[PRCo] Re: PRC PCC scuffs

[Harold Geissenheimer]

Greetings

It was all downhill after 1950.  In receivership, they were good.  Under
CDPalmer,
profit was the only test.

But it was more than paint.  It was cleanliness, etc.

For example.  Our bus company competed with a PRC bus route thru Sharpsburg.
We caim via the North Side, they came via Lawrenceville.

We had zone checks and could charge a 15 cent fare within Sharpsburg.  They
could
only charge the 35 cents city fare.   I was on our bus to New Kensington (now
PAT
route 1/3A) when two old Polish women boarded.  They quizzed the driver if this
was
indeed the 15 cents bus.  He reassured them (he was an old West Penn Motorman
from
the 1930's).  The one lady said to the other.  How do you know the 15 cent bus?
The other answered "Why my dear its the clean, painted orange bus"  Tells the
story
of competing with PRC!  Most of the independent bus lines gave better service,
were
better maintained and managed than PRC under CD Palmer (Under Mr Fitzgerald in
receivership PRC was good).  Our buses were orange with a green stripe (ex West
Penn bus paint scheme), PRC was orange with a black stripe.  We had purchased
the
WestPenn Connelsville buses (only two years old) and did not repaint.

Tell it as it is.  In the last 15 years of PRC, image and customer relations
were not a goal.

Harold Geissenheimer

John F Bromley wrote:

> As Fred the 3rd will tell you PRC maintained their cars mechanically and
> electrically but with all those narrow streets the only collision damage to
> be repaired had to be significant.  They didn't have the money.  Paint?
> Forget it.  I have pix from the early 1960s of 1465 and it appeared to be
> wearing paint applied by St Louis Car Co., it was that old.  Ever seen pix
> of 1603 from that fantrip in the early 1970s.  I have a shot from Bill
> Vigrass (available on his CD-ROM Volume 1) that is almost unbelievable.
>
> ----- Original Message -----
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