[PRCo] Re: PTM__Equipment__Acquisition

[James B. Holland]

Fred Schneider wrote:

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



PicNickIng  --  it's the organization in general and PTM is how we know 
it today.



NOT  faulting anyone nor any organization  --  just making observations.



I am thankful for what is preserved but have Often Stated Here that we 
put too much emphasis on preservation of  THINGS  (yes, TrolleyCars)  
when Our Own Lives will definitely terminate!       How many of us 
support Cancer Research, Heart Research, Etc.???????       But We have 
to preserve it  (TrolleyCars)  for future generations  --  
Baloney!!!!!!!       Bologna!!!!!!!       At some point we Are Literally 
Pouring Money into a Rust Bucket to keep it around  --  where does that 
end?       At some point we are putting up good money after bad as the 
saying goes  --  if that saying is good for other aspects of life, why 
not TrolleyCars?

The aspect of TrolleyCar museums that interests me is the archives  --  
Ed's department.       I personally experienced a good portion of PRCo  
--  have vivid memories of same  --  museum TrolleyCars are nowhere near 
that experience.       But delving into the archives gives greater 
depths to the personal experience on PRCo  --  so that is where my 
interest lies.


> 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.


Very Interesting summation.       I liked the club aspect  --  do not 
like the business angle  --  that's when RailFans are maligned  --  it 
was a railfan club that started this in the first place but they end up 
being maligned.       ALL  here are railfans  --  one may not like the 
association but  WE  Fit the definition.       A Rose by Any Other 
Name..............


> 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.


I definitely understand their predicament then  --  many couldn't afford 
color film either!       Interesting How and Why History plays out.


> 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.


DO   NOT   Care about what general public likes and can or cannot 
discern  --  but that goes back to my liking of  PERC  as a club and not 
a business.


> 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.....


Then it is possible that such museums are now nearing their geriatric 
years.       Everything gets old and worn out - even organizations.


> 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!!!!!!!