[PRCo] Re: Maintenance

[Fred Schneider]

There  is a series of pictures that Pittsburgh Railways took, Jim, to  
show operators the right and wrong ways to do certain tasks such as  
removing broken glass from sash, getting on the roof to restore  
poles, resetting poles, and so forth.   We displayed some of them at  
PTM about five years ago.

I don't know when I last saw a Pittsburgh motorman on the roof of a  
car but it was long after 1953.   A pole had decided not to stay on  
the wire going through special work around 6th and Liberty.   The  
rope tore.   The motorman simply came to the rear of the car, opened  
the battery case, pulled out the ladder, hung it on the hook by the  
trolley catcher, scampered up onto the roof, hooked the pole down,  
tied the rope back together, put the pole back on the wire, put the  
ladder away, closed the batter box, and away he went.   It was 4:30  
or so in the afternoon and had he called traffic he would have still  
be there at 5:00.   Looking back on it, he was probably also a more  
senior employee who wanted to get relieved on schedule and didn't  
care for a lot of bullshit in his day.

The spare poles came off in 1953.   So did the tool boxes on the  
1700s and other interurbans.   But the interurban routes were also  
abandoned in 1953.   There was no longer a problem of getting a  
trouble truck to a man 25 miles from Pittsburgh who was sitting on a  
cliff high above the Monongahela River.

Between that series of pictures and today there was a major change in  
what we expect people to do.   Then if you got hurt doing a little  
more than necessary, we would have paid the medical bill, thanked  
you, and everything would have been OK.   Today we might have a suit  
on our hands.   So we tell the man not to do anything for which he is  
not trained and qualified.    And then we discipline him for showing  
initiative.
>
> .
> Yes And No to change.       It may be PRCo that we Were and  ARE
> supposed to talk about but    *-What--Ifs-*    or
> *-What--Would--*One*--Do--IF...???-*    can cross  *-Platforms-*  and
> Ages  as well  (to use a word!!)
> .
> And My Today can be 30-years ago  (for personal eggsperience!!!)
> Additionally, I did a little more  Then  And  Now  type comparisons.
> .
> I also showed how, by 1953, even PRCo had removed the spare  
> trolleypoles
> on the Interurbans so it was necessary to call in for a change  --
> doubt ops were allowed on the roof from that time forward  --   
> Never saw
> an op on the roof and there were Not A Few trolleypoles in the  
> overhead
> at the 42-wye  --  all the ops stayed on the ground and waited for a
> truck  --  1950s!!!!       What  *-I-*  would have done is to get  
> ahold
> of the trolley rope  (for a pole jammed in the overhead on a backup  
> move
> on the 42-wye,)  pull the rope so the pole would rest against a live
> wire and then have the motorman pull the trolleycar forward until the
> pole could be retrieved from the overhead, placed back on the correct
> overhead wire, and then the car could move on  --  HAVE  down that on
> SF-Muni and it  IS  applicable to PRCo  --  Today  And  Yesterday!!!
> .
> Had an ETI coach go down on me tonight.       On my 7.02 trip  
> inbound I
> was at Post // Powell  (Onion--Square)  when I got an audible //  
> visual
> EPU--Temp  alarm  (Emergency Propulsion Unit Temperature  --   
> Translate
> --  Emergency Propulsion Battery  HOT!!)       It came on for a few 
> seconds and then spontaneously reset - did this several times and that
> was it.
> .
> Exactly 2-hours later at The Same Identical Spot I got the same but it
> was on and reset again multiples of times in 10-minutes then it  
> stopped.
> .
> Within 20-min it came on and stayed on  --  NOW  I Am concerned  --
> only know of one of these batteries actually catching fire and that  
> was
> during the testing of the demo units.       I stopped on Jackson at
> Fillmore in my bus stop and got out to check the battery compartments
> --  air temp on both sides  (nothing but propulsion battery under the 
> floor behind the rear axle  --  sliding tray on both sides of the  
> coach
> for access to same.)       One block behind me the 24-Divis Trolley
> Coach lays over and a truck pulls from behind it  --  Lo And Behold it
> was My Presidio Shop so I flagged them down and we checked the actual
> batteries  --  air temp but possibly low on water.       My line is  
> pull
> in  (pull out also) for a number of lines and along came a pull-in, I
> switched coaches, and they sent the coach I had back to the barn  
> and it
> is on hold for inspection Monday.       I was delayed about 7-min
> outbound but this was absorbed by my layover at the terminal and I was
> back on time inbound.
> .
> Because the alarm was steadily sounding and because of a fear of fire
> and Much More Damage, I would have tied the coach up here and  
> called for
> help  --  had the alarm been intermittent I would have taken it  
> directly
> to the barn  (just 4-blocks from the outer end of my line,)  gotten
> another coach, come back out, and then call Central to let them know
> --  have done this a multitude of times over the years.       Much  
> with 
> TCs can be fixed on the road but if the coach is workable with the
> defect and since the yard is so close to my line that Much More  
> Time is
> saved if I work the line and take the coach to the barn and come back
> out rather than wait for the availability of the road crew to reach me
> --  they may be on a call somewhere else!
> .
> On the demo coach they did a test using the battery up the steepest  
> hill
> on the system on Sacramento from Montgomery to Snob Hill  --  the  
> coach
> made it.       They then put it back on the overhead 600 and continued
> to the end of the 1-California line  --  trouble truck following  --
> takes about 1-hour to completely recharge the battery  --  FAST!
> They were coming back in on the 1-Calif when flames shot out from the
> battery  --  good thing the trouble truck was there to spot it  --
> flames extinguished rather quickly but still fair amount of damage to
> the battery.       Had to have a new one flown in from Germany!
> .
> .
> .
> .
> Jim__Holland
> .
> .
> I__Like__Ike.......And__PCCs!!
> .
> down with pantographs ---- UP___WITH___TROLLEYPOLES!!!!!!!
>
>