[PRCo] Pittsburgh Book -- TOM Drops Gauntlet

[Jim Holland]

Good Morning, Tom!!

	NO claim to Fame??(:->)  Cheeze Whiz  --  you:::::::
		1)--worked with the master engineers at Westinghouse who
			knew  a-l-l  k-i-n-d-s  of trolleycars in
			addition to PCCs;
		2)--worked with the masters of the GG1 the success of
			which was comparable to the PCC and even better;
		3)--lived in a world-class trolleycar empire for a time;
		4)--'knows'  US  (as opposed to them,
			not United States!!).
		5)--And you even knew  AND  lived with that character
			who helped to create the VW Beetle  --
				who was it  --  J.Lenin
					(always thought he was a
					communist  --  just choking!!(:->))

		YOU  --  TOM  --
	are now the  King--of--the--Hill  --
		You can call  ALL  the shots here!!

	Incidentally, I wanted to order a few more copies of your book and I
believe they are all sold out.  As Ed mentioned, there is desire at PTM
to expand the booklet.

	Here it is 9 hours since you made your post  --  and no one has picked
up the gauntlet on publishing a book about transport around Pgh!  You
said:::::::

"A comprehensive history of local transportation in the Pittsburgh area"

	That is quite a broad topic and would include PRCo in addition to Bigi,
Brentwood, PRR commuter, Noblestown, etc., etc., etc.  Maybe one of the
first things that needs to be done is to define the scope and intent of
the work.

	Since you worked on the publishing of this CD--book (don't like reading
books on CD either - difficult to prop it up in bed - Most Definitely
prefer the old-fashioned, bound book), could you give a rough outline of
the Steps And the Teams that would need to be assembled for such an
undertaking?  And with the possibility of grants, it sounds like it
would be best administered by PTM.  But grants would allow for the
hiring of outsiders to do work - which would need to be monitored
somehow.

	So with various individuals from pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org,
grant money for the project administered via PTM, outsiders hired for
research work - how can we tie this altogether - sounds quite disjointed
but not impossible at this point.

	I do Not have formal writing skills and what I do write takes real
effort - maybe I could be used in some other capacity.  Any
suggestions?  Then there is the time matter - my work schedule is
50-hours a week in addition to committee work, so in actuality, about
60-hours a week.  Leaves precious little time for other activities (and
I am Not a good organizer of my time, but this might force me so to
do!!)  Others here will experience similar constraints.

	Incidentally, the CD-book makes sense from other perspectives - being
able to include appendices of rulebooks, charters of organization,
schedules, etc. in an extremely economical manner - would be prohibitive
in printing a book.  Maybe it is a way to go!

> tompark at interchange.ubc.ca wrote:

> I appreciate the kind words on this list about my
> 1967 Pittsburgh streetcar booklet - although less so the
> comments about photocopying it when it can still be bought from,
> and support the PTM, as can the excellent map.
 
> I started my traction career in 1960 as a student apprentice
> on the 3rd rail underground electric system in Liverpool while doing
> a degree in electric power (read traction) engineering. 
> My only call to fame, then and now, being that I lived in the same
> house as John Lennon for three months.  The job I was due to start on
> graduating, with British Railway's electric traction department,
> failed to materialise because of the pending Beeching cutbacks.
> The only traction job I was offered was by an on-campus recruiter from
> Westinghouse Electric.  In the early sixties engineers were at a
> premium. I interviewed for seven jobs and was offered six!

> Westinghouse smoothed the way for a green card and flew me to
> Pittsburgh.  They found me accommodation in a rooming house in
> Wilkinsburgh, put me through their graduate school and a master's
> degree at Pitt. At the same time having me work on the NYCTA's R33 cars 
> and the development of a computer program for train performance and
> sub-station location -- still well used as the Carnegie-Mellon Train
> Performance Program. I also spent much time on the development of the
> Transit Expressway system at its South Park test track. I worked for
> and under old traction engineers who had cut their teeth - and paid
> their bills through the dirty thirties - developing the PCC car and the
> GG1.  With Bill Bowers, Gene Pastoret and Bill Walker I learnt more in
> my time in Pittsburgh than I had ever done before or have since.

> I was not much of a fan, but riding PCCs every day from Wilkinsburgh to
> East Pittsburgh soon changed that, and I made good use of Sunday passes 
> to explore the system and city.

> The extent of the Pittsburgh system amazed me.  Here was one of the
> world's great traction systems, still mainly intact, and little had
> been written about it.  It made the other large (and mainly flat)
> networks in Toronto, Philadelphia, Melbourne, Leningrad, Budapest,
> Prague and the Ruhr look boring.  Discussions with the late Jack Wyse
> resulted in a series of articles in Modern Tramway and the booklet
> reprint. Attempts to get help in writing a full book did not
> materialise. One PRMA member, Peter Weiglen said he would take it on
> and took my notes and a lot of background material before dropping
> out-of-sight.  I never did get anything back.

> Pittsburgh streetcars need and deserve a comprehensive book, probably
> several volumes, not a photo album with extended captions.  Ed Lybarger
> has a manuscript, PTM has a map, roster and a wealth of other
> information, but properly done there has to be socio-economic and
> political backgrounds, plus life added with anecdotes about the people
> who worked for and rode PRCo.  No one person can do it.  No one can
> make money on it.

> In the last few years I have written a book on "Rail Transit Capacity"
> and contributed to the transit chapters of the 2001 "Highway Capacity
> Manual".  The thought of a book controlled and written by a committee
> does not appeal, but the ease of desktop publishing and collaboration
> through the Internet is changing this.  The HCM work went very well.

> Last year I bought my first book on CD, related to my other hobby of
> collecting and restoring old cameras. (Very therapeutic when in the
> middle of writing yet another specification for subway or light rail
> vehicles or systems.) I do not like reading on a computer but this book 
> would have cost over $200 if published conventionally, rather than the
> $50 on CD - and would not have had as many colour illustrations.
> Further the author is accepting corrections and additional material and 
> plans $20 updates every few years. In the modest volumes of specialised 
> publishing, the CD, jewel case and colour wrapper cost about $2 total.
> The up-front costs of conventional publishing, say 2,000 at over $100
> each, would have killed this book before it got off the ground.

> A CD book can inexpensively have a wonderful array of scanned in
> appendices - maps, rosters, reports, rule books, and timetables.  A
> comprehensive history of local transportation in the Pittsburgh area
> should surely be eligible for grants from a variety of sources, enough
> to hire researchers and get the grunt work done.  Perfection cannot be
> expected but could evolve in time. It needs a committee of experienced, 
> dedicated (and unpaid) enthusiasts. I think all that are needed are on
> this discussion group.  Who will lead the way?

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> Tom Parkinson Vancouver BC Canada
> Tel 604 733-5430      fax 604 733-5437

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-- 
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/