[PRCo] Re: PRC Car Cards

[Kenneth Josephson]

Interesting Stuff, Fred. I'd sure like to find union literature from other
cities and see how they reacted (if at all) to the early one-manning of
Pittsburgh cars. I know some unions used safety issues to garner both public
and political support against one man operation when the trend began to
spread. Some politicians made their careers by "punishing" the "evil" street
railway companies and their supposed disregard for public safety when these
companies attempted to convert to one man operation.

Of course, a two man crew didn't stop the deadly runaway in the tunnel
discussed some months back. The one where the conductor and motorman had a
disagreement over who was responsible for placing the pole back on the wire.

K.

Fred Schneider wrote:

> 2.  Pittsburgh Railways, it appears, was one of the first cities to
> convert cars from two-man to one-man operation.  They were doing this in
> the 1920s even on relatively heavy routes!