Museum Carbarn Assignments.

[Kenneth Josephson]

"Fred W. Schneider III" wrote:

> But somewhere along the way, we need to build another barn to house a
> modern LRV.  If this is to be a World Class museum, then I have some
> other candidates.  I can dream and foam as well as the next person:

How about an empty Muni Boeing-Vertol in a display that appears as a cross section of the Muni Metro? On top
we could have a roadway section like Market Street and a cluster of manicans at a car stop looking longingly
down the street for a Baby Ten.

>
>
>     1.  The Pittsburgh low-floor which resulted in the development of
> motors small enough to power a car that low.  I love the story from
> Market Street Railway people, who tried the same concept and pronounced
> it a failure, because "San Francisco has hills."

You mean the guys who referred to PTM's good friends in Union, Illinois as "Some group in the Midwest" when
they were angry about not getting the Detroit car?

>
>     3   A horse car - the greatest job creation triumpth ever created.

Even more so than the EPA!

>     5.  How about those crazy masonite sided evolutionary dead-ends
> produced by the Lightweight Noiseless Car Co. (what a laugh) for its
> parent Minneapolis, and for Nashville and Chattanooga.

I have to admit, the TCRT  wooden deck roof cars built at Snelling Shops were a heck of a lot better. And
handsome, too.

>     6.  And the Barber car ... a wonderful example of a chicken coop
> carpenter turned loose where he didn't belong.

This is a scream. Those things were the predecessor of the modern mobile home. Did Barber cars attract
tornados, too?

>     7.  A Daft car with a hole in the roof caused by the troller
> dewiring and crashing through the roof.

We could lay out a wax figure of John Dameron's grandfather under the troller resting on the car's aisle
with a display board explaining why his grandson hated trolleys.

>     8.  A North Shore Merchants Despatch box motor pulling one of those
> early piggy-back flatcars with a couple of 20 ft semi-trailers on it.

I'd sell tickets to the wrestling match between you and Nick Kallas over who gets that one!

>           10a: An example of safety car control ... we need a Birney ...
> one of those 5,600 flimsy, rocking horses with a shelf live of ten
> years.

My wife thinks Birney cars are so cute. I'd love to see one try to climb 21-Fineview after a snowfall. I'd
love to see one try to tackle Route 21 period.

>     10b. And then we need a Hannover Germany Grossraumwagen from
> 1953, the first of the articulated cars that we know today as light rail
> vehicles.

Joseph Canfield argued (in CERA B-112) the articulated car concept of the 1953 Grossraumwagen originated
with TMER&L Co. when they made articulated trains out of all those old deck roof city cars during the 1920s.
What's your take on that? And if you agree, again, you'd have a real war with Nick Kallas over one of
those....

How about a Boston "two rooms an a bath" train? A double jointed articulated car of sorts.

To get this back on topic, I hope this little exercise in imagination will help cool heads prevail when it's
time to fill PTM's next carbarn. Ken J.