[PRCo] Re: PRC 4398

[James B. Holland]

Fred Schneider wrote:

> 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.


Yes, this has been mentioned here before and pictures of same  *may*  be 
at the dementia website.       .......BUT.......  where is the official 
documentation from PRCo files that says that the low-floors suffered 
from hanging platforms?       Doesn't seem to have been a problem for 
PRCo.       Interesting observation from the photo which may be an 
abberation of the photography.       The low-floors served for 30++ some 
years and seemed to perform their job as well as any other 
trolleycar.       Even photos of 3756 at certain angles give the  
*appearance*  of a sag of the front platform.

The length of the front platform is not unlike the length of same on 
many other trolleycars that have double front doors  --  even many 
descriptions of the PCC divide the car into  *Body*  and  
*End--Platforms*  and the PCC has double doors and the truck king pin is 
about as far back from the ends of the car as it is on the 
low-floors.       Believe the length of the platform remained the same 
as for the single door car.

Have seen photos and even other trolleycar equipment where the platform  
*appeared*  to be sagging.         Have seen homes // businesses // 
buildings with Bay Windows that have tremendous sags!       And Most Of 
Us Sag considerably with age as well.

> 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.


Of course  --  anything can have an affect.       Aging is something 
that happens to everything  --  Animal, Veetable, Even Mineral  --  
witness the window sag above.       Why does this surprize us?

As to the under cariage of 3756 it is not dissimilar to that of 1138 as 
noted by our Distinguished PCC Expert when he visited  --  aging and the 
way it is dealt with in the good ol U.S.A.  --  bondo, patches, 
bandaids, but by all means Never Preventive Maintenance nor true repair  
--  just ain't American!       Not trying to disparage  --  just another 
way of saying that America is a Maintenance Free Society.       As 
Dennis noted, 3756 is 80-years old  --  aging is taking its toll.

Jim__Holland


> "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 
>> closin g in on 80 years of age.
>