In 1961, Pittsburgh's trolley car network was the largest operating system in the nation. . . . It remained largely untouched by bus substitution and abandonment until the mid-sixties . . . Not only was the Pittsburgh Railways the largest at that time, but also without a doubt, the most picturesque. . . . take a tour of Pittsburgh as it was in the early sixties, as the days of the large system were dwindling down to a precious few.

Trolleys often squeezed through places so tight that direct bus substitution was impossible.

Deteriorating bridges and track and an anti-trolley management doomed many valuable lines whose length of private right of way would be valuable today for modern rail transit. . . . the Port Authority . . . was bus-minded to a fault.

Starting in 1972, a startling turn of events took place: the trolley system that had been in a steady decline in the sixties took a sudden turn upward. Incredibly shabby trolleys began to bloom in fresh paint jobs in a bright bouquet of colors.