[PRCo] The Printed Word

[Kenneth Josephson]

"Fred W. Schneider III" wrote:

> You mean people actually believe that once it has been committed to film
> or the printed page that it will be correct?  You're saying that the
> purchasers, viewers, and readers cannot transfer the concept of human
> weakness to authors and narrators?

All right Mr. Rhetorical, I know I'm preachin' to the choir!!! ;-)

>  Sad as it may sound, many believe
> everything that is written simply because it was in a book.  The basic
> premise is that it takes 1 unit of energy to make the mistake and 10,000
> units of effort later to refute it, if it is even possible to snuff out
> the mistake.

Amen! Preach on, Brother Fred! I remember one book that referred to PCCs as "PDDs"
or "BDDs." It was an otherwise nice coffee table book with really good and
artistic photographs. Another traction author wrote that Seattle's trolley buses
were "long gone." Hello? Maybe they're gone from his neighborhood, but only half
the system was dieselized before pro-electric citizens put a stop to it in 1970.
The last time I looked, they were still re-electrifying some diesel lines and are
receiving one hundred new Gillig trolley buses to replace the late 1970s AM
Generals. But the book says they're long gone, so I must be on drugs.

There is a trading card from the 1950s that reads Philadelphia's newest PCC
streetcars date from 1954. Really? Don't tell that to a fan of Muni's "Baby Tens."
One edition of San Diego's telephone book noted that the city's current fleet of
light rail cars are former PE "Red Cars" from LA which were taken out storage,
modernized and placed back into service. One well known railfan publisher printed
in a traction modeler's guide book that Milwaukee's last streetcar ran there in
1962. Kind of difficult when the Wells Street line closed in 1958, the Lakeside
shuttle closed in 1961 and the NSL ended Milwaukee local service in '51. Others
(mostly news media types) have written Pittsburgh's (ah, back on topic) 4000s date
from 1949. Are they partially correct? From the description in yours and Mr.
Carlson's book and the statements of some PAT employees, those 4000s were
essentially reconstructed cars with much new equipment and material. Gee, I wonder
whom I should believe? ;-)

Ah, the power of the Printed Word!