[PRCo] Re: What a Minute...

[Fred Schneider]

We simply need to understand that this was a private company,  
separated by 1950 from the Philadelphia Company, totally dependent on  
fares for revenue.   Furthermore they were operating in a political  
climate that could, in its best sense, be described as adversarial.    
If PRC did anything to make money, such as investing money in other  
areas (gasoline stations on its property, for example), the city came  
down on them like a ton of bricks because that might increase the  
condemnation costs to the city.    There was nada that PRC could do  
that was correct in the city's eyes.   And the Pittsburgh Post  
Gazette didn't make life easy either; they habitually showed Charles  
Palmer frowning.

I'm afraid, Boris, that you you are attempting to compare what you  
saw in your youth in Europe with Pittsburgh.   What was run as a  
communist or socialist venture for the good of the party and the  
needs of the public.   The other was operated to squeeze the last  
ounces of money out of a system on behalf of the investors and  
subject to state regulators.  The goals and operations are totally  
different and cannot be compared.

Under those conditions, it was a miracle that the cars ran at all.

On Jun 12, 2006, at 12:37 PM, Boris Cefer wrote:

> They also did not waste money on wiring cosmetic. They simply laid  
> a fluff
> of wires.
>
> B
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Fred Schneider" <fwschneider at comcast.net>
> To: <pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org>
> Sent: Sunday, June 11, 2006 11:19 PM
> Subject: [PRCo] Re: What a Minute...
>
>
>> They also repaired the cars; they simply did not waste money on body
>> cosmetics.   In general, PRC cars ran pretty well and suffered few in
>> service breakdowns.
>>
>> On Jun 11, 2006, at 2:41 PM, Boris Cefer wrote:
>>
>>> They did, but did not repair the cars!
>>>
>>> Do you have more?
>>>
>>> B
>>>
>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>> From: "Ken & Tracie" <ktjosephson at earthlink.net>
>>> To: <pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org>
>>> Sent: Sunday, June 11, 2006 8:35 PM
>>> Subject: [PRCo] What a Minute...
>>>
>>>
>>>> ...I thought somebody said they never repaired the tracks. ;-)
>>>> K.
>
>