[PRCo] Re: Pittsburgh Railways Motorwoman story

[Jim Holland]

Fred Schneider wrote:
.
> I would like to see an hour by hour explanation ... nay five minutes 
> by five minutes ... of the training. Bus and car. If you could 
> remember it all. It would be a very interesting item to put into the 
> archives at PTM.
>
> I think it would be important to show what was taught and how you 
> think you felt about the information you were given.
>
> And then what was it like when you got on a car with a mentor operator?
>
> And what was it like when you were there on your own?

.
Cheeze Whiz!       I did that several years later than Herb and can't 
remember a thing about minute to minute training.
.
.
.

> How long did it take to feel that you had really passed the test and 
> graduated from being a bus driver to a bus operator? By that I mean 
> how many days were on you on the job when it occurred to you were no 
> longer struggling to make change, follow the route and keep a schedule 
> until day you simply realized that everything had clicked into place 
> and it was no longer an effort? (I'm assuming that they day happened 
> or you wouldn't still be doing it.)

.
({[pat]})   was Exact Fare only in those days  --  that started some 
time in the 1960s  --  same for Muni after an op was killed for his 
change.       In fact, on Muni, it started As Soon As The Op Was Killed 
for his money  --  they went around that night and collected the money 
from everyone and it was Exact Change from that moment forward.
.
The Very First PCC I operated in SF was 1023, a sister of sorts to PRCo 
1700--1724 in that both had B3 trucks.        I was the first in my 
class to operate a PCC and I felt as if I had Always been doing that  
--  it felt perfectly natural.       But then I had been running my HO 
models using home made 3-pedal system hooked up to a transistorized 
throttle which had momentum  http://tinyurl.com/qqm5e  --  hit the brake 
and the car gradually slowed - same for acceleration  --  floor the 
pedal and you got the fastest rate of acceleration but it took time to 
build up speed!
.
Same on the streets  --  felt perfectly natural operating a PCC  --  
felt as thought I had been doing that All My Life!       While I was in 
training Hal Blatch  (my line trainer on the M-Ocean View which operates 
sardine cans to SF State)  wrote on my student form at the end of the 
day:::::::       """Able to maintain a schedule on a triple headway.""" 
      First I Knew that my 2 leaders were missing all day!!!       
Didn't like handling buses but was able so to do.
.
.
.
Jim___Holland