Repainting 1711 --- PRCo PCC Colors

Jim Holland pghpcc at pacbell.net
Tue Sep 12 00:21:15 EDT 2000


Greetings!

	The May--June--1990 issue of *Trolley Fare* shows a photo of stipped
down 1711 at Barr Cannon awaiting repainting.  I shall quote bits and
pieces from this issue:::::::
	"George Tucker felt that it would be nice to have 1711 restored before
it was delivered to the Museum, so he decided to take on the project. .
. with the entire project funded by a generous donation from George."

	It was originally hoped that body work and paint would be done by
({[pat]}) but their schedule did not allow for this.  So bids were
floated and Barr Cannon won, just a couple blocks from the museum.  More
quotes:

	"All of the windows, interior lighting, ceiling fans and seats were
removed.  The inside of the car was sanded and is ready to paint.  All
of the rusted ares on the body of the car were cut out with a torch and
replaced with new metal."

	A photo of 1711 bewing towed to Barr Cannon reveals the car in a banded
paint scheme - probably red-white-red - and I believe that 1711 had been
in the ({[pat]}) gray at one time.  During the mod trolley days, the
overhaul of the cars was quite complete and I would be very surprized if
windows were not removed for repainting.  I would doubt that this would
leave any original PRCo paint on the car  --  much less original
St.-Louis Car paint!

	From the July--August--1990 issue are the following quotes:
	"The paint was then carefully checked for the proper color match, and
the spray guns were filled.  The interior of the car was painted first. 
When the paint was completely dry, the car was then masked in
preparation to spray the outside."
	We wouldn't expect them to say that they just grabbed a bucket of red
paint and went to town, would we?!  But no details are given about the
color match process and the article making this description was written
by the museum director, David L. Procupp, who apparently was not there
during the painting.  No one is listed as being present.

	But the project was taken on by George Tucker and he appears in the
photo of the stripped car at Barr Cannon.  Doubt if many museum members
saw the car at this location, let alone the painting.  A good job was
done, but I still feel the red is too deep and dark on 1711 - always
have.

Jim Holland wrote:

>         I believe that 1711 was repainted at the expense of one individual;
> will go back thru *Trolley Fare* when I have more time.  Don't know how
> much the museum got involved in the painting of the car; it was not done
> on museum property if I remember correctly.
>         I have often wondered how they overlooked painting the area around the
> front windows black - seems to me that PTM would be right on top of
> that; I know that Ed Lybarger would not miss that detail.  So this
> *suggests* (but does not confirm) that the colors chosen were individual
> rather than done by the museum team.

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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