The Pennsylvania Trolley Museum’s Port Authority Transit (PAT) PCC car No. 1713, the “Terrible Trolley,” made its service debut Aug. 12, following a two-year restoration program that included duplicating a livery applied in 1980 to honor the Pittsburgh Steelers, their four Super Bowl titles and the “Terrible Towel” yellow and black rally towel. PAT, now Pittsburgh Regional Transit, is host agency for the 2025 Railway Age/RT&S Light Rail Conference. Elizabeth Hosier, then the Museum’s Director of Visitor Experience, wrote the following story in 2023 with contributions from the project volunteers. We’ve updated it to reflect that the Terrible Trolley is now in service. — William C. Vantuono
Pittsburgh earned the nickname “the Steel City” in the late 1800s as entrepreneurs like Andrew Carnegie established steel mills around the city. In fact, Carnegie Steel’s contributions to the industry advanced it by leaps and bounds throughout the 1880s. As the steel industry grew, the city did too, and by World War II, the demand for steel meant the mills were running 24 hours a day. Pittsburgh produced 95 million tons of steel for the war effort. This also led to massive amounts of pollution. A visitor to Pittsburgh claimed, “Pittsburgh, without exception, is the blackest place I ever saw…” After the war, the city made efforts to clean itself up with initiatives for clean air and clean rivers. Throughout the late 20th century, the city improved environmentally and culturally, developing into the 90 unique neighborhoods that exist now.
U.S. Steel production peaked in the mid-1970s, and Pittsburgh remained a thriving industrial giant. However, foreign steel production led to a collapse of the U.S. steel industry in the late 1970s and early 1980s. This led to the closure of mills and massive job losses for people in the Pittsburgh region. In fact, the unemployment rate in the region peaked at 17.1% in January 1983. Pittsburghers were left to struggle to make ends meet as the economic recession hit them hard.
Today, not all Pittsburghers are die-hard Steelers fans, but unlike other cities, even non-fans in the region seem to know how the Steelers are doing. For a long time, the Steelers meant more to the region than just being a football team, and that stems from the economic downturn of the 1970s and ’80s.
Art Rooney founded the Steelers franchise in 1933 by. Originally named the Pittsburgh Pirates, the team seemed to be great at one thing: losing. By 1940, it had changed its name to the Steelers—just in time for WWII to cause a player shortage. They spent the one season as the Phil-Pitt “Steagles” and another as the Card-Pitt “Carpets.” (The Steagles, officially known as the Phil-Pitt Combine, was the team created by the temporary merger of Pennsylvania’s two NFL teams, the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Philadelphia Eagles, during the 1943 season. The two franchises fielded a single combined team because both had lost many players to military service during World War II. In 1944, they merged with the Chicago Cardinals and were known as Card-Pitt or, mockingly, as the Carpets. This team finished 0–10, marking the only winless team in franchise history.)
After the war, the Steelers showed some improvement, making the playoffs for the first time in 1947. It lost its first-round game and never made another—until after hiring Chuck Noll as head coach in 1969, and the AFL-NFL merger in 1970. Both events seemed to have changed the team’s luck completely. Knoll had an eye for talent and drafted some of the most notable names in Steelers history: “Mean” Joe Greene, Terry Bradshaw, Mel Blount, Jack Ham, Franco Harris, Lynn Swann, Jack Lambert, John Stallworth and Mike Webster. They were a dynasty, going to the playoffs eight times, winning four Super Bowls in six years. The team earned the nickname “the Super Steelers” and its winning streak was exactly what the struggling region and its people needed.
The city came alive as it watched its team. Myron Cope (1929-2008), legendary sports journalist, radio personality and color commentator best known for being “the voice of the Pittsburgh Steelers,“ started the iconic Terrible Towel tradition. The yellow rally towel with black letters debuted Dec. 27, 1975 and was an instant classic. In fact, the idea took hold in several aspects, and everything in the city became “terrible.” Steelers fans have taken photos with their towels all over the world, even on the International Space Station!
Everyone that was around when the Steelers became Super has a story about watching those games, gaining hope with each first down. Someone who remembers those Steelers is Kim Sever. Kim grew up surrounded by adults in Pittsburgh, watching football and helping cook dinner. She spent time with her grandmother and learned a myriad of useful life-skills, including the art of letter writing. It was during one of those Steelers games that Kim got the idea that the city should have a trolley painted to honor the team and the “terrible” tradition. Her grandmother suggested that she write a letter with the recommendation. In late 1979, nine-year-old Kim wrote to Mayor Richard Caliguiri. The mayor wrote back explaining that he wasn’t in charge of the public transit system but that he would pass along her suggestions.
The car chosen for the paint job was PAT PCC 1713. It was built in 1949 by the St. Louis Car Company and originally ran on the Charleroi and Washington interurban lines. The car ran as the Terrible Trolley throughout most of the 1980s. It was retired in 1988 but returned to service only a year later. It was finally retired for good in 1998. PAT then sold several retired cars to different entities, including some private collectors. PCC 1713 was one of the cars sold into private ownership. It was stored indoors in Ohio for 25 years. The owner did some repairs to it but overall did not have the time or resources to complete a restoration and made the decision to sell it to the Museum. Brownlee Trucking, Inc. agreed to help transport the car from Ohio to the Museum. In addition, the Museum was able to secure an NFL license agreement through the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Eamon Foundation, the charity designated by Myron Cope’s estate as the owner and beneficiary of “The Terrible Towel” trademark.
The Pennsylvania Trolley Museum began restoration work on 1713 in 2023. The project to return it to the Terrible Trolley paint scheme and to make it operable was one of our youth volunteer projects. We were pleased to announce co-project managers Jack Jost, who was only 17, and Ayden Kendlick, who was 18. They were advised by more senior volunteers and staff, but they took control of the project and rapidly made progress. The first step was to pressure wash and clean the car inside and out. This process was quite the endeavor as the car had been untouched for quite some time, and a few critters had made their way inside. Next, they worked quickly to rewire the interior lights and make sure they worked properly. Both steps happened within just a week of 1713’s arrival at the Museum.
The work moved quickly. The volunteers worked to raise the car off the ground and remove the trucks for inspection and repair. They also removed the motor-generator. The crew inspected the rust caused by salt damage from the years spent operating in Pittsburgh’s winters. A good portion of the underbody was replaced. They also worked with Prime Collision on the painting process and timeline. While inspecting the paint, volunteers came across areas where they could see the layers of past paint jobs, including paint from when it was the Terrible Trolley. Additionally, when it was repainted, PAT did not remove all decals, leaving spots where the faint outlines of player’s numbers were visible in the right lighting.
