[PRCo] Re: Changed to PCC Heaters

[Boris Cefer]

Some people here used to remove the shaft brake fuse and then depress power
pedal slightly, several times for several seconds, to heat the interior by
those 220 Amps going thru the accelerator ribbons. This represented roughly
100 kW heater thus it took only a few seconds to recreate the cold car to a
hothouse.

Boris

----- Original Message -----
From: "Fred Schneider" <fschnei at supernet.com>
To: <pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org>
Sent: Saturday, October 16, 2004 3:09 AM
Subject: [PRCo] Changed to PCC Heaters


> Dick Lloyd, the now deceased transportation superintendent and in an
> earlier life a motorman for Baltimore Transit Co., told an intriguing
> story of an winter owl trip to Catonsville.  A man got on his car in the
> darkest hours of the morning and asked Dick why his car was warm and
> every one else's cars were cold when he got on.  The secret was simple.
> The Baltimore PCCs had no supplementary heaters ... just the recaptured
> heat from accelerating / braking resistor elements. If the car wasn't
> accelerating or wasn't braking, there will be no heat.  As we all know,
> the absence of heat is cold.   Dick didn't like sitting in the cold any
> more than any one else, and he was bright enough to observe that he
> could make a quick run back to Irvington (either the loop or the barn)
> and back to Catonsville between his scheduled arrive time at the end of
> the line and his scheduled leave time.   So his car was always
> accelerating and braking, and therefore being heated.