[PRCo] Re: Boarding buses and trains

[Fred W. Schneider III]

Kind of makes one long for the old days, doesn't it?  Back when
Pittsburgh Railways had headway recorders, and the dispatcher's office
knew what was going on.  And the street supervisors also understood.  

I listened to a Johnstown supervisor talking about the days when Horner
St. was a carline with passing sidings ... "Worked well with the right
motormen, but get an inexperienced man and the schedule was all screwed
up."  They worried about keeping a schedule, but they also were small
enough to know every motorman's capabilities!

Schedules can also be a problem at trolley museums if we make it a
problem.  The Pumpkin Patch service this year coincided with an event at
the county fair grounds.  Dave wrote a schedule that called for 15
minute service from Richfol (the car house) to Arden loop to serve the
fair goers overlapping a 30 minute headway on the very same route to
take kids up to the loop to pick up pumpkins.  You know, it worked.  I
worked both the pumpkin car with a 25 minute round trip and the fair
cars with a 15 minute round trip.  Everybody made it work ... meets at
the Fair Grounds were right on the advertised.  Four times out of five
cars would be entering the siding from each end simultaneously!  But
once in a while the public or a motorman going to the Henry screwed it
up, and the dispatcher would be stomping his feet. 

Jim Holland wrote:
> 
> Good Morning!!
> 
> > John Swindler wrote:
> 
> > This might come as a shocker to those who were in the service years ago, but
> > to paraphrase recent Army doctrine:
> 
> > Most employees want to do a good job.
> 
> > When employees say that keeping on time is more important, I bet that 9
> > times out of ten they have been criticized in the past for not running on
> > time, but never heard any comment about helping the customer. (the ratio is
> > three ata-boys equals one criticism)
> 
>         .......And this is the public's attitude as well  --  BE  On  Time, Regardless.   Here in
> EssF we have Prop-E passed by the public that we must run on time.
> 
>         But do they know how schedules are made  --  as an  *average*  of runing times checked at
> different times of the day, the week, and on various vehicles driven by a variety of
> operators//drivers??
> 
> > Therefore, the problem is not the driver or conductor, but clueless
> > supervisors who don't understand the organization's mission.  Or how to
> > supervise.  Yes, running on time is one of the employees tasks, but is it
> > the primary mission??
> 
>         Here in EssF the management is fine as long as they don't get complaints  --  but when
> complaints come in, they point fingers and write bulletins   ---   "Thou Shalt
> [not]......."   Most have no idea as to what is happening in the streets.
> 
> > Am tempted to make a link with public operation of 'demonstration rides' at
> > trolley museums, and railfans who think they are there to play motorman, but
> > suspect most of you are fed up by now with my bad attitude.
> 
>         WHO  says John has a bad attitude?!?!(:->)   .......but admit that  *playing--streetcar*
> at the museums and trying to emulate a 30,000--foot operation in just 1,000--feet is Not a
> Little Bit Annoying!(:->)
> 
> > Or the bus driver in Scranton (or maybe it was Wilkes Barre;
> > whatever) who complained that it wouldn't be so
> > difficult to run on time if not for all these passengers.
> 
>         Nice thing about electric TCs is one can sneak by before being noticed!!(:->)
> 
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> 
> James B. Holland
> 
> Holland  Electric  Railway  Operation
>     "O"--Scale  St.-Petersburg Trams Company Trolleycars  &
>         "O"--Scale  Parts  mailto:pghpcc at pacbell.net
>         Pennsylvania Trolley Museum (PTM) http://www.pa-trolley.org/
>     Pittsburgh  Railways  Company  (PRCo),   1930  --  1950
> N.M.R.A.  Life member #2190; http://www.nmra.org
> 
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