Car 1782

[Fred Schneider]

It is possible Ken, that the wider streets on the Nor'side might have had
something to do with the condition ... California Ave, East Street,
Perrysville Ave were all very wide ... of course wide streets enable
motorists to dart around the side of the trolley and have side-swipe
collisions which don't happen on narrow streets.  I really suspect 1782 was
one odd case amid a yard full of wrinkled cars.  

After looking through the C J Dengler collection of negatives of over 1200
Pittsburgh cars in detail, I am convinced that few if any cares were on the
street for much more than a week after delivery before they were in an
accident.  That is probably not quite true, but he had a lot of negatives of
otherwise pristine cars, looking like they just came off the flat car, with
scratches down the sides.  Harold Cox, in an effort to come up with scrap
dates for Philly cars, observed that each car in the fleet was in an
accident on average of once every month.  He claimed that, if he didn't see
a car for 90 days or longer, he simply presumed the previous accident was a
significant one!  DOES THIS NOT TELL US THAT OR FAVORITE MODE OF TRAVEL
TENDS TO BE ACCIDENT PRONE?  AT LEAST THAT SHINY BUS HAS A CHANCE OF
DODGING.  I'M ACTUALLY ASTONISHED THAT OUR TROLLEY MUSEUM OPERATORS DON'T
HAVE MORE ACCIDENTS THAN THEY HAVE. 

ASK JOHN SWINDLER ABOUT BUS ACCIDENTS.  He has some experience in that area
for he drove for CTA for several summers to work his way through college ...
I think he said he never had a CHARGEABLE accident.  I remember Donald
Harold talking about running Brilliners in Atlantic City in the summer when
he was in seminary ... he admitted to several accidents but said he always
came in with a raft of signed witness cards in his favor.  The best story
was the chap in the big black Caddy who passed him in Ventnor, then turned
left THINKING the trolley was blocks behind him! I never had experience with
transit buses, but I did drive school buses during my short teaching career
... I remember threading the needle when the brakes failed (and the business
manager later had the audacity to say he didn't want to spend any money
fixing them becuase they planned to scrap that bus that year ... that I
should know to pump the hydraulic system before stopping).   	 

On the last night in Baltimore, I was riding out toward Irvington when I
chap tried to pass on the right, periodically bumping the trolley as he
weaved his way out the street ... after passing us he continued to weave at
a high rate of speed.  I imagine when he sobered up the next day, he
probably wondered about the source of all the NCL yellow paint on the left
side of his car.

Am I beginning to sound like one of those "Been There, Done That" types?  

-----Original Message-----
From: Kenneth and Tracie Josephson [mailto:kjosephson at sprintmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, December 22, 1999 5:47 AM
To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
Subject: Car 1782


It reached 65 degrees in Las Vegas yesterday. In an effort to empathize
with my fellow list members still living in the Mid Atlantic or
Northeast regions, I went through my Pittsburgh photo collection to look
at some snow shots. 

I found a nice shot of car 1782 on Route 10. The date was February
9,1964. Snow everywhere. The car no longer had its dash lights, but
still sported its "white face" and headlight wings. I also noticed the
motorman's dash vent was sealed with what appeared to common duct tape.

Shots of cars on Routes 8, 10, 15 & 21 makes it appear as if the cars
stationed at Keating remained in better condition bodywise than their
counterparts at other car houses. Perhaps the cars serving other parts
of the system had to contend with heavier traffic and/or more narrow
streets. Oe perhaps the Westinghouse equipped cars gave off a  magnetic
field which drew objects such automobiles, trucks, etc. into their
paths, causing collisions. :-D

Ken J.