[PRCo] Re: PCC Rehabilitation

[Harold Geissenheimer]

Greetings

About 1970 I noticed that SEPTA had started to use safety steel
on their rebuild PCC's.  Ken Husson checked this out and adopted
this for PAT rebuild step wells.

The SEPTA program was a very large scale general rehab. the PAT
program was tailored to individual cars under the guiudance of Phil
Castelano.

The rebuilding program changed after I left and resulted in the 4000's.

Harold Geissenheimer

Edward H. Lybarger wrote:

>I'm not sure I said it had rusting stepwells while it was in service, but
>rather that it had been out of service long enough before PTM got it to have
>developed that condition.  This does not contradict what Ken says, but
>merely clarifies the thought.
>
>The rebuilds were pretty thorough.  I have slides (on Kodachrome 25, no
>less) of one of the cars being done in the shop in the mid-1970s and it
>shows the thing pretty much disassembled.  The stepwells were changed from
>the original design to a simple safety tread steel sheet...in other words, a
>throwaway item that was easy to replace if need be.  But I think everyone
>thought these would last the remaining life of the cars, and I believe they
>in fact did.
>
>Harold G. could likely give a better picture of the time frame in the
>streetcar rehab program than I can.  Yes, I was around, but I didn't work
>there.  And it's been a quarter-century, so some things are a bit fuzzy.
>
>Ed
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: pittsburgh-railways-bounce at lists.dementia.org
>[mailto:pittsburgh-railways-bounce at lists.dementia.org]On Behalf Of
>ktjosephson at earthlink.net
>Sent: Tuesday, May 25, 2004 2:14 AM
>To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
>Subject: [PRCo] PCC Rehabilitation
>
>
>A couple of questions pertaining to the repainting, etc. of the remaining
>Pittsburgh PCCs between 1972 and 1979.
>I remember Ed mentioning that 1799(II) (formerly 1613) had rusting
>stairwells when it was stricken from PAT's roster.
>
>How much work actually went into rehabbing these cars, starting with "Early
>Action"? When was it officially determined that the remaining South Hills
>car lines would be retained? Was the decision to "upgrade" to "light rail
>standards" made at the same time, or some time after retention became
>official?
>
>I seem to recall, after a 1974 visit to Boston, that PAT's "Early Action"
>repaints and/or rehabs seemed to reflect more careful bodywork and paint
>application than some of the initial MBTA green and white repaints. People
>tell me subsequent Boston PCC repaints/rehabs were more detailed and that
>the final rebuilding of the dozen or so cars for Mattapan-Ashmont service
>was the most thorough reconditioning of any Boston PCCs.
>
>I've heard varying opinions concerning SEPTA's "in-house" PCC
>reconditioning. I remember seeing photos of the cars emerging from the shops
>minus their safety fenders and wondering how effective those items really
>were. Plus it seems SEPTA was determined to see how small they could made
>the windshields without impairing the motormen's view. :-)
>
>I suppose the untarping of 1799(II) this coming July for "the big move" will
>allow somebody to look it over and determine once and for all if it's really
>1613....
>
>K.
>
>P.S.- I hope the Museum orders a tanker car full of insecticide before July.
>That upcoming more is going to anger more than few paper wasp colonies.
>
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