Low Floor Cars

[Jim Holland]

Greetings!

	I have an article from Traction Heritage #38 Vol 7 #2 an article
entitled "The Pittsburgh Low-Floor Car" (don't know where this was
originally published but it was apparently published in 1912.)

	What really caught my attention was the fact that the cars had center
only doors!  These cars were originally built as trailers with 22"
wheels and there was a desire to motorize them.  The industry was
extremely skeptical about making such a small motor but under the
direction of "F. R. Phillips, superintendent of equipment, and
P. N. Jones, general superintendent . . ." the motor was developed and
placed on a truck having 24" wheels.
	This car, with only center doors, was used as the lead car of a two-car
train!  While the motors were only 30 horsepower each, it was able to do
its job.  Apparently this experimental car was numbered *A217* and
weighed in at 33,750 pounds with couplers and everything!
	From information gleaned from Tom's articles published in *Modern
Tramway* and jointly reprinted by *Light Railway Transport League* and
*PRMA* the trailer cars had letter prefixes A or B or C which denoted
various fittings - trolley poles, two motors, etc.  Some trailer-only
equipment had two motors and could be operated around the shops but
could not be used as a lead car in a train.  But some, like A217, were
capable of being the lead car.

	While this experiment was performed on A217 in 1912, the trailers were
mostly ordered 1910-1917.  The first *real motorized* low-floor cars
were 4000-4149 built 1909-1911 with a total of 200 hp. to be used to
pull the trailers.  All the rest of the regular low floor cars were 150
hp total unless they were upgraded lafter delivery.

	Was the center door only design something that was limited to only the
trailers or did some regular motor cars have it as well.

	Some of the regular low-floor cars came with a single front door and
double center doors while others had the standard double front and
double center doors.  Did any of the single-front door cars get
converted to double front door?

	According to this article, the body style for A217 was patented by P.
N. Jones.

James B. Holland
------- -- ---------
        Pittsburgh Railways Company (PRCo), June of 1949 -- June of 1953
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