[PRCo] Re: Maintenance

[Fred Schneider]

Reread previous message.  Dash lights.   Interior Lights.   And he  
better know where the railroad is or he should not be on it.     
Houses around you give clues to your location.   A good railroader  
could go through a pea soup fog at 50 mph and know where he was all  
the way by the rocks along the right of way, the bad joints in the  
rail, the crossings.   They were paid to be good.

If you hit something because of no lights, it was your fault.   If  
you had enough brains to get home without trouble, you were probably  
going to be known as a good operator.   You could also be "Myer the  
Cryer" who called in for every little defect.

We also need to admit here that conditions have changed.   Men used  
to change their own fuses and bulbs.   It was part of life.   They  
were trained to do it.   They were expected to use their heads for  
something other than hat racks. Because of our litigious society, we  
are now forbidden to do anything other than call for help.

On Dec 2, 2005, at 11:40 AM, Boris Cefer wrote:

> OK. It was a 1200 scheduled for Library. Not uncommon in earlier  
> days. What
> did the motorman?
>
> B
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Fred Schneider" <fwschneider at comcast.net>
> To: <pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org>
> Sent: Friday, December 02, 2005 5:31 PM
> Subject: [PRCo] Re: Maintenance
>
>
>> Not a very good what if, Boris.   They had two headlights.   And dash
>> lights.   And interior lights.   And if the motorman doesn't know
>> where the railroad is, he doesn't deserve to run on it.
>>
>> On Dec 2, 2005, at 11:15 AM, Boris Cefer wrote:
>>
>>> And WHAT IF a car had failed headlight in deep night on an
>>> interurban (say
>>> Library or Drake) where no lighting was along the line?
>>> More WHAT IFs may follow.
>>>
>>> B
>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>> From: "Fred Schneider" <fwschneider at comcast.net>
>>> To: <pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org>
>>> Sent: Thursday, December 01, 2005 10:00 PM
>>> Subject: [PRCo] Re: Maintenance
>>>
>>>
>>>> An operator would request a car change.   [Then the mechanic would
>>>> find nothing wrong and send the car back out with another
>>>> motorman.... etc., etc., etc.]
>>>>
>>>> Seriously, if a motorman could get to a phone and if his (her) car
>>>> would move, a fresh car would be waiting when he (she) passed the
>>>> barn or a pull in / pull out point.
>>>>
>>>> On Dec 1, 2005, at 1:46 PM, Boris Cefer wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Was it possible to see a PCC with a carhouse crew waiting in a  
>>>>> loop
>>>>> to make
>>>>> a repair (to fix doors etc.) on an another, regularly scheduled
>>>>> one? There
>>>>> are some sorts of repairs that can be easily done within a  
>>>>> couple of
>>>>> minutes. Or did they simply exchange the cars? What was the
>>>>> procedure of
>>>>> fixing / replacing defective cars that could continue with certain
>>>>> service
>>>>> limitations, say propulsion not involved?
>>>>>
>>>>> B
>>>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>>>> From: "Fred Schneider" <fwschneider at comcast.net>
>>>>> To: <pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org>
>>>>> Sent: Wednesday, November 30, 2005 10:01 PM
>>>>> Subject: [PRCo] Re: Maintenance
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>> Good point.    The only one I remember was a GE 1100 that  
>>>>>> failed on
>>>>>> Perrysville Avenue and a supervisor's truck was being used to
>>>>>> push it
>>>>>> into the wye at Charles Street so the next outbound could push it
>>>>>> back to Keating.   That was 1958.     My memories of PRC were
>>>>>> limited
>>>>>> when I was old enough to remember what was happening, i.e.  
>>>>>> after I
>>>>>> became a teenager.   At that time we went back to Pittsburgh for
>>>>>> one
>>>>>> week every Easter during which I roamed all over the city.   My
>>>>>> last
>>>>>> year of that was 1958; then I had one week in town on leave from
>>>>>> the
>>>>>> army in 1959.   There were also a few isolated periods ...  
>>>>>> funerals
>>>>>> and the like in 1952 and 1953.   And like Jim points out, I too
>>>>>> never
>>>>>> saw car failures.   Paint work was fair but even the yellow cars
>>>>>> were
>>>>>> not too bad because there was a rash of painting in the late  
>>>>>> 1940s.
>>>>>> The real paint collapse came in the early 1960s ... why fix
>>>>>> anything
>>>>>> when the politicians are talking about taking your empire away
>>>>>> from you?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I think it also deserves to be pointed out that when the steel
>>>>>> mills
>>>>>> belch out sulfur dioxide in smoke, that turns to dilute sulfuric
>>>>>> acid
>>>>>> in rain.   The environment was not exactly conducive to keeping
>>>>>> things looking nice.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>
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