[PRCo] Re: Heaters

[Jim Holland]

TEP wrote:
.

> .......but the reality is that in cold weather passengers dress for it 
> -- as should the operator. 

.
Yes, Ops dress for cold weather but Do Not wear their overcoat while 
operating  --  sweater maybe, but not a jacket  --  too encumbering 
otherwise.       Even here in SF we have cab heat for op platform 
separate from car heater on all our equipment.
.
.

> The car takes a while to warm up and could be on the chilly side 
> between pulling out of the yard and getting warmed up by rush hour 
> passengers, it will be fine thereafter.

.
Not  At  All  Unlike the PCC  --  in South Hills, cars dragged the 
brakes down through the tunnel in the PM rush to warm them up and soon 
after they filled up with passengers.       A little different in the AM 
rush.
.
.

> There is nothing worse than being stuck in a sealed car with failed 
> air conditioning, shades of the 1700s that I frequently rode in the 
> Pittsburgh summers of the 1960s.

.
Can only remember one time when cold on a PCC in Pittsburgh in the 
winter, and that was the Drake trip with Charlie that I already 
related.       Can only remember one time in the summer when the heat 
got to me on a 17  --  was on my way to Grandparents house in Homewood 
in the latter 1950s, on the 88 outbound, someone had a portable radio 
and if I heard it Once I heard it Once Million Times  --  """50-million 
times a day, at home at work and on the way - everyone Loves Coca-Cola, 
everyone loves Coke!"""       I was getting light headed from the heat.
.
The 17s were My Favorite Car - on the Interurbans All The Time because 
that is what they ran - can only remember less than half dozen trips on 
a 16 on the Interurban, and most of them in  ({[pat]})  days.       If I 
knew a 17 was on some line I would sometimes wait for that car, esp. in 
the early days when the B2B trucks were intact on and functioning 
properly on City Cars  --  Absolutely  Heavenly  ride on the B2B.
.
Summer and Winter I would deliver the Sunday morning SnoozePapers As 
Early As Possible and then run out and get my Sunday Pass  --  I was 
usually on an inbound 42 by 6-AM and caught some of the pullouts for the 
Interurban - I would return home only for dinner and would then go back 
out until 10-PM in the school year and Much Later in the summer.       
Always enjoyed the ride and was very rarely uncomfortable because of 
heat or cold.
.
Not So San Francisco!       ALWAYS    cold on the PCCs here.       Baby 
Tens only had op heater and the draft over rode that.       Taped 
cardboard together which would fold nicely so I could spread it around 
the feet to my right  --  that helped.       11s not much better, even 
though they were ex-SLPS.       Heaters disconnected or needed reverser 
key to activate.       One group of Proposed PCCs for either MSR or Muni 
had    SCREENS    for the front windshield,   NOT   glass    ----    
that would be   Kewl   Literally at 40-mph down  OR  Up through the Twin 
Peaks Tunnel   (which was shut down from 08-AM til 10-PM Wednesday 
because of a derailment!!)
.
.
.
Jim___Holland