[PRCo] Re: OT:___Boston___PCCs

[Fred Schneider]

Yes, tread brakes.  Major overhaul yes.  Downgraded from PCC specs, also yes.
There are about 10 war-time cars involved.

"James B. Holland" wrote:

> Fred Schneider wrote:
>
> > But you should ride the Mattapan - Ashmont cars in Boston. The chap
> > who was with
> > me asked if I remembered the PCC "A" and PCC "B" cars from the 1930s.
> > Then he
> > called the Boston cars, PCC "D" for degraded or downgraded. The
> > resilient wheels
> > are long gone. The field shunts have been removed, reducing the top
> > speed to
> > about 23 mph up hill, 26 mph down hill (if the speedometers are
> > correct). There
> > also seems to be some sort of a misadjustment problem in the tickling
> > or spotting
> > coil, so that air brakes come on about half the time ... very little
> > affect from
> > dynamic brakes. One might make a case for them not even being PCCs anymore
> > because they fail to meet the PCC performance specification.
>
> Out of touch as far as Boston goes but I am under the impression that
> not a few PCC cars were completely overhauled for this operation.
> Or is it just body work which was redone?
>
> Resilient wheels went out in the 1960s, didn't they?
>
> Do these cars still have wheel tread brake shoes?       No Drums?
>
> Jim__Holland