[PRCo] Re: PTM__Equipment__Acquisition

[Fred Schneider]

1.    PTM did not exist when M-11 was around.   That was the  
Pittsburgh Electric Railway Club or the Pennsylvania Railway Museum  
Association.

2.    It was a club of men when the first cars were purchased.     
Some of the cars were purchased with personal money.    That was  
typical of many such organizations.   When Ed gets back home we'll  
have to ask him when PRMC was incorporated.    It didn't really  
become a true business venture until about ten years ago.

3.    Scrap prices were proportional to wages then as they are  
today.    Most cars in the late 1940s went to museums for $200 to  
$300.    Most members earned a whole lot less than a dollar an  
hour ...  I can't remember exactly but I think the minimum wage might  
have been somewhere around 50 cents an hour.   Maybe less.   A 3700  
would have cost more than the average car.   The guys couldn't afford  
a West Penn 700, so they couldn't buy a PRC 3700 either.

4.    Dave Hamley liked PCCs.   Always did.   M-11 was a bucket of  
rust.    It sat outside at Craft for years.  Then it sat outside at  
Tunnel.   Early PCCs had a canvas over plywood central roof  
section.   A lot of water got down inside the add racks.   I suspect  
the carlines and post caps were shot.   The general public can't tell  
the difference between 100 and 1138 let alone between 100 and a 1600  
and they keep us open.

5.   When I started at the Baltimore museum 17 years ago I had a lot  
of people who remembered semi-convertibles.   I have not had many  
lately who even remembered PCCs on the streets of Baltimore.   I get  
a lot of questions about why does it stay on the track, what makes it  
go, is that the engine (the air compressor) and parents who refer to  
it as a train or Thomas to their kids.   Like it or not, that's our  
world.....

On Oct 20, 2005, at 5:33 AM, James B. Holland wrote:

> Mark McGuire wrote:
> .
>
>
>> Including M11(100)?      I'm sure if some of those old cars were
>> around today, PTM would probably acquire M11, a 3800 series, and a  
>> low
>> 3700 interurban.      I would have really liked to have seen a 3800
>> series car in person.
>>
>> Mark
>>
>
> .
> B--I--G      discussion about this  *-Here-*  and Dave Hamley had
> article in Trolley Fare roundly trouncing PTM for not getting M0011
> (PCC  100.)       M0011 was on property well into the 1960s!!!!!!!
> Railfans of the 1940s--1950s  thought PCCs were buses and didn't want
> anything to do with them!       I Personally Distinctly Remember That!
> .
> Since PERC moved its first 3-cars to the museum site on 19540207,  I
> have often wondered why a Brill 3700 wasn't picked up  --  scrap  
> price!
> .
> .
> .
> .
> Jim__Holland
> .
> .
> I__Like__Ike.......And__PCCs!!
> .
> down with pantographs ---- UP___WITH___TROLLEYPOLES!!!!!!!
>
>
>