The First *Wing* Logo Application - & Headlight Wings !!!!!!!

[Jim Holland]

Greetings!

	I made a very informal and non-scientific survey of my photos and found
that there is a high likelihood of a car having a logo in the late-50s -
but much less chance for a car to have the logo in the early to
mid-50s.  In addition to my collection, I checked the Harold A. Smith
picture album, The Volkmer book on WP, JTC and PRCo, the Lind book on
St. Louis Car, and the two PCC books by Carlson and Schneider on the
PCC.
	The photo of 1614 is Copyright by William P. Nixon but he did not put
the photo number on the back!  The date is either 1952.07.27 for a joint
Trip with Akron, OH, RR Club to Washington, Shannon, Charleroi, Roscoe,
Washington  O-R  1953.08.23, the last PRMA fantrip Pittsburgh to
Washington  --  the car is heading south just north of Canonsburg. 
Those who have this photo might be able to confirm.  This is the very
earliest photo I could find of a car with a logo - the next would be one
in 1954 and some in 1955 but more as time marches on!
	Photo #PG01017, also by Nixon, is of 1695 on the last day of Spring
Garden, 1957.10.06, and it does not have a logo at this late date.  And
photo #PG00155 (Nixon) of 1019 is from the PRMA fantrip of 1959.06.14
and does not have a logo.  But before one says that the 10s would be
surplus and scrapped upon closure of the West End, I found 1068 on
53-Carrick in 1956.08.03 with a logo (#018 from the 2nd list of the
NRHS-NJ!)  There are other 10s with logos but I didn't bother to list
them.  And 1700 on 1959.02.15 when PRMA covered lines 25, 26, 27, 28,
30, 34/31, 55, 56, 65, 67, 71, 73, 96, 98 we find the car without logo
heading into the outer terminal of the 55 displaying *East Pittsburgh*
(Joseph Canfield or Ben Rohrbeck slide!)
	Additional late-date, non-logo cars include (but are not necessarily
limited to) 1711 on the Castle Shannon loop on 1958.04.05 (#002 first
list, NRHS-NJ); 1437 on 1959.09.05 (#044, 2nd list NRHS-NJ); 1559 on
1959.04.13 on 27-Carnegie (Harold A. Smith #PI-0220); and 1630 while
still retaining roof monitor and fans.  After 1630 had these items
removed and the car was overhauled and repainted, it did sport the logo.
	It is possible that the logo was applied and painted over for some
reason as well as not having received a logo in the first place!
	So it would seem that for modelling purposes it would depend on what
time period is being modelled - before 1953 or possibly 1952  N-O 
logos!  After that it is hit or miss - it would seem fine to model a car
with or without the logo!  But modellers are prone to take a little
license and I certainly wouldn't object to a car with a logo in 1950!

	The 15s and 16s are *war-babies* and were not allowed to use chrome so
these cars came with golden glow headlights painted black (or the PRCo
chernak green (aka black!)) and the headlights were wingless.  But wings
were applied to some cars - 1645 *got-its-wings* before it got its roof
light although it had its other interurban equipment!  And 1646
*got-its-wings* while Charleroi and Washington lines were still
operating.  There may be others that received wings as well!

Jim Holland wrote:
> 
> Greetings!
> 
>         Apparently the application of the logo was not universal on the PRCo
> system and was phased in over a very long period of time!
>         Until I discovered the 1953 photo of 1614 with the logo, none of my
> pictures before 1955 seemed to have the logo (I have several thousand
> PRCo only photos.)  And I have one of 1614 and 1630 together, with the
> latter still sporting its fans and roof monitors, and the time frame is
> the late 50s possibly the early 60s, and 1614 has the logo but 1630 does
> NOT have the logo.
>         I also have other photos of 1630 in the West End which date to about
> 1958 or 1959 and the car does NOT have the logo.
>         So it seems that the absolute earliest that the logo appeared was 1953
> (so far) but that is an isolated case.  Most of the others appeared from
> 1955 on but not necessarily on all cars.  Depending on the time period
> one is modelling, one could use or omit the logo on any given car with
> little problem!
> 
> Fredbruhn at aol.com wrote:
> >
> > Ed - You know that all of us who are modeling PRCo. are going to beat this
> > logo question to death.  We need to know how to paint this equipment to be
> > correct.
> >
> > Thanks for not giving up on this question

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