[PRCo] Fwd: Re: OT Boston

[Fred Schneider]

I saw this message in my name but I didn't see the cc come through to  
the list, probably because Russ is not a member of this list and  
because Derrick didn't review it and forward it.    In the time that  
I've know Jackson, he has been employed by Louis T Klauder (today's  
LTK), then by SEPTA, and now part time by STVINC and partly  
retired.   He was responsible for the design of the Kawasaki surface  
cars for SEPTA and the N5 cars in spite of a lot of meddling which  
probably made them turn not quite the way he wanted them.   He is one  
of the people today who understands railway engineering in this  
country and how screwed up it is.

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Russell E Jackson <russell.jackson at stvinc.com>
> Date: April 27, 2007 11:57:34 AM EDT
> To: Fred Schneider <fwschneider at comcast.net>, boriscefer at yahoo.com
> Cc: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
> Subject: [PRCo] Re: OT Boston
> Reply-To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
>
> Boris - Fred is basically correct as to the legal issues, although  
> you will
> find opening windows on a number of other cars, particularly in San
> Francisco.  We know that FWS is always on a soap box.  But I think  
> it is
> still sensible to air condition the cars.  You cannot have them be  
> the only
> not air conditioned part of the fleet.  It is not a museum.  As for  
> the
> wheels, I seem to remember that the issue was bad ground shunts,  
> with the
> possibility of not shunting the signal circuits.  (Another badly  
> managed
> outfit in Philly had many cars operating with broken shunts.)   It  
> is said
> that there were several instances of this, which brought the Public
> Utilities Commission into the picture.  In a typical Boston stupid
> decision, they got rid of the resilient wheels.  They disappeared  
> on the
> CTA because they were using only the D-1 wheel, and cracks were  
> occurring
> in the welded back plates, and the manufacturer had left the  
> business and
> had no interest in improving the design.  I cannot say I know why a
> different wheel design such as the SAB was not considered, except  
> that back
> then they were not in the US market at all.  So it was easy (and  
> cheaper)
> to change to the solid wheels.  The wheel life in those light cars  
> was so
> long that they lasted from one truck overhaul to the next, so there  
> was no
> great change in maintenance costs.   Kashin says that one Brooklyn  
> car was
> tested with the SAB wheels, but there is no picture or document  
> proof that
> I know of.  Possibly at SAB in the archives.  Or in a Kashin box  
> somewhere.
>
> Russ Jackson
>
>
>
>
>
>
>