[PRCo] Comments back to Jim Holland

[Fred W. Schneider III]

You missed the indefinate article ... a 1700 ... not simply 1700.  I
don't know what car it is. And it probably doesn't matter.  The fact
that none or very few 1700s had dash lights at the end is indicative of
how many got bashed in.  They apparently were not put back on because
they didn't fit the curvature of the new steel.  

Streetcars were notorious for assaulting motor vehicles and
pedestrians.  Harold Cox once observed, from accident records, that
every car in Philadelphia was involved in an accident on average of
every 30 days.  Some were very minor such as a kid falling getting off,
dusting himself off, and dashing away.  Many were not.  Some accidents
were deliberate, as in I need a new auto and the transit company has
deep pockets.  

The comment about how they got the men back was probably very simply,
Charleroi men were assigned to Charleroi cars, Washington men were
assigned to Washington cars, and Tunnel men were assigned to Tunnel
cars.  Half the fleet of 1700s was based in Washington and Charleroi and
they came back home each night.  The remainder of the 1700s and the
interurban 1600s were at Tunnel.
If I remember the schedule (and JS will correct me), a Washington man
could have made two roundtrips in eight hours but a Charleroi man would
have needed ten hours ... so maybe it does not work out.  But it would
work nicely if each man made a full and a half trip a day.  We really
need to find an old Charleroi motorman.   

This does not suggest that they might not have had crews change cars on
a scheduled basis in order to minimize overtime and keep all work
patterns alike.  West Penn also had assigned cars, but, if memory
serves, some of the Greensburg or Uniontown cars may have take a room at
the inn at Connellsville every other night.  We have crew charts for the
West Penn mainline that show that certain crews regularly swapped cars
on the line in order to get back home for the end of their shift. 
Without looking it up, it seems to me that Moyer Siding was a scheduled
swap point.  

Jim Holland wrote:
> 
>
>         A variety of ways to get  *equipment*  and their operators back on schedule.   *Many*
> times went thru the experience Fred has hinted at.   If cars were running late, operators
> would switch cars mid route by supervisor instruction.   This did not involve extra
> equipment but it got the operators back on their schedule without disrupting passenger
> flow.
>         >         W