<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div>Does not surprise me in the least. In 1958, I organized a charter for the Lancaster Chapter of the NRHS. I asked our motorman, Roy Taylor, how many men were system qualified and the answer I got was an incredibly small number of old men. There were probably a fewer than five in each division that were qualified to run the whole system. Most of the guys knew the routes in the barn where they worked but they didn't know the whole system. Even on our trip, an inspector (a white hat) showed up out in Lincoln Place where route 65 joined route 56 because the company believed there had been some trackwork changes since Roy had last been there. If my memory is correct, those track changes occurred <b>years</b> before our trip.</div><div><br></div><div>And if you think Pittsburgh was bad, can you imagine how many people might have been system qualified in Philadelphia or Chicago or Brooklyn? I think Chicago was probably the largest system. </div><div><br></div><div>Yes, Ed, he probably got spoken to but I wonder how charitable the bosses were???? Pittsburgh is a city where you need a certain instinct to get around and we both know that. I remember standing out in front of East Liberty Presbyterian Church after Derrick Brashear's wedding. I was surrounded by the invited guests looking at portable GPS units trying to figure out how to get from East Liberty to the South Side. They were clueless. I think most of them came from Pittsburgh. I simply got in my car and drove there … no problem. In a city where you can have two streets on a map that are parallel for miles but you cannot get from one of them to the other because one is on the hill and the other is in the ravine, you cannot be to harsh with the discipline when the motorman gets lost.</div><div><br></div><div>Have there been other similar incidents? I remember someone telling me … perhaps it was Norm Vutz … that the first time they put a bus on 21 Fineview they got it wedged between three power poles. Gee it worked with a PCC but maybe that was because both ends were steerable. :<)</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><br><div><div>On May 13, 2013, at 11:05 AM, Barry, Matthew R wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><div>There should have been a Kingston Trio ballad written about him and his streetcar.<br><br>Matt<br><br><br><br><br>-------------- next part --------------<br>An HTML attachment was scrubbed...<br>URL: <a href="http://mailman.dementix.org/pipermail/pittsburgh-railways/attachments/20130513/e0697791/attachment.html">http://mailman.dementix.org/pipermail/pittsburgh-railways/attachments/20130513/e0697791/attachment.html</a> <br>-------------- next part --------------<br>A non-text attachment was scrubbed...<br>Name: Motorman_Lost_12_19_57.JPG<br>Type: image/jpeg<br>Size: 67005 bytes<br>Desc: Motorman_Lost_12_19_57.JPG<br>Url : <a href="http://mailman.dementix.org/pipermail/pittsburgh-railways/attachments/20130513/e0697791/attachment.jpe">http://mailman.dementix.org/pipermail/pittsburgh-railways/attachments/20130513/e0697791/attachment.jpe</a> <br>_______________________________________________<br>Pittsburgh-railways mailing list<br><a href="mailto:Pittsburgh-railways@mailman.dementix.org">Pittsburgh-railways@mailman.dementix.org</a><br>https://mailman.dementix.org/mailman/listinfo/pittsburgh-railways<br></div></blockquote></div><br>
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