[PRCo] Re: MUNI PAINT JOBS

[Fred W. Schneider III]

Top of the day to you, Greg:

There is also another point that is lost of most museum types.  An
operating company will do anything reasonable to keep a car on the
street; conforming to its original design is not necessarily a goal. 
But keeping it out there earning money should be important.

I suffer no small amount of amusement over museum master maniacs and
conservators as they try to make a car look just like it did when new. 
We used to have one at the Baltimore Streetcar Museum who refused to
allow any car to be rewired because the paper/cloth insulated wire was
no longer manufactured.  Let it burn up because of an insulation failure
because appearances come first.  

I was riding a car owned by the Snaefell Mountain Railway on the Isle of
Man about two weeks ago.
Car still had its hand operated wheel tread brakes.  And there was a
separate hand wheel to work the fel brake, which pressed against the
side of a center rail.  But I heard an air compressor.  What was it
for?  Well, the original control scheme failed.  The company acquired a
relatively modern used car from Germany, scrapped it, and installed its
pneumatic remote control apparatus and its platform controller on this
100 year old beast.  Oh yes, and the compressor to make it work. 

But this wasn't a bureaucracy the size of Muni.  It is a small
organization with about a dozen electric cars.  Sometimes big fish in
small puddles do find enough oxygen in the water.  

fws 

Greg King wrote:
> 
> Hi Fred,
> 
> Karl at Muni suggested he would like to get a SDERy car and convert it to
> all electric, otherwise, I would agree, but then, how many of the historic
> fleet have commonality of parts and I think an Air-Electric would become
> part of thfleet as opposed to a regular car with the SEPTA PCC's and Milan
> Witts.
> 
> Cheers
> Greg
> 
> >
> > Why would anyone want to buy a single car with an obsolete air system?
> > A San Diego car would spend most of its life awaiting the manufacture of
> > parts.  OK, I forgot.  Its government, not private sector.  Doesn't
> > matter.
> >
> > Greg King wrote: