[PRCo] Re: Apology

[Fred Schneider]

When I wrote this I thought it was to John, who was trained as a  
motorman at PTM and who drove buses for CTA for several years when he  
was in college.   Then I notice it was to the group.   Should I  
change the address?  Well, there are several people on the list who  
have run air-brake cars.   And some others with an interest.  Why not  
just leave it on the list.   So here are the instructions for running  
a hand brake car....

When Dick Lloyd was still living, Baltimore used to send a cadre of  
instructors to Branford and Seashore every so often just to train  
motormen on hand brake cars.   That's fallen by the way side.

But it really isn't difficult:

1.   You let the car tell you what to do.   On double truck cars, the  
car will try to unwind the brake on a curve.   You let it unless you  
like rerailing the car.  Then when you come out of the curve, you  
take the slack out of the brakes again. Note that I said double-truck  
cars.  This happens because the twisting trucks stretch the brake  
linkage.  Two axle cars do not exhibit this same tendency.

2.   You always run with the slack out of the brakes so you can stop  
as fast as possible.

3.    You adjust the slack so you are leaning on the handle and not  
pulling on it when you come to a stop.   Adjustment is done by  
working the ratchet against the dog.   Once you adjust it, you can  
run the whole trip without changing it.

4.   On a double-end car (and in that era there was no other kind),  
you need two people to change ends.   One to undog the hand brake at  
one end and the motorman at the new end to wind it up.    That is why  
West Penn welded those stops on the rail head when they got rid of  
the conductors.   (For those unfamiliar ... West Penn had many lines  
ending on hills.  The track department welded stops on the rail  
heads.  The motorman would pull up to the stop, and then release the  
hand brake.  Then he could go to the other end of the car.)

5.   You don't unwind a hand brake, it will unwind itself.  You  
unwind it and you may end up with the brake chain unraveled.   Reread  
first sentence item 1.   You pull power and then just let the brake  
unwind.  This is the biggest problem for air-brake people.  REPEAT.    
YOU DON'T REALLY NEED TO UNWIND A BRAKE.  JUST LET IT PULL OFF OF ITS  
OWN ACCORD.

6.   Nothing else to say.   Hand brakes are absolutely the most  
simple mechanism every devised for a street car and the easiest for a  
man to learn.   Only one problem ... when the lad chases the foot  
ball into the street in front of you car, it you damn well better be  
running with all the slack out and you best have a really fast arm.    
It won't work like dynamics on a PCC.   But then operating speeds in  
those days were not quite as high.

On Oct 19, 2005, at 8:17 AM, John Swindler wrote:

>
>
> Falls into the category, Fred, that we are both 'preaching to the  
> choir'.
> <g>
>
> John
>
>
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>> From: Fred Schneider <fwschneider at comcast.net>
>> Reply-To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
>> To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
>> Subject: [PRCo] Re: Apology
>> Date: Tue, 18 Oct 2005 16:46:30 -0400
>>
>> 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:
>>
>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>> Fred Schneider commented:
>>>>
>>>> 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.
>>>>
>>>> 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.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> And the New Orleans and Philly cars (at PTM) are two-motor steel
>>> cars with
>>> K-type controllers.
>>>
>>> With an apology for being biased.
>>>
>>> John
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>> On Oct 18, 2005, at 12:44 AM, Mark McGuire wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>   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."
>>>>>
>>>>> But the car is no way ready for service.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> fws
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>>
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