[PRCo] Re: Maintenance

[Fred Schneider]

Jim Holland wrote:

> Good Morning!
>
>         As far as car assignments, the yards at Charleroi and Tylerdale
> could do routine maintenance, but what about heavier duty
> items?    Cars would need to be rotated out on a regular
> basis.    Definitely see this in the low-floor cars as I have
> photos of them in Wash, Donora, and South Hills Palm Garden.

And Fritz responds:

The person to ask, Jim, would be Tony DiSensi, from PTM, who worked at
Washington and Charleroi.  If any of you are at Arden on a Wednesday or
Saturday, strike up a conversation with Tony.  He is our link to the
dinosaurs and the Roman chariots.   And he still makes me dizzy watching how
fast and precisely he can hang trolley wire as he approaches his eighth
decade of life!

I can only truly add more questions that those who speak to Tony might want
to consider when framing a question.

My belief was that carbarns generally did the same level of maintenance, and
what wasn't done there went to the car overhaul shops (Homewood, and earlier
South Hills and Manchester too).  I really have no idea what parts were
housed at Tylerdale or Charleroi.   But it is possible (and maybe even
probable) that cars automatically cycled into Tunnel for maintenance.  It
might have made more sense to have lower level (and lower paid) staff at
those remote barns and to delegate the work into Tunnel.    (West Penn
Railways, for example, did that.  A pull out from Uniontown or Greensburg in
the morning, pulled into Connellsville at night and was inspected.  And the
next night it would be back to its assigned barn.)  But that wasn't the
impression I got from Tony.   He did speak of work but very easy work.

Then what is heavy or light maintenance?  I doubt that you would want to
spend five hours of labor just to send a car with a broken window or pitted
controller tips to Homewood.   A good man could replace a brake valve in
less time than it would take to get from Charleroi to Finleyville.  I cannot
imagine why you would shop a car to replace brake shoes; that is an easy
carbarn job.  I'm pretty sure that simple things like journal bearing, motor
bearing, compressor, controller, trolley harp spindle lubrication would have
been done at any barn.  Many trolley companies would have inventoried spare
doors at barns (but this may have not been a big issue in Pittsburgh because
inward folding or blinker doors don't get knocked off as often as outward
folding doors).  Would you change wheels and axles in a carbarn ... I doubt
it even though we know that it was done on the street in emergencies ...
what would take minutes with the shop crane in Homewood would take several
hours in a car house using jacks.  Change out a compressor?  Well that needs
a pit jack and then a crane to lift it out of the pit and put it on a work
bench.  But you might replace compressor brushes in a barn if you are not
going to finish the job and clean the commutator at the same time.  Is
replacing a seat cushion a heavier item?  Probably not.  I have no idea what
heavier duty means and really none of us do ... the definition changes from
company to company.  So we need to ask what functions were done.

I do know that Tony DiSensi told me that Charleroi in the early 1950s was
good duty.  The 1700s were new and they didn't break down.  And there were
only about four active 4200s or 4300s that you needed to keep running ... if
one failed, a runner from Homewood would come and get it.  And you could
only spend so much time running ten cars through the wash rack.   Tony had a
whole lot of free time.

When the first bought PCC cars, St. Louis Public Service believed them to be
too complicated for the typical car house flunky to inspect or fix. They
adopt a keep your hands off in the car house policy.   They made a decision
to move all PCC electrical maintenance, trucks,  etc. to Park Shops.  In
exchange, they moved some of the less complicated heavy work on older cars
to car houses.   I think there were four lines in Park Shops; and by 1941
two of them were PCC only.  A car would come down the line and was gone over
from top to bottom.  Anything that could predictably fail before the next
inspection would be renewed.  Then any cars with body dings would be
puttied, sanded, and painted.  Seat cushions would be renewed as needed.
Then the PCCs went back to South Broadway or De Baliviere car houses for
another six or twelve months. In general, if they didn't run into another
car or a truck, they would not come back to Park Shops until the next
inspection period .... (the normal mileage is probably around 50,000 per
year).   Pittsburgh Railways used a similar system from about 1930 to
1960-62 except they broke inspections down into three levels, designated A,
B, and C.  In the Depression they studied the maintenance records to
determine how long different parts lasted.  That knowledge was then used to
determined what was done in each inspection ... just like your new
automobile that needs lubrication at 7,000 and tuneups at 50,000, and timing
belts at 60,000.





J