Speed--Tunnel; Derail Operation

[Fred Schneider]

Seems to me that it took in the neighborhood of 30 minutes from South
Hills Junction through the city and back out.  While the traffic lights
and general congestion did consume a lot of time, I'm inclined to agree
with John that at least 6 to 8 minutes of the total was between the
north bank of the river and the south end of the tunnel.  My earlier
guess of 100 seconds was based on car balancing speed up hill ...  my
memory of balancing speed ... I was thinking in terms of 25 mph but it
might be closer to 20 mph on a 6 percent up hill gradient ... that works
out to 29 feet per second.  Inbound was probably slower unless you had
an idiot for a motorman, and there were a few of them around.  The other
issue is that rail cars always tend to be noisy, particularly in
confined spaces, and tend to make one think they are going a lot faster
than they really are.  

-----Original Message-----
From: John Swindler [mailto:j_swindler at hotmail.com]
Sent: Friday, December 10, 1999 9:31 AM
To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
Subject: Re: Speed--Tunnel; Derail Operation


In reply to Jim Holland's questions:

as with traffic on a freeway, excess vehicle speeds tend to be self 
regulating during rush hours.  It's the mid-day, evening and weekend
cars 
that would be easier to check.  Besides, don't think it was random
anyway - 
supervisors knew who to watch.

Don't remember whether it was an operator or John Baxter who told me
time 
required to run through tunnel, but 2 1/4 minutes comes to mind.  And
that 
it was less then a minute to cross the Smithfield St. Bridge.

As for derail signal, center was red, but impression is that upper
signal 
was white.  Would feel more comfortable if someone could check an old 
operator's manual rather then trying to rely on memory from 30+ years
ago.

John S.

>From: Jim Holland <pghpcc at pacbell.net>
>Reply-To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
>To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
>Subject: Speed--Tunnel;  Derail  Operation
>Date: Fri, 10 Dec 1999 00:37:05 -0800
>
>Greetings!
>
>John Swindler wrote:
>
> > At the risk of again trying to rely on a questionable memory,
vaguely 
>recall
> > small metal plate suspended from the trolley span wire at the south
end 
>of
> > the tunnel with a number punched out that would tell the motorman
how 
>much
> > time to take going inbound through the tunnel.  That's how speed was
> > controlled.  Supervisor could stand on porch in front of his office
in
> > administration building and time cars going inbound through the
tunnel 
>(and
> > write up those who didn't take enough time).
>
>	From what you are saying this was a fixed plate and number.
Must have
>been extremely difficult for the super to keep track of each individual
>car during rush hours!  While it is possible to see the end, it would
be
>easy to get cars confused.
>	We had similar time limit inbound thru Twin Peaks in SF from
Forest
>Hill to Eureka Station.
>
> > As for derails, . . . It was a positive action, delayed
> > throw switch.  Motorman had to apply power to throw switch, then
apply 
>brake
> > because of delayed action.  Again, simple but elegant solution.
> > Signal light had three positions.  Normal red light in center, then
when
> > derail switch activated, upper light would show, then when switch 
>physically
> > moved, lower green light would show.
>
>	THANKS for this information!  Can we stretch your memory to
remember
>the color of the top light???!!!
>	Think is was strictly against the rules for the motorman to use
the
>power pedal to set the switch in Pgh. - they were required to use the
>control panel switch.  But here in SF using the power pedal was the
>preferred method (most of the track switch toggles didn't work nohow!!!
>
>James B. Holland
>------- -- ---------
>         Pittsburgh Railways Company (PRCo), June of 1949 -- June of
1953
>     To e-mail *off-list,* please click here: mailto:pghpcc at pacbell.net
>N.M.R.A.  Life member #2190; http://www.mcs.net:80/~weyand/nmra/

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