Car Life

[Fred W. Schneider III]

The 1700 paint scheme was simply the new company paint scheme; repaints
went to that scheme as well. Don't ever forget that PRC scratched up
every car at least monthly and quite a few accidents were bad enough to
require body and paint work. But just because a car was painted didn't
imply that heavy body work was done, or that cars were rewired, etc.  I
don't believe that PRC every put any PCCs through a major overhaul
program similar to the GOH program done by SEPTA in the 1980s.  PRC had
a series of different inspection levels, A, B and C, during which
different inspection and parts renewal functions were performed.  They
cut out steel and welded in new as required.  They painted as required;
many cars just got front end paint although there were some that were
fully painted.  

Think depreciation cycles.  This was a private company.  The Infernal
Revenue Service was discontented if you ran fully depreciated
machinery.  The stock holders did not appreciate scrapping machinery
that was not depreciated.  I've seen notes saying, "Do not do any more B
inspections on 1000s."  The tens have been depreciated but the 1200s and
1400s are still on the books undepreciated.  We don't want to take a
paper loss and hurt the stock holders.  Therefore it is logical that
1000s go first, then 1100s, then 1200s, and so forth. Normal PCC
depreciation was probably 20-25 years depending on the company.  The
tens and elevens were retired between 21 and 25 years.  The remaining
1200s were down in Rankin out of service by 24 years.  The 1400s were
mostly gone by 25 years and all by 26.  The 1500s were out by 22 years,
but by this time government is running the circus and there is no such
thing as depreciation.  The 1600s ... well, now it falls apart.  It
became more important to get rid of non standard GE cars and keep the
Westignhouse equipment ... saves training people how to fix 25 odd
cars.  

Kenneth Josephson wrote:
> 
> It appears some of the 1000s and 1100s received some sort of overhaul during
> the1950's, as a number of them appeared sporting the 1700 paint scheme. Were
> these repainted cars actually overhaul or did they simply receive cosmetic
> attention?
> 
> If these 10s and 11s were indeed overhauled, why did Pittsburgh Railways chose to
> retain 1200s and 1400s that were approaching the need for major overhauls? Would
> it have made more economic sense to retain recently overhauled twenty two year
> old cars over cars four or five years newer but in need of complete overhauls?
> 
> It appears Boston took factors other than age into account when MBTA decided to
> retain and overhaul some of its PCCs.  Ken J.