1800s, Fake Autos, Ventilation and European PCCs

[Kenneth Josephson]

"Fred W. Schneider III" wrote:

> The sad thing about the concocted story about the 1800s is that someone
> out there no doubt won't realize the humor and it will circulate as
> gospel for years and years and years.

Ah, but not as sad as being misquoted in print or being credited with an
inaccurate writing. How do you recall five thousand books?

>  But it was funny.  Even at o'dark
> 30 in the morning.

Thanks. I know of a guy who restored a '61 Impala convertible with a Bel Air
trink lid (two less tail light openings), Bel Air trim & interior. No such
beast as a '61 Bel Air convertible. He loves to park it at car shows and
listen to the know-it-alls spout production figures for this non-existent
Chevrolet model or who claim they once owned one. He always manages to keep
a straight face, too.

> At any rate, I liked the tale about the 1800s.  Just what Pittsburgh
> needed ... another batch of stinking hot cars with no opening windows in
> the summer.

Regardless of humidity levels, moving hot air is won't really do much to
cool people in a crowded streetcar. Here in the high desert, evaporative
coolers can drop inside temperatures thirty degrees. And a dry eighty
degrees feels much better than a dry one hundred ten. But a refrigerated
seventy degrees feels best of all!

Remember those Dallas trolley coaches with the air conditioning? Those units
were virtually indentical to the older rooftop A/C units still seen in older
parts of Las Vegas. Of course, the trolley units carried direct current
motors, but I wonder how well they worked?  How comfortable was DC's air
conditoned PCC? Or Pittsburgh lone 4000 with A/C?

> The reality is, St. Louis was more than happy to build more PCC cars and
> many companies did check out prices.  Pittsburgh did know into the
> middle 1950s what they would have cost had they bought them.  It seemed
> that $20,000 40 foot GM buses always won out over a $40,000 steetcar.
> The argument was that those buses would not last long, but old look
> buses managed to run 20 years or into the public agency era too.  Some
> of the 1,000 coaches that Philly bought in 1955-57 were still around in
> the early 1980s, I rode them that late.

Milwaukee's newest Old Looks (1958)  were estimated to have another five
years of service life left when the County retired them in the early 1980s.
LA gave serious consideration to buying the best ones. The County press
release stated these "old friends" had plenty of miles left to offer, but no
ridership appeal. As if the RTS (rattle trap s**t) coaches replacing them
were any nicer. The Old Look was a tight, well built machine by the end of
its production run.

One has to wonder how well an Eastern European PCC would have held up in
Pittsburgh in comparison to PAT's current fleet. If Derrick allows, I'd love
to have some of the list members who have ridden these cars in the former
Soviet Union share their impressions. Ken J.