Pa Trolleys Vol 3 -- PRCo -- WP -- JTC

[Jim Holland]

Greetings!

	Just some details gleaned from the photos in this book.  I 
finally fingered out the page numbers - in the lower outside corner of 
many but not all pages is a ticket which reads *Pennsylvania Trolleys One 
Fare* and then the railway covered in that section.  There is also a six 
digit serial number - the red number(s) within this serial number being 
the page number!

	Just looking at the photos of the PRCo section beginning on page 
71 I make these observations:::::::

	01)--	Page 75 top, 4361 heading east on Beau right at the 
switch to the interurban wye.
	02)--	PRCo 1700 series PCC cars are the only ones delivered 
with a cream dash with red trim either side in a semi-circle.  ALL the 
air cars were delivered with a solid red dash below the windows with the 
exception of a cream *belt* all the way around the car immediately below 
the windows.  The 1621 in the bottom photo on page 76 had its front end, 
at least, repainted.  By 1960, solid red fronts started to appear on 
everything, including the 17s, and sometimes it was  o-n-l-y  the fronts 
that got painted.
	03)--	The trolley wheels were very hard on the overhead wire 
and caused considerable wear.  To counteract this, PRCo would wrap 
sleeves of copper or phosphor-bronze around the overhead where this wear 
occurs.  This is most noticeable leading into and out of frogs, but it 
was also done at hangers.  In the top photo on page 77, the curved 
interurban wire from Grant to Liberty in the foreground, and the first 
hanger to the right of the tall building, note that the wire is wider for 
about 2 feet coming off the hanger to the right.  This is one of those 
sheeves.  These are much more noticeable in Hal Smith's book *Touring Pgh 
by Trolley.
	04)--	PCC 1630, bottom photo, was built this way; it was n-o-t 
modified by PRCo.  The windows did open.  On the insert notes in back of 
*PCC The Car That Fought Back* Schneider indicates that this car got 
air-electric St. Louis B-3 trucks from 1648 which was lost in the 
Homewood fire of 1955.  Although this car started out in Highland Car 
House when delivered, I remember it in South Hills for much of the 50s 
and often saw this car on the 42 Dormont.  Don't remember B-3 trucks on 
it and would like to confirm this!  Pages 92 and 117 also show photos of 
this car after the monitor was removed. page 121 shows another photo with 
the monitor.  And although Bill says it is identical to other 16s after 
rebuilding (photo caption, pg. 117), this is not true.  The trolley cowl 
is from a 1000 or 1100 series car, not a 16.  It is said that this was 
the reason that ({[PAT]}) rejected it.  The car had been overhauled and 
was a very fine performer.
		ALL that is need is a set of tracks straight through on 
Carson Street to make this a skewed Grand Union!
	05)--	One year earlier and you still could have ridden 1617 (pg 
80, top) to Washington on these tracks!  After the cutback, it was 
extremely rare to see an interurban 16 in service except as a rush hour 
tripper.  1613 itself was not at all popular with the motormen.
	06)--	Page 83, top, the back of PCC 100, the first PCC in 
revenue service in the world, is now renumbered M11 and has had its 
accelerator inverted and glass enclosed inside the car so motormen 
trainees could observe its operation!  Notice the trolley *catcher* 
centered above the rear windows.  This is how all PRCo PCCs were 
delivered except the 1700 series interurbans which had an Earll retriever 
mounted below the windows to the right of center.  This happened to the 
1600 series interurbans when they were converted by PRCo.  *Catcher* and 
*retriever* are often used interchangeably but they are distinctly 
different items.  Bot are *similar* in that they have a crescent shaped 
lever on one side of the take up spool which is hinged on one side and 
spring returned to a neutral position.  Centrifugal force causes this 
crescent to lodge in cogs around the perimeter which *catches* the pole 
preventing further upward movement and the flailing around which would be 
injurious to the overhead.  Allowing the rope to go back into the catcher 
will supposedly release the crescent and the spring will remove it from 
the cogs.  But with age this would freeze up and cause problems!  to 
reach the rope, the motorman used the track switch iron.  The handle end 
had a gap in the loop and he would put this around the rope and pull the 
rope down so he could work the trolley by hand.
		The Earll retrievers used the same crescent to activate 
the return spring inside the rope take up spool - this is why that spool 
was wider.  The spring would pull the pole down clear of the wires to 
prevent overhead or pole damage at speed.
	07)--	Page 85 bottom shows a little of the famous track work on 
PRCo - while extreme to look at, most of the rest of the system actually 
felt this bad.  Street work was usually much smoother than this - it was 
only the open T rail that was a really rough (but enjoyable for me) ride! 
 This was on the 25 Island Ave line as a charter with PCC interurban 
1708.
		In the photo on the top, the bridge on the right is the 
replacement bridge for the one on the left, with the one on the left 
showing in the middle picture.  This is why the West End went all at 
once!
	08)--	Page 86, 1019 on the top has a little extra added to its 
trolley cowl.  Looks like they were experimenting with air intake common 
on all the rest of PRCo's air-electric PCC cars.  The protuberance above 
the trucks and below the rub rail on this car (and all cars 100, 
1000-1199) are the air intakes for motor cooling.
	09)--	Page 86, bottom, is dual overhead gantlet wire on the 
27/28 lines mentioned in a previous post.  NOTE  the  GRAY  color to the 
roof monitor at this late date in 1959!
	10)--	Page 92, bottom - 1450 is sitting where West Penn cars 
from Irwin would change ends.  A loop was made here for PRCo and the 
curve in the background was so tight from a downgrade that it seemed like 
the wheels scraped on the floor when I rode PCC 100, M11, around this 
corner in the 50s!
	11)--	Page 96, bottom 1161 had two roof air vents added by PRCo 
- one before and after the trolley cowl.  Another 1100 car, also based in 
South Hills in the 50s, had a third scoop immediately in front of the 
trolley cowl.
	12)--	Page 102, bottom - the photo caption says this is the 
*same day* - but to which picture above that is it referring.  With that 
paint scheme on 1605, it is definitely 1964 or after!

-- 
James B. Holland
       PITTSBURGH RAILWAYS COMPANY (PRCo), June of 1949 -- June of 1953
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