[PRCo] Re: Maintenance

[Fred Schneider]

Good point.    The only one I remember was a GE 1100 that failed on  
Perrysville Avenue and a supervisor's truck was being used to push it  
into the wye at Charles Street so the next outbound could push it  
back to Keating.   That was 1958.     My memories of PRC were limited  
when I was old enough to remember what was happening, i.e. after I  
became a teenager.   At that time we went back to Pittsburgh for one  
week every Easter during which I roamed all over the city.   My last  
year of that was 1958; then I had one week in town on leave from the  
army in 1959.   There were also a few isolated periods ... funerals  
and the like in 1952 and 1953.   And like Jim points out, I too never  
saw car failures.   Paint work was fair but even the yellow cars were  
not too bad because there was a rash of painting in the late 1940s.    
The real paint collapse came in the early 1960s ... why fix anything  
when the politicians are talking about taking your empire away from you?

I think it also deserves to be pointed out that when the steel mills  
belch out sulfur dioxide in smoke, that turns to dilute sulfuric acid  
in rain.   The environment was not exactly conducive to keeping  
things looking nice.

On Nov 30, 2005, at 2:49 PM, James B. Holland wrote:

> Fred Schneider wrote:
> .
>
>> ...Charles Schauck... Charley was the Superintendent of Power and
>> Inclines for PRCo from the early 1950s to the end. ...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 Aids (bandages) on things that didn't  
>> work.
>> I remember another conversation about a court case between a former
>> family member and PRCo ... 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 PRCo
>> didn't spend a lot of money. There simply wasn't a lot of money to  
>> spend.
>
> .
> I do Not remember tow jobs in PRCo days  --  Maybe One  --  (Doesn't
> mean they Didn't happen)    ----    but I do remember such under
> ({[pat.]})       Do remember some PRCo cars being dead headed to the
> barn for maintenance  --  torque arm front truck, right side snapped
> --  trolley poles damaged and replaced would be sent in out of  
> service 
> to have them trued up officially so the wheel would sit square on the
> overhead  --  equipment Moved in PRCo days with only traffic causing
> delays.       It would be quite unusual for a PRCo problem to cause  
> delays.
> .
> The biggest PRCo delay I remember is when the car derailed at Bon Air
> outbound one Sunday early 1960s, Mother's Day  --  caused a
> reroute.       But PRCo handled this extremely well  --  I watched the
> shenanigans at the derailed car for a bit but recognized I wasn't
> *-riding-*  so walked back to SHJ where I caught a Drake car to
> substitute for the derailed one that had already been sent around
> downtown!!       We traveled the 38 to 38A then on to Drake  --  same
> motorman as 1645(?) which was in the cornfield meet with 1261 on 38A
> some time late 1963 or a little later.
> .
> .
> .
>
>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>> From: "Fred Schneider" <fwschneider at comcast.net>
>>>
>>>
>>>> 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........
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>>>> From: "Fred Schneider" <fwschneider at comcast.net>
>>>>>
>>>>>> 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.
>>>>>
>
>
>
>
> Jim__Holland
>
>
> I__Like__Ike.......And__PCCs!!
>
> down with pantographs ---- UP___WITH___TROLLEYPOLES!!!!!!!
>
>