[PRCo] Re: Pittsburgh B-3 Trucks

[rogertrolley.1 at juno.com]

Jim Holland Commenting about 42 mph top speed for the PCC's brings up the speed subject again. I belive most PCC's were quite capable of reaching speeds in excess of 42mph. I have ridden on cars in every eastern area that had PCC's and followed some by auto that exceeded that speed by at least 10 mph, hitting near 55mph. Of course the power supply comes into play here as in Boston where the power was in excess of 650 volts, set up for multiple unit operation on the surface-subway lines. At night the same power was available for some hair raising last trips to the barn !!! I followed one all-electric car back from Arlington Hts that flew along at 60mph. A slight downhill grade on Mass.Ave. helped too !! The fastest I rode in Pittsburgh was on 2nd ave coming back on the Rt. 56 car from Mckeesport into downtown again at night.    OFF topic here, somebody posted the Washington DC area trolley museum fire photos and referred to the DC Transit car #1053 as an experimental car. I rode that car in DC and I believe it was a Brilliner product that actually was a competitor to the PCC's and I believe they had more than one but cannot find any info in my library on DC Transit. A book was put out on that system. It may have been a St.Louis Liner but again my memory is fuzzy on exactly who made them. Atlantic City had the largest fleet of Brilliners and Phila had 3 or 4 cars. Of course Phila.Suburban had the last ten cars produced by Brill but were dbl enders. Scranton has one at Electric City Trolley Museum.