[PRCo] Re: Braking Systems

[Boris Cefer]

Didn't the 1700s have a drum brake signal light? The motorman had to notice
that. What was the practice of motorman training?

B

----- Original Message -----
From: "Fred Schneider" <fwschneider at comcast.net>
To: <pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org>
Sent: Wednesday, October 19, 2005 8:16 PM
Subject: [PRCo] Re: Braking Systems


> Yes.   Broken motor lead so the dynamic brakes failed.   Because they
> failed, all the motorman had was drum brakes.   He was young,
> inadequately trained, and didn't understand why he was sliding
> through all the stops on the way in that morning.   And the problem
> was compounded because PAT removed the timed derail at South Hills
> Junction .... had it been there, the car would probably have been on
> the ground at the top of the hill instead of slamming into the P&LE
> station.   But if memories are short and we can't remember that we
> had two previous runaways in the tunnel, well, you get the picture.
>
> On Oct 19, 2005, at 12:37 PM, Boris Cefer wrote:
>
> > Perhaps the most tragic story of a streetcar which lost its brakes
> > (well, in
> > the PCC era) was an accident of 1727 at Station square on 28th
> > October 1987.