[PRCo] Re: I was in USA! next adventures

[Boris Cefer]

My US trip, part 2......

After leaving Pittsburgh area with Fred III in his VW, I had an opportunity
to see a wartime Pullman built PCC 7407 at Baltimore Streetcar Museum. It
was something absolutely new for me, because the car had B-2 trucks (the
very first car with B-2s I rode) equipped with coil springs, obviously
because of rubber shortage during WW2. Really unusual experience! The car
was bouncing and rocking, but otherwise the ride was very soft and quiet,
partly thanks to the super resilient wheels. I prefer the St. Louis Car
design, but even 7407 is Pullman, it is quite nice. After the visit at the
museum we went to take several pictures of present light rail line in
Baltimore, navigating Fred's car mostly through various poor neighborhoods,
where one didn't feel well, but also this is America.
The next day I visited (being guided by Fred) steam railroad in Strasburg
PA, which was very nice. The line leads through many corn acres with
beautiful farms covered by Amishes. Except several fully operable steam
locomotives and a large number of passenger coaches, all precisely
maintained, there is also a miniature railroad (the rail gauge seemed to be
roughly 1') which can be ridden both by adults and children. The big
railroad is very busy, especially when weather is nice, and supposedly it
has good incomes.
Then we got to Baltimore again and I had an opportunity to thoroughly
inspect the 7407, which was specially for me put over a pit. I took some
photos of electric equipment, which proved to be a mix of Westinghouse and
General Electric apparatus, like many other earlier PCCs, PRCo 1138
including. And I understood, why the car was too rocking - the old dampers
mounted on truck frame tubes lacked any connection to the spring pots and
were thus defunct. The museum people complained about lack of spare parts.
In fact, they have only the car and when something fails, they always have
to look around other museums. I would wish them to be in Europe where the
PCC technology is still in daily use, in some places almost in original
condition.
After the day spent in Baltimore we moved to Collingswood to meet Russ
Jackson and over night we continued (all three) to Branford, Seashore TM and
Boston.

To be continued!

Boris