[PRCo] Re: PRC 4398

[Fred Schneider]

Maybe we should not be saying this Dennis, but truth is truth.  If nothing else,
I've come to the conclusion that the Pittsburgh low-floor cars may have been
more fragile from the outset than a lot of Birney cars.   Don't know if you ever
saw the Osgood-Bradley builders photo of 5200.  If you have one, observe that
the front platform was already sagging before it was loaded onto a flatcar for
shipment to Pittsburgh ... in that case the design change for the double front
door left a platform too long to be properly supported and the side panel under
the first window on the right side already had a crease in it.   Of course the
5200 had all the extra weight of the coupler on the front.

I may be assuming a little too much.  A lot of the structural problems with
those cars may also be related to atmospheric pollution in Pittsburgh.  There
was a lot of sulfur dioxide in the air which coverts very nicely to sulfuric
acid when it rains.

And yet that smell always made me feel like I was back home again when I came to
Pittsburgh in the 1950s and 60s.   Just as much so as the smells of fish at the
old Diamond Market.

"Dennis F. Cramer" wrote:

> Fred wrote: "It scares me what 3756 must look like under the skin."
>
> Do not accelerate too fast with 3756.  You might just leave the body behind!
> A few summers ago a battery blew up on the car as I was giving an operator a
> training run.  Looking under the car, there is not much there to hold it
> together. Just hope 4398 gets finished before 3756 falls apart (or the pole
> comes crashing through the roof).  It is a great car to operate and still
> has a lot of kick for closing in on 80 years of age.
>
> Dennis F. Cramer--Teacher-Trombonist-Historian-Conductor
> www.geocities.com/armconband