[PRCo] Re: Munhall 1965

[Fred Schneider]

Amazing but not strange.   T'is the old tale that you don't fix anything you plan
to scrap.

We have a preserved Lancaster Birney car that is in the custody of the Manheim
(Pa.) Historical Society.  It was operable at the end of service in September
1947 only because of motor repair work earlier in the summer, and then only
because they had run out of serviceable cars.   It actually was operated to Rocky
Springs Park several days after the end of service so Bob Campbell could take
pictures of it for the employee's rag ... it was the only car left on the
property.  Then it was picked up and loaded on a trailer for a four-mile trip to
the Landis Valley Museum.  The newspaper picture showing it leaving the car yard
on the trailer depicts one trolley pole simply laying on the roof ... the
mounting screws had pulled out of the rotten boards of the pole towerf.   It was
never replaced until MHS signed a lease on the car.  Sometime between the cars
arrival at the museum and its migration to Tansboro New Jersey (Metropolitan
Philadelphia Railway Assoc.) in 1958, the other pole also fell off.

When the City of Baltimore tried to push the cars off Fayette Street in 1962-63
in order to make another pair of one-way east-west streets, Baltimore Transit
Company squealed like a stuck pig.  The "how-dare-you" screech.  Our cars are in
fine shape and good for many more years.  Not really but it sounded good to a
city who didn't understand.  The cars were literally falling apart from rust.
But the city capitulated and gave BTC tax relief to pay for the new buses.    The
truth?  BTC didn't have the money to pay for buses.

We could write a book about that subject.

"James B. Holland" wrote:

>
>
> We had to pull into Craft Ave barn for an emergency repair on M454  --
> I was on 1640 and noticed that when the M made turns in one direction
> that the trolley pole base and boards would lift from the roof and lean
> at an angle.       Believe I have some photos of the repair work.
>
>