[PRCo] Re: PRCo's Low-Floor Color Scheme

[Jim Holland]

Good Morning!

> Fred Schneider wrote:

> One manufacturer described their red as Mountain Ash Scarlet, which,
> interestingly enough to me, was the same color name used by Lehigh Valley
> Transit Company in Allentown and Bethlehem.  My own mind suggests that the
> original lighter color on the PCCs was not a cream but a tan but that might
> actually be steel mill dirt.  I'm not proposing to get into any contests
> here between two people who import cars from Leonid!

	No contest  --  one imports colors as delivered to PRCo  --  the other
imports colors as RePainted by PRCo  --  deeper, darker red and much more
yellow cream on the latter.   If you remember, Leonid emailed you about
this distinction about a year ago.

	Also, Look at the  *PCC Trilogy*  movie closely.   The 1200s appear to
have the roof canvas And trolley cowl painted a definite Tan - not a hint
of tan.   Was this a possible wartime camouflage feature?   Didn't Boston
purportedly repaint the roof of their cars tan for wartime?
	Some, but not all of the 11s also seem to have a black roof canvas which
explains their ghastly appearance as the canvas deteriorated.   Look at the
photo top of pg. 13  *Pgh. Trolley Pictorial*  --  but this is of 1062.
	And on pg.86 bottom of Volkmer's  *PA Trolleys in color V-3* we see 1795
in 1959 with a distinct gray  *tint*  to the fan monitor that I noticed on
a color photo of a Charleroi interurban.   Very subtle color!   But not all
photos reveal this of the cars when new, even color photos.   B&W might not
have been sensitive enough to distinguish the shade difference.   The
famous Baxter photo of 1734  *hints*  at the gray but that is all that can
be said - can't say definitely.
	Even 1630 when redone with 10-,11-style trolley cowl has a silver-gray
canvas - Volkmer book pg.92.

> Also no difference in car assignments.  There is a strong conviction of
> current day railfans that the 3800s were restricted to Charleroi and the
> 3700s to Washington but this simply isn't true.  Company records show they
> mixed them up.  Available photos also show both groups ran on both lines in
> scheduled service.

	Difficult to come by photos of 3700--3714 on Charleroi but I have seen a
couple.   Have a good mix of 37s and 38s on Washington but 37s seem to
dominate.

	Also difficult to find 1600--series interurbans on Charleroi  --  have one
of 1618 at Black Diamond Jct near the end running all the way to Charleroi
- have seen one other photo of a 16 near Roscoe and also have 1616 backing
into Riverview loop//wye as a tripper.   Have a photo of 1648 as a Library
tripper (pre-1953).

	Have seen it specified that the 38s were ordered for Charleroi but 37s and
38s were for same type of service so they would easily be mixed between
routes.   In very early days there  *may*  have been an attempt at
segregation, but even then there could be exceptions.

> Pilots and trucks were essentially the same.  The 3800s had roller bearing
> journals while the 3700s had friction bearings, hance the difference in the
> journal cases.

	On pg.11 of PTM  *Pgh. Trolley Pictorial*  is a photo of 3703 when
relatively new with the  *fence*  style pilot Bob describes.   This made
the coupler usable only on tangent track - couldn't take any curve with
it!(:->)   Pilot probably changed out for this reason to be similar to
those on the 38s.

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James B. Holland

Holland  Electric  Railway  Operation....... 
___"O"--Scale St.-Petersburg Trams Company Trolleycars and...
______"O"--Scale  Parts  mailto:pghpcc at pacbell.net

______Pennsylvania Trolley Museum 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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