[PRCo] Re: Milano

[Greg King]

Hi Roger,

What can I say, best time I have had since I last did fan trips in the 80's,
they have been banned for years in historic cars and, part of this deal is,
if it works, historic cars could be allowed to be used again, a lot of
reponsibility.

Reading the comments about Lisbon, I agree, those folks are super motormen
but, I had a taste of it yesterday, the Milano car has an italian version of
the PV2/3 valve with a sanding lever above the handle like the Muni had,
they are very responsive for manual lappers but you have to keep on top of
them. I have found, in heavy traffic, similar to Lisbon, you release your
air but keep the handle in lap, no pressure on the shoe but ready to apply
emediately.

The trip in was murder in part. We have a large junction at Brunswick St,
Gisbourne St., and Victoia Parade where two lines meet and then seperate,
the two side roads are stagered so, when you come in on the 112 route, you
turn right into the centre of Vic Pde then left into Gisbourne st. All this
is being dug up and replaced by a three track junction, Vic pde is one of
the heaviest traffic arteries in Melbourne and the whole place is shut,
forcing all west bound traffic onto Smith stree and gertrude stree of the 86
route which are very narrow and the only way I could bring 1692 back to my
depot (Southbank), I normally would have used the 112 route. It truly was
like Lisbon with me riding the bumper of the car in front. Traffic was so
bad that and artic (B class) was stuck on the curve from Smith to Gertrude
for 20 minutes!!, it took me nearly two hours to travel the two km's from
Johnston st to the end of Gertrude street, in normal condition, a time of
around 4 minutes is plenty!! Apart from that, it was a blast, I had one
heart stopping moment when a motorist turned in front of me and propped, I
thought the trial was over then and there as I was sure the coupler would
knock her into next year, anyway, full first emergency on that car is superb
and we stopped with room to spare and a bit of blue language from the
motorman! The senior trainer even said, "you've still got it, nice emergency
stop"!!!

So tomorrow is the big day when I run her around the edge of the city for 6
hours and there will be entertainers on board etc., for imigration day, then
I tack her back the 8-9 kms back to the shops. This is the most enjoyable
time I have had since being back on the job, when I parked in the barn, over
the pit last night, all the folks in the depot wanted to have a look so I
showed them over the car, including bosses, so I'm lapping up my 15 minutes
of fame. I did'nt want to go home!!

Cheers guys
Greg
----- Original Message -----
From: "ROGER Jenkins" <ROGERTROLLY at webtv.net>
To: <pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org>
Sent: Saturday, April 27, 2002 7:57 AM
Subject: [PRCo] Re: Milano


>
> Glad your happy Greg !  Sounds like fun time . Enjoy !   cheers
>
>