[PRCo] Re: Interurban Accidents

[Fred Schneider]

1.   Yes       2.    Yes      3.    Is it possible to put over 100  
vehicles out for 20 hours a day for 50 years without serious  
accidents?   I don't think so.   The reason why  both West Penn and  
Pittsburgh Railways went respectively from a very sedate green paint  
and a maroon paint to a more flamboyant orange livery was simply to  
close the stable door after the horse escaped.

One of the most serious on the Pittsburgh interurbans was a headon  
collision ca. 1937 at Brookside.   Ed Lybarger probably has a better  
memory than I do but I think there was a fatality in that one.

The most common accidents involved motorists who allowed themselves  
insufficient time to cross the tracks before the trolley got there.

Once in a while the motorman got caught with his pants down too.  I  
have one print of a PRC 1700 being changed out at Charleroi for a  
fresh car after the motorman apparently ran into the rear end of a  
truck ... the impression of the truck's open tail gate is all the way  
across the front of the streetcar.    In this case it is probable  
that the trolley's brakes failed to work .........................in  
the distance allocated.   Why am I being so cynical?  It was a brand  
new streetcar and the builder had 14 years experience churning out  
PCCs by that time.

Jerry:   I've told this story many times and it deserves telling  
again.  Railroading in any form is hazardous.  If you stick around  
long enough, you will be involved in a bad accident.   One night in  
1970 I was riding on an Erie-Lackawanna Gladstone Branch local ...  
illegally up front with the engineman from Gladstone into Summit,  
NJ.   Some how we got on the discussion of accidents.  Doesn't matter  
how now.  He told me about his "first" fatal accident, and how he had  
gotten into Hoboken, gone into the trainmaster's office and reported  
all the details.  The man said he would probably have quit right then  
except that his boss politely reminded him that he was marked up for  
a trip due out in fifteen minutes and he has best me on it.   At that  
point he went on to stay that he did not know a single engineman in  
suburban service on the EL working out of Hoboken that had not been  
involved in a fatal accident.   He had already had three different  
ones.    The worst case scenario was a Pennsy or Penn Central man  
working out of Paoli who had three separate fatalities in one week  
that left him a basket case.   He finished his career in the shop as  
a gofer.   These men were working in some of the worst possible  
areas ... suburban neighborhoods where kids would short cut across  
the tracks and right of way fences would be cut down as fast as the  
railroad erected them.

Before the railroad safety act (I think it might after been 1893) and  
before the railroaders began to take it seriously (sometime in the  
early 1900s) accidents happened constantly.  Newspapers used to use  
stringers instead of salaried reporters.  The Lancaster New Era's  
stringer in Columbia in 1902 had a pipe line right into the Pennsy  
enginehouse in that borough.  They must have reported an accident  
every other day of one kind or another ... men falling off the roofs  
of cars, men falling off and being chopped up by passing trains,  
pedestrians being chewed up, the hostler working the fire on an  
engine while mechanics were working in the smokebox, in went on and  
on and on.   It is actually incredibly tame today even though there  
are still workers out there who constantly violate safety rules.

I wish I had some distance charts handy to read off how fast you can  
stop a rail car ... I'm going to have to make some rough  
calculations.  And remember, when I do, that you can stop your auto  
in less than 300 feet on snow.

A PCC in emergency on dry rail from full speed:  4.4 seconds or about  
80 feet plus reaction time.

A PCC normal service stop on dry rail from full speed about 9  
sections or 160 feet

A PCC from a normal sedate 25 mph on a city street ... less than 100  
feet (perhaps 4 times the distance you can stop your car).

A New Orleans 900 in emergency on dry rail from 27 mph ...  about 17  
excruciating seconds at a rate of 1.6 miles per hour per second.   
You'll eat up about 220 feet plus reaction time.   (I picked 27  
because I know it will do that much because a friend clocked me with  
global sat navigation.   In reality you probably will not be running  
much over 20 miles per hour with such a car. )

Now remember it becomes worse on snow, rain, black rail, new rail  
that doesn't have the same profile as the wheels, cars with new brake  
shoes that don't match the wheel profiles, and so forth.

Now you figure out what the chances are when the kid chases the ball  
into the street.....

And, as the two people on this list who are in the business can tell  
you, the man makes a big difference too.  I remember 40 years ago  
when I worked for a predecessor of Yellow Freight, a man who had a  
safe driving patch on his coat for not having a single accident in 25  
years.  And then I recall another man with the same company who  
managed to have one every month, mostly as a vendetta against the  
company.    It takes all kinds.

fws



On Sep 24, 2005, at 7:55 PM, <mtoytrain at bellsouth.net> wrote:

> Gentlemen
>
> i enjoyed all the comments to my question concerning fares on  
> interurbans and basically in the
> Pittsburgh area.
>
> My question now is, on the two interurban routes, Charleroi and  
> Washington in the history of operation of these two routes were  
> there any major accidents??
>
> While we are at it, on the scenice  bridge oriented West Penn where  
> there any major accidents.
>
> I enjoy all the comments from everyone and look forward to these!
>
> Jerry Matsick
> Jax, Fl
>
>
>