Maintenance Pittsburgh Style

[HRBran99 at aol.com]

In a message dated 12/26/00 3:59:16 AM Eastern Standard Time, 
kjosephson at sprintmail.com writes:


> The bodywork of the "light rail" fronts installed on the two wrecked 1600s
> 

My own personal observations of the LRT front cars are thus. From a cosmetic 
standpoint the cars were wonderful. The new cream and red exterior paint, 
split destination signs front and side, new interior paint, seat covering, 
and floor covering were all to dazzle the eye. The first time I ever operated 
one of them I was quite excited. I thought this was going to be "state of the 
art." Well, let me tell you! All in all, it was still an old 1600 series 
air/electric.

The operation was not improved as it was still the original equipment, just 
rebuilt a little. The turn signals were probably the real advancement on the 
cars. These should have been refined and placed on all the cars. The one 
problem with the turn signals was the habit they had of slowing down. Things 
would start out fine, but by the second or third hour of operation the turn 
signal lamps would start to flash slower, then really slow, then only one 
flash per every 20 to 30 seconds, then finally they would just stay on 
constant and not flash at all. An operator, could of course, grab the turn 
signal handle and manually make them flash. How state of the art! I never 
asked what the problem was and it was never really fixed. As I said, the turn 
signals should have been refined and placed on all the PCC's.

Also, clearance was a problem on tight turns. At Arlington and Warrington (a 
non-clearance curve to begin with) more room had to be allowed when turning 
from outbound on New Arlington to Warrington or you would hit something. The 
flat front end added a couple inches to the side clearance. It was no longer 
tapered like the other PCC's and this had to be compensated for by paying 
close attention to what you were doing.

The rode like any other 1600, that is, good riding qualities of paved track, 
poor riding qualities on open track.

All in all they were a compliment to the shop staff at SHJct for being able 
to rebuild these and all the other cars they rebuilt. However, they were 
nothing really that new.

HrB  
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