburgh Info

There is a Allegany General hospital which is still functioning today in Pittsburgh. These could be from the old parking garage,but I am not sure. The hospital has a museum like hallway (10 to 20 exhibts) on the History of AGH. Perhaps they have a resident historian who you could talk to.

Hope this helps!!

-- Aaron (Aaron_Rospierski@siecor.com), December 17, 1997.

Pittsburg History

Aaron,

Thanks for the reply. I wasn't aware that the hospital was still in operation. The book where I got the information about the tokens I asked about made no mention of dates or eras that it was used.

I did get one other responce, via E-mail, that mentioned that it was refered to as a "Hillavator". A potion of his responce read:

quote.. =========== The units you are referring to were actually hillavators, roped traction machines that moved an elevator cabin on rails up and down the high hills of Pittsburgh. If you need detailed info I suggest you contact Elevator World (their on-line) since if memory serves me correct they did an article on them 2-3 years ago.

end quote. ===========

I did go to Elevator World's web page and found an article on "Angles Flight", a fanicular (sp) that was probably similar but I didn't find anything on Pittsburg's hillavator.

I'll try a web search and see if the hostital might have a web page.

thanks for your reply.

Dave Cremins

-- Dave Cremins (D.Cremins@worldnet.att.net), December 17, 1997.