[PRCo] Re: Pittsburgh 1200 models

[Fred Schneider]

I cannot answer your last paragraph.   Never saw the video.   I'm not  
into route cards this morning.    I should be into income tax this  
morning as soon as I can get to breakfast.

Would seem strange that Bedford would be a discretionary rider line  
but by 1940 PRC was filling in holes on lines that didn't already  
have PCCs and making downtown look like the company had more PCCs  
than it did.    It didn't take many cars to completely do that one  
line and make the company look like they had a lot more cars than  
they did.   Advertising?    But there were still a lot of lines that  
didn't have them and didn't come into downtown ... 12, 17, 62, 1, 21,  
59, 63, 28, 61, 98, 78, 96, 38A, and note that 22 Crosstown was still  
at Manchester and didn't get PCCs until it moved up to Herron Hill  
and the 1400s arrived in 1942.    Might also have been a nice way to  
make the Blacks feel that the Railways Company was doing something  
for them.    Its one of those things that never really gets into the  
board minutes ... all you would ever see is "we decided to do it."     
May be something so simple as they had 12 cars they could spare and  
they could do a full car house with them!

The crawling under a car to release the brakes makes sense on a  
hill.  None of us would want to do that on a 9% grade even if the car  
did have chocks behind all four wheels of the downhill leading axle  
of each truck.   That goes back to 50% of most decisions are  
flawed....  Someone never thought the process through before signing  
the order in the purchasing department.

On Apr 3, 2006, at 3:32 AM, Holland Electric Rwy. Op. H.E.R.O. --  
Import SPTC 1.48 Models // James B. Holland wrote:

> One would assume brakes were good upon purchase  --  experience  
> with 10s
> and 11s was probably quite positive but experience with 12s may have
> taught otherwise.       At delivery, 1200 series PCCs wheel tread  
> brake
> shoes were   <Spring__Applied>   Air--Released    ----    opposite of
> the Standard Of The Day!       To release the brakes for a Push / Tow
> job it was necessary to climb partway under the car    ----    that  
> also
> helped to ban the cars on lines with steeper grades.
>
> Additionally,  we have been told that  PRCo  preferred to send PCCs  
> out
> to Lines With Discretionary Riders First to attract them    ----
> others didn't have a choice and had to ride.       Seems strange  
> that 85
> Bedford would be a Discretionary Rider Line!       And, of course,  
> that
> was my observation when I wrote you about the 1941 John Prophet 16mm
> <color>   movies put to video in   <PCC__Trilogy>    ----    I was  
> able
> to identify not a few of these lines from the video, including the 85
> specifically.
>
> How do we account for 12s on Liberty between 6th and 5th heading
> opposite the flow of line 85  --  these were in the video?
>
>
>
> Fred Schneider wrote:
> .
>
>> For those buying a 1200 Pittsburgh Model from Jim Holland, here is a
>> carbarn assignment list for
>> that series circa January 1941:
>>
>> 1200-1211 and 1233-1240 Tunnel
>> 38 MT LEBANON
>> +39 BROOKLINE
>> +40 MT WASHINGTON
>> +42 DORMONT
>> +46 BROWNSVILLE
>>
>> 1212-1220 Herron Hill
>> +85 BEDFORD
>> (22 did not get PCCs until 1400s)
>>
>> 1221-1232 and 1245-1274 Homewood
>> +60 E. LBTY - 62ND ST,
>> +87 ARDMORE
>> 88 FRANKSTOWN
>>
>> 1241-1244 and 1279-1299 Ingram
>> +26 WEST PARK
>> +31 CRAFTON-INGRAM
>> +34 SHERIDAN-INGRAM
>>
>> 1275-1278 Keating
>> +8 PERRYSVILLE
>> 10 WEST VIEW
>> 15 BELLEVUE-WEST VIEW
>>
>> The plus (+) sign is indicative of a route added when the 1200s were
>> delivered to the carbarn.     The other routes listed already had  
>> PCCs
>> as a result of the deliveries of 1000 or 1100 series cars.     The
>> names shown are not necessarily indicative of the exact spelling of
>> the front and side destination signs at the time the 1200s were first
>> placed in service but it is a reasonably complete list of how to have
>> your 1200 painted by Leonid.
>>
>> There are, in my mind, two important anomalies here. One is that
>> everyone has told me the brakes on the 1200s were horrible yet one of
>> the worst grades on the system was one block on route 85 Bedford and
>> yet that line got PCC cars of the 1200 series in 1940.
>> Interestingly, I also saw No. 1600 running on that line in 1953  
>> and it
>> was a drum brake car. The other curious situation is that Ingram was,
>> in 1940, a mixed GE and Westinghouse barn.
>
>
>
>
> Jim__Holland
>
>
> I__Like__Ike.......And__PCCs!!
>
> down with pantographs ---- UP___WITH___TROLLEYPOLES!!!!!!!
>
>