Philadelphia PCC retriever for sale on Ebay

[Greg King]

Hi Jim,

It's interesting that someone is trying to sell a PCC catcher, I have about
twenty of them sitting beside my garage, they are genuine Earl type PCC
catchers, but they were made for us, we used them on our Z3 and A class cars
till we went to pantographs and I rescued these and their mounting rings,
been meaning to write to Gemaco to see if they need any.

By the way, do you or anyone else on the list know wher I might get some
plans of the VEPCO (Norfolk) cars 700-702. Thes were built by Kuhlman in
1926 for the "Westside Electric Street Railway and the Webster, Monsessen,
Belle Vernon and Fayette City Street Railway out of Charleroi, Penn.
Apparently PRC operated the lines from 1929 to 33 selling them to Lehigh
Valley who in turn sold them to VEPCO. These were particularly hansome cars
and I would love to build one for myself.

Cheers
Greg
----- Original Message -----
From: Jim Holland <pghpcc at pacbell.net>
To: <pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org>
Sent: Sunday, November 05, 2000 3:17 AM
Subject: Re: Philadelphia PCC retriever for sale on Ebay


> Greetings!
>
> brathke at juno.com wrote:
>
> > A Philadelphia PCC trolley retirever is for sale on Ebay.  See:
> > http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=488798257
>
> Philadelphia PCC cars  NEVER  had  RETRIEVERS  --  they used  CATCHERS
> to take up the trolley rope.  There is a  BIG  difference between the
> two.
>
> A catcher stops the upward movement of a trolley pole; a retriever not
> only stops the upward movement of a trolley pole but has a mechanism to
> *retrieve* the pole - to pull it down clear of the wires.
>
> Even the description is suspect - the *retriever* is in the *original*
> orange but underneath is the PTC green?!?!?!?!?!?!  A quote of the
> description follows:::::::
>
> "This is an original 1947 PCC Philadelphia Trolley car RETRIEVER. It is
> still in its original color (Orange).  There are some minor chips in the
> paint and underneath is the original PTC (GREEN) paint. SEPTA had
> experimented with many paint schemes before The red white and blue was
> standered. This retriever was salvaged from an orange PCC at LUZERNE
> Trolley Barn years ago. I got it from a freind, it is in good condition.
> A RETRIEVER's function was to yank the pole in a downward position when
> the pole dewired. the retreiver prevented the pole from getting hung up
> in the wires or tearing down the overhead. A GREAT PEICE OF HISTORY AND
> A GOOD CONVERSATION PIECE. I hate to let it go but I have to sell it for
> financial reasons. GOOD LUCK! Buyer pays shipping."
>
> James B. Holland
>
>         Pittsburgh  Railways  Company  (PRCo),   1930  --  1950
>     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/
>