[PRCo] Re: Maintenance

[Fred Schneider]

All I really have Boris are my memories.   And the best ones are  
those from evening dinners with Charles Schauck and his family.    
Charley was the Superintendent of Power and Inclines for PRC from the  
early 1950s to the end.   He was my Dad's age.   He and Sam Lybarger  
and my father were all graduates of the same university, all about  
the same time.   It was like a second family.   He told me a lot  
about what it was like to try to survive in that business.   I recall  
conversations about annual budget meetings where he would walk in  
with a list of things that had to be done and he would come out  
trying to figure out how to but Band Aides (bandages) on things that  
didn't work.   I remember another conversation about a court case  
between a former family member and PRC ... the railway power  
consumption was now so low that Duquesne Light Company was suing for  
payment of demand charges.   After ten years worth of dinners with  
the Schauck family, I really don't need a lot of maintenance records  
to understand why PRC didn't spend a lot of money.    There simply  
wasn't a lot of money to spend.

On Nov 30, 2005, at 2:02 AM, Boris Cefer wrote:

> Fred, I do not know the proper name, but I know exactly what you  
> mean. Using
> translation of our Czech term into German, it would be a  
> "Panzerschlauch".
>
> I understand what you mean and say - the appearance of the  
> streetcars had
> only negligible role and the public decided for automobiles because  
> being in
> fetter of automobiles gives people more freedom.
>
> It is unfortunate that no PRCo maintenance records survived. There is
> perhaps nothing also from PAT era.
>
> B
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Fred Schneider" <fwschneider at comcast.net>
> To: <pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org>
> Sent: Tuesday, November 29, 2005 10:30 PM
> Subject: [PRCo] Re: Maintenance
>
>
>> The LA cars preserved at Perris testify to very impressive
>> maintenance practices.   At least when LARy or LATL people ran wires
>> under the cars, they ran them in flexible metal housings (I'm not
>> sure of the proper name).   Nothing was ever run unprotected.
>>
>> But different companies had different beliefs.   Some thought it was
>> cheaper to wait until something broke and then fix it.   Others
>> believed it was cheaper to spend the money to make certain that
>> nothing ever broke.    Certainly the latter was a good public
>> relations maneuver.  It also avoided accidents.    I'm not sure you
>> could tell which system was better unless you tried both under two
>> parallel and identical systems and there is no such thing.
>>
>> Interestingly, the LA stuff was always freshly painted.   It ran
>> well ... buses or cars.   And the people quit riding and bought
>> automobiles.
>>
>> The Pittsburgh cars were crap.   The schedules were lousy.   And the
>> people quit riding and bought automobiles.
>>
>> On Nov 29, 2005, at 4:19 PM, Boris Cefer wrote:
>>
>>> Several weeks back. I got some photos of 3001's underfloor  
>>> equipment.
>>>
>>> B
>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>> From: "Fred Schneider" <fwschneider at comcast.net>
>>> To: <pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org>
>>> Sent: Tuesday, November 29, 2005 3:29 PM
>>> Subject: [PRCo] Re: Maintenance
>>>
>>>
>>>> When did you look at it, Boris?  We do know a lot about it.   For
>>>> example, all of the car record cards for Los Angeles Railway / LATL
>>>> are at the museum in Perris.   If someone wants to look, and there
>>>> are those who have, we know precisely what was done.   Jim is
>>>> correct.   LATL's maintenance was superb ... among the best in the
>>>> nation and it was a National City Lines property to boot.
>>>>
>>>> On Nov 29, 2005, at 6:48 AM, Boris Cefer wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> The external appearance of the Los Angeles PCCs (and not only of
>>>>> them) was
>>>>> excellent, but we don't know much about the electrical and
>>>>> mechanical
>>>>> repairs and preventive maintenance. At least the electrical
>>>>> compartments of
>>>>> car 3001 preserved by OERM appear far better than PRCo 1138 these
>>>>> days. But
>>>>> there is a fact that Los Angeles did not and does not use salt to
>>>>> treat
>>>>> streets in winter.
>>>>>
>>>>> B
>>>
>>
>>
>
>