Philadelphia PCC retriever for sale on Ebay

[Fred W. Schneider III]

The Westside / WMBV&FC properties were, to the best of my knowledge, operated
independent of PRC except that they needed trackage rights to get to the
Monongahela River Bridge in North Charleroi, and they may have purchased heavy
overhaul expertiese from the larger company.  There were 6 identical Kuhlman
cars, not 3, with 3 of the six assigned to each of the two properties.   The
person you want to talk to is Tom Phillips, who grew up in Charleroi and
remembers the cars.  Contact him at tsquare at toad.net.

CC: Tom: You cannot answer directly unless you join the list.  Contact its
owner, Derrick Brashear, at shadow at dementia.org and asked to be placed on the
list if you wish to answer directly, or wait for Greg to directly respond to
you, or ask me to post your message.

Greg King wrote:

> 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/
> >
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