[PRCo] Coin changers

[Bob Rathke]

Last week I mentioned that I bought a CTA coin changer at the Illinois =
Railway Museum.  For years I have had several PRC coin changers, and I =
always assumed that all changers were like the industrrial strength PRC =
model.  Besides age and heavier weight, I now understand that the PRC =
coin changers had some innovations that were not used on contemporary =
changers.

See attached photo that I took of one of my old PRC changers and the =
1970's CTA changer.  Both were made in the Chicago area, but the PRC is =
brass and the CTA is stainless steel.  The PRC model was patented in =
1923 and made by Johnson Fare Box Co. in Chicago; the CTA changer was =
made by McGill in Marengo, IL, just a few miles from IRM.

The CTA changer is well made, and is similar to the light duty changers =
used by parking lot attendents and car hops (we still have car hop =
service at some drive-ins in the Chicago area).  I remember well the PRC =
changers used on trolleys and buses before the exact-change era.  Some =
of the advanced features of the PRC model::

- Modular design - each of the individual coin mechanisms/tubes could be =
separated or added to create a 3, 4 or 5 coin denomination changer.

- An extension tube could be pressed on a tube to increase coin =
capacity.  The extension tube seen in the photo was for tokens.

- By adding/removing plates at the bottom of the coin tube, the changer =
could be configured to dispense 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 coins per click.  This =
would be a useful feature when fares changed - the motorman would need =
to click only once to get five dimes, or four quarters, etc.  The token =
tube on the changer in the photo is set up to dispense 5 tokens per =
click, so I assume it was used when the fare was 20 cents.

It's interesting how Johnson offered useful l features in the 1920's =
that met a need at the time, but were not so important by the 1970's.

Did other cities use the Johnson-style coin changer as recently as =
PRC/PAT?

And...as a child, I noted that the PRC motorman always removed the coin =
changer from the transfer stand when he left the trolley, but the =
currency/transfer box was left on the car because it was padlocked to =
the console.

Bob 5/14/05 


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