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

[John F Bromley]

I believe the car on P86 of Volkmer's #3 book is displaying a trick of the
lighting, not gray.  I've never seen gray on a 1700 and I currently have
quite a few of Volkmer's 1700 series slides here for scanning to his 2nd
CD-ROM and, as those in my own collection, all are cream. Maybe the car on
P86 is fading to the undercoat.  Certainly enough Pittsburgh cars had THAT
paint (or lack thereof) problem.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Jim Holland" <pghpcc at pacbell.net>
To: <pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org>
Sent: Friday, April 26, 2002 4:07 PM
Subject: [PRCo] Re: PRCo's Low-Floor Color Scheme


>
> 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.
>
> <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
>
-- Trailing quotes stripped by Listar --