[PRCo] Re: And Speaking of Rejected Cars.....

[Fred W. Schneider III]

A quarter century ago I asked SEPTA's foreman at Wyoming Shops which
were better cars.  He assured me that the General Electric cars were far
better than Westinghouse.  Then I counted what was in the shop.  I
walked away concluding that better meant job security.  Perhaps it was a
bad conclusion; maybe it was a fluke day.    

On the other hand, the people at Shaker Heights were absolutely happy
with their decision to stick with GE cars.  I was told that, whenever
they had a problem, a GE engineer would drive over from Erie and help
them solve the issue.  

I have a problem with the statement that most properties realized early
on that Westinghouse cars were better.  It sounds like a railfan
statement.  If they were indeed better, General Electric would have been
out of the business because that was their dominant work at the time.
General Electric's rail division remains the largest employer in Erie to
this day.   Remember, this was private industry.  Money came from
fares.  They could buy from whomever they chose.  If GE was so bad, why
then did Baltimore, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Chicago, San Francisco and
Washington split orders between the two builders up until the end of
production?  

Note also that the last St. Louis order was a Westinghouse job for Muni,
while the last Boston order were the Picture Window cars with GE MCM
control.  That GE control scheme continued to be produced on subway cars
until choppers became dominant.  For what it's worth, the older PC
control (P&W Bullets for example) did not die with MCM ... GE produced a
pneumatic cam job for South Africa in the late 1970s. 

ROGER Jenkins wrote:
> 
> Most propertys realized early on that Westinghouse cars were better
> cars. Boston's operating PCC fleet are all Westinghouse cars,