[PRCo] Re: PCC being towed

[Fred Schneider]

They had their proponents and their detractors.   Maybe one of the  
chief arguments against them was the expense of physically removing  
the commutator controller from the car in order to work on it while  
work on the Westinghouse unit could largely be done in place.   As a  
young man, I don't know that I could ever recall any difference  
between a GE or a Westinghouse car if I rode them with my eyes closed.

The G. E. cars were the first to go in Pittsburgh but many managers  
would have done the same when confronted with a 1 to 3 equipment  
split and and a need to keep either 75 of one type and 25 of another  
or 100 of one type given that a few of them might be four years  
older.....   I don't think the early disappearance of the GE 1600s  
and 1700s related to any overwhelming fault in their design but more  
simply a need to get a handle on maintenance.     Might have been  
easier to have a few compressor to maintain than a few cars with GE  
KM units.

I once asked the shop foreman for SEPTA at 3rd and Wyoming which he  
thought was better, G. E. or Westinghouse and he favored G. E.   Then  
I counted the cars in the shop and found 60 percent were G. E.   
cars.   Maybe he liked them because of job security or maybe it was  
just an off day.

Shaker Heights was fond of G. E. because if they had a problem, an  
engineer from Erie would be in Cleveland within a day.



On Oct 30, 2005, at 11:06 AM, Boris Cefer wrote:

> Ja ja!
>
> Do you have any personal experience (worse) with GE equipped units?
>
> B
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Fred Schneider" <fwschneider at comcast.net>
> To: <pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org>
> Sent: Sunday, October 30, 2005 2:31 PM
> Subject: [PRCo] Re: PCC being towed
>
>
>
>> And it wasn't even equipped by G. E.
>>
>> Reminds me of the day we were having trouble in east Berlin with a
>> rental Ford that really had other intentions than running.   Getting
>> that car to work was sort of like asking your teenager to do his
>> homework.  I was trying to get it to start when a native came up,
>> looked at this modern machine and quipped, "Es ist kaput and es ist
>> nicht nur ein Traubi!"
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>> (It's broken and it isn't even a Trabant.)
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>> On Oct 30, 2005, at 6:55 AM, Boris Cefer wrote:
>>
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>>> Content-Type: text/plain;
>>>     charset="iso-8859-2"
>>> Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
>>>
>>> The attachment shows something unfrequent - a PCC being towed by  
>>> an =
>>> another PCC. Perhaps the salty slush got in one of its motors. I
>>> haven't =
>>> seen any picture like this one before. One would expect failed PCC
>>> to be =
>>> pushed to a nearby loop or spur track to wait there for one of the
>>> tow =
>>> cars.
>>>
>>> B
>>>
>>>
>>> -- Attached file removed by Ecartis and put at URL below --
>>> -- Type: application/octet-stream
>>> -- Size: 93k (95801 bytes)
>>> -- URL : http://lists.dementia.org/files/pittsburgh-railways/1757% 
>>> 20towed.jpg
>>>
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