[PRCo] Re: Pittsburgh Railways Motorwoman story

[Fred Schneider]

Here in Lancaster, Pennsylvania the exact fare scheme came in sort of  
gradually.   The big cities were doing it but we still didn't  
understand crime.   Drugs were something you read about ... something  
you associated with Philadelphia or Baltimore.   So when Lancaster  
went to exact fare it was done by reducing the change fund the  
drivers carried and by asking them to hide it in their money box.     
Riders were asked to have exact change but drivers were still told to  
make change if the customer didn't have it.    It went on that way  
for a year or more before they money changers completely disappeared.

On Aug 7, 2006, at 6:36 PM, Jim Holland wrote:

> 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
>
>
>