[PRCo] Re: Cleaning

[Fred Schneider]

In a publication advertising its PCCs, which I think might have been  
called Gitty Up and Go, one side of which showed PCCs and the other  
side showed older pictures, probably which was released about 1940,  
they talked about car washers being installed at all the car houses  
to keep the new cars clean.

We have an earlier picture that shows a yellow car at what I believe  
to be Rankin going through a spray washer without brushes.   I think  
the brushes were new to the PCCs because they would not have worked  
well on the window guards on the older cars.    They would have had  
to have been washed by hand with sponges and then rinsed.   The  
window guards would have had to have been unpined and swung down to  
do the glass.

On Aug 21, 2007, at 2:32 AM, Boris Cefer wrote:

> Yes, thanks, you did. But the original location of the washer at  
> Tunnel is
> still a mystery.
>
> B
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Fred Schneider" <fwschneider at comcast.net>
> To: <pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org>
> Sent: Tuesday, August 21, 2007 12:44 AM
> Subject: [PRCo] Re: Cleaning
>
>
>> Which year?   During the PCC era they used revolving brushes at each
>> carbarn.    Hand labor has used for the ends.   Roofs were seldom if
>> ever done.   After 1950 the washings became far less often because
>> they didn't have the money.
>>
>> I remember I comment in a personal letter from Norman Vutz to me in
>> April 1964.   Norm had been talking to one of the motorman and he
>> asked how the man liked working for the new Port Authority.   The
>> operator said it was great.   He didn't have to come to work with his
>> own Windex and paper towels any longer to clean the windshields.
>> Someone in Craft Avenue Car House was doing that for him now.
>>
>> Did I answer your question?
>
>