[PRCo] Re: Philly Route 15 on Opening Day by Phil Craig

[James B. Holland]

> From: Phil Craig <philgcraig204 at yahoo.com>
> Date: Mon, 5 Sep 2005 19:25:27 -0700 (PDT)
> Subject: [LRPPro] First Day of SEPTA's Reopened Route 15-Girard Avenue 
> Streetcar Line
>
> 1) About half of the scheduled service was being operated by 
> remanufactured PCC cars; the remainder was been run by 40-foot buses. 
> Route 15 timetables call for 20 minute headway's on Sundays, so there 
> were long waits between cars for those who wished to ride the PCCs 
> given the mixed mode operations. Buses and PCC cars seemed to be mixed 
> indiscriminately on the route, sometimes with two buses in a row being 
> followed by a PCC car; sometimes by alternating buses and PCC cars; 
> and sometimes by two PCC cars (one almost immediately behind the 
> other) followed by a bus after a long interval. About 5 or 6 PCC cars 
> seemed to be in service; another 9 or 10 were evident inside 
> three-track Bay 2 of Callowhill Depot. Whether the mixture of buses 
> and PCC cars being operated on Route 15 was the result of a deliberate 
> decision not to risk a total breakdown of streetcar service on 
> re-opening day or the result of not having a sufficient number of PCC 
> car qualified operators available on the three-day Labor Day weekend 
> was not clear.


This paragraph could be summed up by:       Buses and PCCs were operated 
on the line.       Because of many delays and the fact that buses can 
pass delayed vehicles, equipment displayed itself in random fashion.

> 2) There seemed to be little or no adherence to the printed timetable, 
> no doubt due to delays.
>
> 3) Twice during the day I saw service disruptions caused by PCC car 
> 2322 having experienced a dewirement of its trolley pole, the trolley 
> pole being pulled down by the car's trolley retriever, and then with 
> the motorman/operator finding that it was jammed and not being able to 
> obtain rope from it in order to raise the pole and restore the trolley 
> shoe to the trolley wire.


Trolley pole bases on PCC cars are generally located forward of the 
truck kingpin at a point above the forward axle of the rear truck  
(except the DCT cars which were shorter by one window.)       
*-Apparently-*  the pole base on the new  septic  PCC2 cars is directly 
over the kingpin  (and  *-apparently-*  this is to allow room for the 
roof monitor ahead of it)  and this Definitely changes the geometry of 
the TrolleyPole Overhead relationship  --  poles will have a difficult 
time following the correct wire at diverging frogs  I-F  the overhead 
wasn't modified for this PCC2 modification.       Frogs will need to be 
move closer to the track crossing frog and further from the point/mate  
--  curves will need to be pulled more toward the centerline of the 
curve and less toward the inside of same.


> the PCC car experienced a dewirement as it began to turn from 
> Lancaster onto Girard;....... Two SEPTA supervisors arrived at the 
> scene and began concentrating on unjamming the trolley retriever of 
> 2322, which they worked on for about 20 minutes or so before cutting 
> the rope about four feet from the pole, eventually yanking out enough 
> rope from the jammed retriever to allow the rope to be knotted and the 
> trolley pole raised back to the wire, after which the car was sent on 
> its way remaining in service. During this period, no attempt was made 
> to divert the second PCC car via Lancaster Avenue to 40th Street and 
> thence via the 40th Street trackage back to Girard, a move that would 
> have freed up Route 10 from the blockage.


The kawasaki cars have retrievers and apparently the PCC2 cars were 
outfitted with same although all the Philly PCCs originally had 
catchers.       Apparently they weren't working well as many dewirements 
were experienced  (probably because of TrolleyPole placement on the 
cars  --  please see above)  and poles would bounce around rather than 
retrieve.



Jim__Holland


I__Like__Ike.......And__PCCs!!

down with pantographs ---- UP___WITH___TROLLEYPOLES!!!!!!!