[PRCo] Re: Russian___PCCs

[Boris Cefer]

And now, imagine that we had to listen Russian (Soviet) specialists for +/-
40 years how to do various things! With some problems we usually managed to
follow our own way. Fortunately, it is behind us. Now we copy Americans.

B

----- Original Message -----
From: "Fred Schneider" <fwschneider at comcast.net>
To: <pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org>
Sent: Monday, October 24, 2005 4:34 PM
Subject: [PRCo] Re: Russian___PCCs


> From the list of Russian pictures that Jim provided, look closely at
> this photo guys.   Note how the belt rail floats up and down with
> reckless abandon like a dingy on a rough sea.
>
> Bruce Bente and I had the privilege of seeing the car assembly
> factory in St. Petersburg, Russia about 18 months ago.   Bruce
> questioned why different cars going to the same city had different
> shades of red paint on them.   Our host looked at the cars, pondered
> the question for a minute, and then remarked very simply with a shrug
> of his shoulders, "It's Russia."
>
> That could be an equally good answer for why the car is as crooked as
> a dog's hind leg.   They were still building cars in a manner we used
> in the United States a hundred years ago.   A frame was built from
> scratch  ... no standard jigs ... just a metric rule and a
> square.         Then once the frame was assembled, several guys would
> unroll steel from a large roll, cut it off, tack weld it to the
> frame, and then trim it.   Each car came out a little different.
> And this photo shows the ultimate example of different.  (Maybe that
> is why they like outside hanging doors ... easier than trying to cut
> doors to fill erratic sized openings.)
>
> We used to do the same thing here.   If you go back to the really old
> cars ... lets use the 1900 convertible in the Baltimore Streetcar
> Museum as an example, each window is numbered to make certain the car
> house crew puts it back in the right opening when fall comes.
>
> By the time we got to the PCC, we built cars with jigs and the end
> result was a car that was probably correct in length down  perhaps
> 1/8 of an inch ... whatever error you might have when you weld the
> different components together.   That is no where near true with
> "modern" Russian cars.
>
> I have some very curious pictures at the factory.   One is a staff of
> five planting flowers in front of the administration building.   It
> presents a wonderful view to those passing by on the street.   Then
> there is the test track that you cannot find because of the weeds
> that are a foot high.   And finally, you need to see the urinal in
> the men's room in the factory with the broken drain, which drains on
> your shoes and then runs across the floor to the central floor
> drain.   "It's Russia."
> Yes, I photographed it too!     And I photographed trolleys unable to
> go through intersections because motorists have an inalienable right
> to cut them off.   And there was this line to check into the
> hotel ... they knew we were coming ... it was the CERA group ... but
> we still had to stand in a 30 minute line to check in, and then
> another 30 minute line to get the room key.   That got you in a roof
> with cast iron pipes and rusty water ... actually a class A hotel for
> westerners.
>
> It was so nice to get to Helsinki afterwards.