[PRCo] Re: WP__Equipment__Assignments

[Fred Schneider]

There were three cars numbered 212.   The "gospel" is that it was  
cheaper to renumber cars than change insurance policies.  Maybe so,  
maybe not.   A car 212 with Brill trucks. a B-50 controller and  
magnetic brakes was assigned to Uniontown until late in 1949.  This  
was the car that ran into the hotel in Mount Pleasant in 1936 and was  
thoroughly rebuilt.   It was retired late in 1949, the only visible  
defect being paper thin wheel treads.  Car 204, an air-brake car from  
Leechburg and later duty on South Connellsville, was renumbered 212,  
and moved to Uniontown to replace it.   It had arch bar trucks.   It  
probably ran only a few months until the Brownsville line abandonment  
released two 700s.  This will allow you to date the picture.

Car 212 was typically used as a shuttle from Masontown to Martin on  
Saturdays because traffic was too heavy to allow a car to run through  
from Uniontown in the allotted hour.   Frank Butts and Bill Janssen  
were there on Nov. 5 and 7, 1949 and Butts took several pictures from  
the top of a culm bank or waste pile next to Orient Siding showing  
two sections of a Brownsville schedule inbound (2nd 212 and a 700),  
proving that 204 had not yet gone into service and also proving that  
the wood car didn't always work Martin, and finally proving that I  
can't find my almanac with a perpetual calendar to figure out if Nov.  
5 was a Saturday.   The outbound car is 714.   The inbound 700 is  
never close enough in either picture to identify.   And the clearance  
lights on the roof of 212 are properly turned to indicate a second  
section is following, as are the ones on 714.   Amazing just how fast  
the business evaporated once the passengers were standing along the  
highways where friends could pick them up instead of in the woods  
waiting for the trolleys.

Depending on what you're trying to prove, Fred:

          Remember that the mainline cars were the only ones that  
always ran "Breathing Section" first.   The others always required  
that the motorman change ends when the rails ran out.

On Oct 29, 2005, at 3:42 PM, Fredbruhn at aol.com wrote:

> In a message dated 10/29/2005 3:00:17 PM Eastern Standard Time,
> fwschneider at comcast.net writes:
> They always ran smoker to the rear
> Son of a gun.  New information for me.  Now I have to turn my
> St. Pete O scale 700 around, abut then I may have glued the  
> headlight on the
> wrong end.  You can't win.
> I have a photo of I believe 212 at the Orient siding with 2 700's  
> passing on
> the Brownsville line.  I'll dig it out and see what I can  
> identify.  I also
> have a good selection of Barney Neuberger shots
> and I'll recap those tonight to add to the discussion of what lines  
> they are
> on.  Maybe we can develop some sense out of this.
>
> the other Fred
>
>
>
>