[PRCo] Re: Fwd: Re: OT Boston

[Derrick J Brashear]

On Fri, 27 Apr 2007, Fred Schneider wrote:

> 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

That's odd, because I approved it and it's in the archive about 8 messages 
before this one :)

> 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
>>
>>
>>
>>
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