[PRCo] Re: Apology

[Fred Schneider]

I'm not sure what you were saying John, other than they are older.    
My comment would be that two motor, K-control cars are 1) easier on  
the power bill, 2) easier for neophyte mechanics to understand, and  
3) much easier to service because most of the routine oiling points  
and service points are easily reached.   The only cars I can think of  
that would be easier to keep running would be hand-brake cars.    
Lamentably, most museums shun them because they have only one in a  
field of air brake cars (such as Branford's former Wildwood NJ open  
car) in a field of air-brake cars and most operators really don't  
understand them.   I remember a comment from an Arden trained man  
when he first ran a hand brake car in Baltimore, "This is the  
original self-lapping brake valve."

On Oct 18, 2005, at 1:10 PM, John Swindler wrote:

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>> Fred Schneider commented:
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>> You want a cool car in the summer?   Try the New Orleans or Philly
>> cars ... windows open completely at both ends making them wind
>> tunnels.   You won't find anything better until a museum tries to
>> maintain an all-electronic, air-conditioned ex Philly Kawasaki car.
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>> Unless the heat dampers are working properly, an air-PCC will not be
>> cool in the summer.   They have to properly close off the body from
>> the resistors and allow all the heat to be blown outside.  If you
>> want to run PCCs in museums, you need a good mechanical staff.
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> And the New Orleans and Philly cars (at PTM) are two-motor steel  
> cars with
> K-type controllers.
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> With an apology for being biased.
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> John
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>> On Oct 18, 2005, at 12:44 AM, Mark McGuire wrote:
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>>>   I wish it were ready for service. It would be nice to have a  
>>> pre-war
>>> Pittsburgh PCC in service at PTM, especially during the heat of
>>> summer.  I'll settle for a double-end low floor car though. ;>)
>>> Can't wait to see the finished product.
>>>
>>> -- Fred Schneider <fwschneider at comcast.net> wrote:
>>> An open apology to Boris:
>>>
>>> Boris:
>>>
>>> You asked when the trolley pole was on 1138 and I quipped "sometime
>>> in 1937."   I didn't recall that anything had been done to get the
>>> car ready for service.   And for the most part, it is still sitting
>>> in service bay of the new "Trolley Display Building" in the same
>>> condition that it was in when it came back from Elmira.   But the
>>> pole is on it.   I asked the guy who put it back on and he does not
>>> remember when he put it back on.   "Sometime in the winter of
>>> 2001-2002 or maybe 2002-2003."
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>>> But the car is no way ready for service.
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>>> fws
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