[PRCo] Re: Pittsburgh Rys car 4398

[Fred Schneider]

Before you do that .... remember the Federal penalties that were enacted for
kidnapping after Lindberg's child was taken.... I think it is death.   Find your
own slaves!

Now curiously .... body bolsters or truck bolsters?

And something else that I was thinking about the other day.  What was the
primary reason for the conversion of the TM city system to bus / trackless?
a.  economics.  This includes not only "we're not making money running it" but
also "income is insufficient to modernize it as a rail system."
b.  public pressure
c.  political pressure
d.  The company simply though it was the thing to do.
e.  1937 Public Utility Divesture Act

Please elaborate off list.


Ken & Tracie wrote:

> Tongue-in-cheek warning:
>
> I may step on a few of my fellow Wisconsin fans, but I may as well go public
> with this. There are two retired and complete Milwaukee city cars which will
> probably never run again, at least before anybody who actually rode them (in
> service) is still among the living.
>
> Main excuse in both cases? Bad bolsters.
>
> I plan to kidnap those two brilliant youngsters you guys at PTM are blessed
> with and turn them lose at a couple of unnamed museums to do their magic on
> some Brew City survivors!
>
> Sneak 'em into the carbarns and put 'em to work before letting the "brass"
> know what's going on. Those cars will be so far along by the time the
> elected officials find out about it, that they'll have no choice but to
> approve funding to complete them! :-)
>
> K.
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Fred Schneider" <fschnei at supernet.com>
> To: <pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org>
> Cc: "Allman Rich" <trolleydoc at aol.com>; "Boris Cefer" <westinghouse at iol.cz>;
> "Bruce Wells" <bwells at nauticom.net>; "Tom Phillips" <tsquare at toad.net>;
> "Dick Kotulak" <CRVLKOTULA at aol.com>; "Bruce Bente" <bbente at cytechusa.com>
> Sent: Sunday, February 27, 2005 5:01 PM
> Subject: [PRCo] Pittsburgh Rys car 4398
>
> > For those unable to get there ...
> >
> > I had meetings yesterday at PTM with the docent training committee and
> > the education committee, and that gave me a wonderful opportunity to see
> > how the overhaul of 4398 was progressing.  I love receiving Bruce Well's
> > "weekly" reports but seeing is so many times better.
> >
> > My initial reaction was, "My God, it's self supporting."   It's resting
> > on cribbing at the bolsters.  It doesn't sag.   It looks like a
> > streetcar.  And it's probably less than 5% St. Louis Car Co. 1917 by
> > weight and more than 95% PTM.   The roof carlines and the letterboard
> > are original and Justin showed me two small pieces of original steel in
> > the frame.    Justin, Jeff, Ralph and company were riveting in the
> > center door step well and the posts between the center door leaves.
> > What a heat sink that steel body is after sitting in an unheated
> > environment.  A bright orange rivet could be placed through the steel
> > and it would turn black in about 5 or 6 seconds .... tells you just how
> > much time Justin had to hammer it in place.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >