[PRCo] Re: PRCo-__-San--Diego__Connection??????????????????

[Fred Schneider]

I find these statements, "added to someone else's order"  
bewildering.    The second San Diego order was job 1611.   The  
Pittsburgh 1100s were job 1610.   The 1100s had a one piece  
destination sign glass.   All San Diego cars, including the 526-528  
allegedly added onto job 1610 had a two piece sign glass.

In 1937, the economy of the United States was running at about 70% of  
capacity or maybe less.     There was an story my dad uttered more  
than once (and I suspect many of your parents said the same thing):  
"We were not really out of the Depression until World War II  
began."    There was a slight upturn in 1937 but even in 1940 we had  
severe unemployment in the industrialized cities.   I put something  
on line some time ago showing how bad it was in Pennsylvania in the  
census period in 1940 ... remember some of the coal counties still  
had 30% unemployment, Pittsburgh was in the 20s.    While St. Louis  
Car was doing well on PCC cars, I'm sure they would have been more  
than happy to churn out three more cars.   I'm certain if you ask for  
one car, they would have been happy to build it in 1937 although  
there may have been a waiting period.   Pullman's Osgood-Bradley  
plant or Brill probably would have bent over backwards and kissed  
your proverial rear end just to built one car in 1937.    So  ...   
I'm having a lot of trouble with the words adding onto the Pittsburgh  
order.    St. Louis had a succession of orders for PCC cars right up  
to World War II.   It would have simply been a matter of when can we  
squeeze in your three bodies, and get six B2 trucks out of Clark, and  
get WABCO to build a compressor, and get Westinghouse to supply the  
majority of the electrical equipment, and get GE to send us three  
gang switches, and so forth.   I think all it amounted to was  
scheduling.   And it didn't take three to five years like it does today.


On Aug 19, 2006, at 6:20 AM, Jim Holland wrote:

> http://206.103.49.193/sdgo/htm/sdgo002.htm  --  haven't bothered to
> check PCC books yet  --  anyone know if what the photo caption says is
> true???????
>
>
>