Track Switch Control ...MOST LIKELY, crazy question, but...

[Jim Holland]

Greetings!

	No - if there were such a device, it was for the handbrake when the car
was shut off.  This was usually a pump type action on the air-cars.
	People would constantly get on the PCCs here in San Francisco asking
where the steering wheel was.  After years of patiently explaining, and
using the analogy of a model railroad that runs on tracks without a
steering wheel - I finally gave up and said that the person in the back
seat had the wheel - upon which they would go back to check!

	Incidentally, you have the VIRUS HAPPY99.EXE - it came through as a
separate message behind this one.  Hope you can get it cleared out of
your computer before you have trouble with it!

mrb190 wrote:
> 
> I have what is probably a smeared-up recollection of boarding a PCC with my
> grandfather now and again, and seeing a "steering wheel" on the dash.....   Was
> there ever such a call for this on a PCC?   Or is the imaginings of a child of 5 or
> 6?   I don't think I dreamed it.   Maybe we were boarding a bus...who knows.
> 
> Matt
> 
> Bob Schmidt wrote:
> 
> > Good morning!
> >
> > I remember quite clearly the motormen of the high and low floor cars
> > "powering up a notch and applying the brake simultaneously" for on-board
> > switch throwing operations. There were also various episodes when the
> > track switch failed to 'throw', the  manual pinchbar being yanked from
> > its holding niche next to the emergency brake wheel, and the entire
> > episode accompanied by barely audible four-letter words.
> >
> > Both of the inbound tunnel de-rails at SHJ were activated likewise, and
> > were the ones incurring the most wrath. Of course, a young lad of the
> > mid-1940's at the time would've been impressed by this scenario. And so,
> > you've just heard (read) the playback.
> >
> > Bob S
> >
> >   ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > Subject: Track Switch Control
> > Date: Fri, 31 Mar 2000 20:29:48 -0800
> > From: Jim Holland <pghpcc at pacbell.net>
> > Reply-To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
> > To: PRCo -- WP -- JTC -- The Big *3* -- <pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org>
> >
> > Greetings!
> >
> >         The PCC cars used a toggle on the dash for controlling track switches
> > and it was forbidden to use the power pedal thru the overhead contactor
> > to set the turnout for diverge.
> >
> >         How did the low-floor cars and other non-PCC car set the switches?  Did
> > they have a toggle installed for such purpose or did they notch up the
> > controller and apply the brakes?
> >
> > James B. Holland
> > ------- -- ---------
> >         Pittsburgh Railways Company (PRCo), June of 1949 -- June of 1953
> >     To e-mail *privately,* please click here: mailto:pghpcc at pacbell.net
> > N.M.R.A.  Life member #2190; http://www.mcs.net:80/~weyand/nmra/

James B. Holland
------- -- ---------
        Pittsburgh Railways Company (PRCo), June of 1949 -- June of 1953
    To e-mail *privately,* please click here: mailto:pghpcc at pacbell.net
N.M.R.A.  Life member #2190; http://www.mcs.net:80/~weyand/nmra/