PRC recollections

[Kenneth and Tracie Josephson]

brathke at juno.com wrote:

> Growing up, I was fascinated by the technique that PRC used to clear the
> street of automobiles that parked too close to the trolley right of way.
> An orange PRC truck would show up, and the driver would put a jack on the
> front bumper of the car, jack it up until the front wheels were above the
> pavement, and he'd push the car toward the curb until it fell off the
> jack.  Then he'd repeat this on the rear bumper.  I saw this happen many
> times, often on Fifth Avenue downtown.

I have some photos showing motormen blowing the horns of cars parked too
close to the tracks. I also have a shot showing  a mid 1960's Ford pickup
parked right on the tracks on the Route 40 line. There is a shot of a
motorman chatting with a couple of guys working on a '59 Olds. The auto was
disabled and it appears they were discussing how to push the 4,000 beast up
and off the tracks.

I was riding the 49 in 1979 or 1976 (can't recall for sure which visit) with
a motorman who stopped somewhere on Arlington or Warrington and darn near
kicked the driver's side mirror off a "repeat offeender's" pickup. The
truck's large "trailer towing" mirror was blocking the car's path. The
operator opened one set of doors, cussed a little to himself  and shoved the
mirror into the window frame of the truck. We were chatting prior to this  so
he didn't seem to mind venting his frustration in front of me. I was the only
passenger. He said that the truck was a "regular" at that spot and if I
wasn't on the car, he would have "swung from the stantions and kicked that
mirror off the %$@$$&^%$# truck "Bruce Lee" style. :-)  Ken J.