1300's

[Tom Phillips]

THIS IS A RE-TRANSMISSION OF MY MESSAGE MISADDRESSED TO DERRICK 
BRASHEAR AT 9:54 AM TODAY

To Jim Holland:

I have no roster information on the Jones cars.

     You wrote (rhetorically, I trust):

	     Tom  --  Why did PRCo skip the 5300--series?

I didn't know that they had -- if this was so, perhaps it was 
because the 5200's were MU equipped for two-car train operation 
and room was being left on the roster for continuance of 
like-equipped cars had they been purchased.  

	     .....And also the 3900--series?

I hinted at this in my transmission of 11/5/01.  The only practical 
reply that I can think of is that the 3900's were never ordered!
Perhaps 1700-1724 should have been numbered 3900-3924 but by the 
time they arrived the Interurbans were pretty well on their way out 
and planning was under way to consolidate the interurban operations 
and city operations.  (The interurban and city car operations were 
separate when the former were housed at Castle Shannon until 1932 
and also at South Hills even to the extent of having a separate 
seniority list.  I do not know the reason for, the extent of, other 
ramification of this division -- my guess would be that it was a 
result of some of mergers which took place long before.)

           .....And the 4500--, 4600--series?

The assumption here is that perhaps PRCo's was considering the 
purchase of more double-end cars and kept the numbering system vacant 
to accomodate them.

Tom

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/

And lastly, who in PRCo's manangement was so superstitious as to skip 
the 1300 series of PCC's?

I always felt that the 3750's were a "hedge".  Yes, they had some 
interurban features such as a lavatory, smoking section, special 
seating, etc., when built, but other features such as MU also 
appeared on City cars (5200's, for example).  The dead giveaway on 
the 3750's as "hedge" were the double-stream front and center doors, 
a feature not found on the 3700's or 3800's.  Therefore, I suggested, 
tongue-in-cheek, that they might well have been originally numbered 
either as the 3800 series (as interurbans, in which case the 3800's 
would then have been numbered as 3900's) or as 5500's (as the next 
series of City cars, in which case the 5500's would have been 
numbered as 5600's).

PRCo started with a clean slate when the three experimental cars 
arrived in 1929 -- but why wasn't 6002 numbered 6100?  It was quite
different from 6000-6001.

This could lead to speculation that perhaps the PCC's should start at
6300 (100), 6400's (1000's), etc. or even 7000 and 7100's,etc., 
respectively.

And lastly, who in PRCo's manangement was so superstitious as to skip 
the 1300 series of PCC's?