[PRCo] Fw: A streetcar named Superburger

[Ken & Tracie]

Please view the attached article. Too bad they didn't have John Bromley
proof read it.

An interesting take on a well known streetcar design. I never realized that
the TTC operated 744 of these for "much the last century." ;-)

Not Pittsburgh related, but how long did the TTC PCC fleet remain at its
peak of 745 cars?

Also, note that the TTC cars that went to Cleveland (SHRT, which had one of
its original PCCs wind up at PTM, which operates Pittsburgh trolleys over a
portion of a PRCO interurban right of way...back on topic!) started out as
Cleveland cars on the city's street railway system. ;-) ;-)

I would think, but I really don't know, that the CLRVs don't weigh any more
than some of the TTC's old deck roof cars. Also, I'm not sure which weighed
more, the Peter Witts or the PCCs. I used to know all this stuff.

I remember an article about a Pittsburgh traffic cop retiring. The author
tried to color the story by saying this officer was an icon to motorists,
along with the city's "multitude of springtime pot holes and creaking
trolleys." I never heard a Pittsburgh PCC "creak", though I suppose the
Smithfield Street bridge may have creaked when streetcar traffic was backed
up across it...

K.


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ken Wuschke" <wuschke at telus.net>
To: <wuschke at telus.net>
Sent: Saturday, August 28, 2004 8:40 AM
Subject: A streetcar named Superburger


>
> The TTC's old trolleys have ended up in some unlikely places, from a diner
in
> Shelburne, Ont., to the streets of Egypt
>
> THE GLOBE AND MAIL | TORONTO, ONTARIO | By JEFF GRAY
>
> Saturday, Aug 21, 2004 | UPDATED AT 11:28 AM EDT
>
> Some people stop at Superburger for the food. But others go to the popular
> burger joint near Shelburne, Ont., to step into a bit of Toronto transit
> history: an old streetcar that now serves as a dining room for the
roadside
> restaurant.
>
> "A lot of people stop just to see the streetcar," according to assistant
> manager Debbie Crawford, who says the previous owner of the restaurant
picked
> up the old vehicle for $1,000 after it went out of service, likely around
> 1990. "We've had lots of people tell us they rode the streetcar, they
drove
> the streetcar. They take pictures of it."
>
> Shelburne isn't the only unlikely place that these old Toronto Transit
> Commission streetcars have ended up. Designed during the Depression and
known
> as PCCs (short for Presidents' Conference Committee), the old cars were
first
> introduced in 1938 and have turned up in places as far-flung as Tampico,
> Mexico, and Alexandria, Egypt, which bought more than 100 PCCs from
Toronto in
> the mid-1960s, running them hitched in pairs before a good portion of them
> were reportedly destroyed during the Six Days War with Israel in 1967.
>
> Others have gone to Cleveland, Philadelphia and San Francisco -- which now
> operates a popular vintage streetcar line -- as well as transit museums
> scattered across North America, including the Halton County Radial Railway
> Museum in Milton, Ont.
>
> Fort Edmonton Park also has a Toronto PCC, which was a gift to the
Edmonton
> Radial Railway Society from the TTC.
>
> And in Kenosha, Wis., visiting Torontonians might be taken aback when a
> vintage TTC streetcar -- in the old maroon and cream colours -- pulls up
at a
> stop, one of five Toronto PCCs running in the town of 91,000 on the shores
of
> Lake Michigan.
>
> Developed in the 1930s by a group of transit-system presidents and
streetcar
> makers from across North America, the PCC streetcar was smoother and
faster
> than the standard public-transit vehicles of the time. It was meant to
take on
> the upstart private automobile.
>
> The TTC put its first PCCs on the St. Clair Avenue line, and hung onto
them
> even as car-crazed transportation planners in the postwar United States
began
> to abandon streetcars.
>
> At one time, Toronto had the world's largest fleet of PCCs -- which were
used
> by transit systems across North America -- with 744 in active service for
much
> of the past century.
>
> In 1979, the PCC's successor, the Canadian Light Rail Vehicle, first
appeared,
> built by the Ontario-government-created company, UTDC Inc. The reviews
were
> negative from the get-go: The new wheels were too noisy, and had to be
> changed. The windows didn't open, and had to be retrofitted.
>
> But they gradually replaced the PCCs, almost all of which were sold off at
> fire-sale prices when they were decommissioned.
>
> The last regular-service PCC rolled out of the station in 1995.
>
> The TTC's two remaining PCCs, now restored, sit in a far corner of the
transit
> authority's east-end streetcar yard looking flamboyantly retro, like '57
> Chevys on rails, all maroon-and-cream curves. This last pair is barely
used
> now, hauled out occasionally for private charters -- stag parties,
weddings,
> bar-hops, movie shoots -- at about $130 an hour.
>
> Some critics still think the PCC is superior to its replacement. Former
city
> councillor Howard Levine argues that we are now paying for the extra
weight of
> the newer CLRV, which comes in at 25 tonnes, five tonnes heavier than its
> forebear.
>
> The 20-per-cent increase has given the streetcar tracks a pounding they
> weren't designed to handle, he says, and the results have become clear
over
> the past few summers, with major downtown arteries clogged for massive
track-
> repair projects.
>
> "Everybody knows this; the TTC knows this," says Mr. Levine, who was part
of
> the Streetcars for Toronto Committee that fought TTC plans to scrap the
> streetcar system in the early 1970s.
>
> But the TTC's general superintendent of streetcar maintenance, Orest
> Kobylansky, says the city's streetcar tracks lasted longer than the
15-year
> life that was budgeted, despite being almost completely neglected during
the
> belt-tightening 1990s.
>
> And Stephen Lam, the TTC's superintendent of vehicle engineering, says the
> newer streetcars have a much more sophisticated air-suspension system,
which
> greatly reduces the amount of stress put on the tracks. Also, the newer
> streetcars' axles are farther apart, better distributing the weight.
>
> Whatever the merits of the current streetcars, they don't seem to inspire
the
> same loyalty among transit enthusiasts that the PCCs still do.
>
> A group of American transit fans travels to Toronto almost yearly,
chartering
> a PCC to take them on a tour of the city. And a local entrepreneur, called
> Time is Ticking, is now hocking a commemorative TTC watch, emblazoned with
a
> PCC on its face.
>
> While the TTC had once planned to refurbish 21 PCCs at around $200,000 a
pop
> and run them along the Harbourfront line, the scheme was abandoned in
1995.
>
> There are a now a dwindling number of drivers on the TTC staff who learned
on
> the PCC. And while the vintage streetcars always draw smiles when they are
put
> on the streets for charters, they had their flaws.
>
> One afternoon in 1980, just before rush hour, streetcar driver Harold
Jenken --
>  now a supervisor at the TTC's Russell streetcar yard -- lost the brakes
on a
> PCC, heading east on Queen Street West, toward Yonge Street. His emergency
> brakes didn't stop him until Victoria Street, forcing pedestrians to dive
out
> of the way.
>
> "They were fun to drive," Mr. Jenken says, laughing. "But they were hell
to
> stop."
>
> Jeff Gray writes The Globe and Mail's Dr. Gridlock column, which appears
on
> Mondays.
>
>
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPPrint/LAC/20040821/STREETC
> ARS21/TPEntertainment/
>
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>