[PRCo] Tampa and Charlotte

[Fred Schneider]

A sidebar to a friend named Bill Matangos:  You made the mistake of
showing an interest a week ago.  If you care not to read about my
feelings on the Tampa heritage trolley line, please delete.
And to Karl Groh:  -- you were right, I had fun.

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The all too brief trip to Florida (left Monday home Saturday night) was
intriguing.

The heritage tram in Tampa reminds one of Birney cars ... reminds in the
sense that the body looks somewhat like a 13 window Stone and Webster
car but all the safety appliances are missing ... no deadman, no door
release in emergency, no folding steps (kids can hitch rides on the
steps).   Control is are K-35s, trucks came from Melbourne.  Compressors
are rotary instead of reciprocating.  And very unusual to older
air-brake cars in the U. S., the motorman's brake valves do not directly
apply air to the brake cylinders and release it, but instead they
control relay valves under the floor which, in turn, make the brake
applications.  The feed lines to the relay valve are much smaller,
therefore take much less time to apply and release brakes than anything
I've ever operated.   (Shows what kinds of engineering was out there in
other parts of the world after we gave up trolleys.)  But in spite of a
historically inaccurate design, they look right and make all the right
sounds.  Interior trim is fine wood ... much more expensive than Stone
and Webster would have considered when them managed Tampa.  I'm looking
for a meaningful way to say something without obfuscation or convolution
and I think there is no way .... Charles Birney's car design, which we
are attempting to copy, had a fully open body from end to end ... the
Tampa and Charlotte cars are partly vestibuled behind the motorman which
should prevent the twisting or racking that the Birneys of the teens and
twenties experienced

The motormen (and women) are all incredibly friendly, well trained (and
as their boss explained, part of a "family.").  They are not afraid of
their machinery ... one of the men on an evening trip ran like the fires
of hades were behind his butt.   The operators all came from the ranks
of bus drivers but do not have rights to bump backward.  However, they
must have commercial drivers licenses and are authorized a a few hours
of overtime every month to take a bus out and practice ... reasoning
being that they may need to drive buses if there is a power failure.
Tells you guys that it is being treated as a transit operation even if
the majority of the customers are tourists.  And how can they use
someone else's buses?  They aren't.  The trolleys are being run by the
Hillsborough Country transit authority, same as the buses.

Plan calls for extension of both ends to form a connecting loop ... the
extension of the west end into the center of Tampa in two years.  I'm
not holding my breath.  Current operation is over 2 miles from the south
fringe of the downtown area, along the docks past the cruise ship
terminal and parking garages, past the aquarium, and up into Ybor City.
Cars run every 15 to 20 minutes.  Sidings are not signaled ... meets are
fixed depending on how many cars are on the line.  (I didn't care to ask
how they told the operators that we've added another car and the places
you pass are changed.)

Fleet is 8 or 9 cars ... one single truck Birney recreated from a shed
and used for charter work (it cannot be used for revenue service because
it is not ADA compliant), one double-truck open car (they were training
crews on it last Thursday and Friday), and 6 or 7 of the double-truck
closed cars.  One more of those long closed cars is one order from
Gomaco.  Is the open car ADA compliant?  They can load at certain raised
platforms and they have a portable lift that can be moved by pickup
truck to an emergency if needed.

Highly recommended!   One flaw bothers me ... there seems evidence that
they are not sure that their main customers are tourists.  There are
signs posted around the car house saying that photography is forbidden.
In this case, I got a feeling that it wasn't fear of terrorists but a
fear that someone else might publish a picture and reap some profit
which they would like to share.

Tariff ... if I can remember ... $1.00 one way, $2.00 up and back, $3.00
for a day pass on trolley and bus.  The old farts day ticket is $1.50.
(Damn that's cheap compared to $6 to $8 in other cities.)

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Charlotte, North Carolina's heritage line consists of about 2.3 miles of
north south track on a former railroad right-of-way (Southern, what
else) through the middle of downtown and right through the second floor
of the convention center.  Charlotte Area Transit System has three
Gomaco 11 window "Birneys" ... same as the Tampa cars but two windows
shorter ... deadman control (foot and button on controller handle),
automatic progression resistance control (I didn't run one but I got the
feeling it is similar in concept to Westinghouse VA).  Brake valves are
the same as the Tampa cars.  The barn also houses a former Norfolk or
Richmond (VE&P) single truck Birney and a car from Japan and the vehicle
described in the fourth paragraph.   In addition, there was at one time
a Philadelphia Suburban Transportation Co. 1949 St. Louis Car - built
car, owned by Dave Crawford, on the property.  Once the CATS bought the
property, space was need for offices for supervisors, and the PST car
was evicted.  Last summer I saw it stored in a warehouse in Charlotte,
beautifully refinished and repainted in the original PST colors ... I
think Dave put over $100,000 into it.

Operation is every 30 minutes, slower than a turtle chasing a worm.
Bruce could remind me how many crossings ... suffice to inform you that
every cross street is flagged.  Therefore there are two men on every car
... one gets off at each intersection, walks ahead, beckons the motorman
to come ahead, gets back on, and rides to the next intersection.
Average operating speed is about 4 mph, or half what we considered
normal in 1925.   Two cars are on the line ... 3 to 5 minute turn around
at the north end and more at the south end.  Part of the LRV project
which follows is the replacement of the flagmen with gates and flashers
(perhaps it is logical to wait until the Federal government pays for
them).   Right now it is just a toy that hauls about 10 people a trip.
(If you are my wage, the super annuated citizens round trip is $1.00.

Siemens is building the new LRVs in Sacramento for the extension to the
south ... I think the number is in the 12 to 15 car range.  Delivery in
about two years.  There is a hugh suburban population into northern
South Carolina; Tryon Street into the city from the south is congested
to say the least.  In a few years, this might be useful.

For those unfamiliar, this project began as a railfan operation and was
sold to the city.  There is a fourth car that can be used ... a former
Charlotte double-truck car that was resurrected from a life as a shed
and restored to something resembling a former Charlotte car (I can live
withincorrect  trucks and mechanical parts but the green and red paint
bears no resemblance to the Southern Public Utilities / Duke Power
Company orange and cream livery).

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Anything else?  Well having dinner in a Greek sidewalk cafe in Ybor City
on a January evening when the temperature was still in the low to middle
70s after a day when it peaked at 80 degrees ... nice deal.  My wife
noticed I got a sunburn in the middle of the winter.  Three days in a
row when I didn't even put a sweater on.  I'm looking forward to plowing
the first snow, but I have to admit that a few days in Florida in
mid-winter can be nice.