Qualifications to Operate Cars -- & System

[Jim Holland]

Greetings!

Fred Schneider wrote:

> Hey Jim, take a week off and go
> home and research it.

	I'd love to - but more like a month.  But then Ed would definitely go
bald!

> Did the union and/or the company allow any PCC qualified man to run any PCC
> at that time or were the qualifications restricted to car types in the barn
> you worked?

	Super Question!  I have had similar thoughts but never expressed them.
	Car 1600 itself could be considered a 1700 operationally so
theoretically there would be little difference in operating them.  But
being the first powt-war all-electric and a one-of-a-kind, I am sure
there were many features that were distinctly different from the 17s. 
And like many such similar cars, the 1600 was disliked by both operators
and the shop alike, so I have been told.
	But if a division never had 17s, I think a person would be barred from
operating one without training.  How would an operator know how to
release the brakes when being towed or pushed is just one of many
points.

	Now this raises a question, too.  When motormen were picked for
charters, did they come from the division from which the car came or did
they come from any division?  AND, did the operators have to be
qualified on the whole system or were they put out there on their own? 
Charters rarely stayed within the confines of one division and usually
traversed them all!

>                 -----Original Message-----
>                 From:   Jim Holland [mailto:pghpcc at pacbell.net]
>                 Sent:   Sunday, February 27, 2000 2:48 AM
>                 To:     PRCo -- WP -- JTC -- The Big *3*
>                 Subject:        Car  Barns  &  Car  Assignments
> 
>                 Greetings!
> 
>                         It is definitely a given that car assignments to
> various Car Houses
>                 frequently changed for a variety of reasons, yet it is
> interesting to
>                 note and / or speculate on some of the equipment
> assignments.
>                         From photo identifications, it appears as though
> PCCs 1775-1784 were at
>                 Keating in the very early 1950s and Ingram had 1795-1799.
> Did
>                 Manchester or Millvale ever have any 17s assigned to them?
>                         I have a *possible-listing* of car assignments in
> the early 1950s but
>                 Millvale (closed 1952) and Plummer (closed 1954) are not on
> the list.
>                 This compilation has 1775-1792 at Keating with 1793-1799 at
> Ingram.
>                 With the closure of Ingram, Keating then had 25 of the 17s
> and
>                 *probably* all the equipment here was GE equipped.
>                         Again, for the early 1950s, Manchester is listed as
> having only 25-10s,
>                 8-14s, and 10-16s.  Even with 20-Rebecca gone, that still
> leaves 4 good
>                 lines to dispatch and one would think that some 17s might go
> to the
>                 13-line at least - neighborhood values (like the best cars
> were to go
>                 out on Mt.Lebanon!!)  <VBG>
> 
>                 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/