[PRCo] Re: Snow storms

[Fred Schneider]

Fred Schneider will also remind you that sweeping snow was most often  
a franchise requirement of the private transit company imposed upon  
it by a city or other municipality as a condition of being allowed to  
operate, i.e. collect revenues, in that city.   It was simply one of  
many ways local jurisdictions had of taxing the private operators.    
Washington DC, for example, required the trolley companies pay for a  
policeman at every intersection where two trolley lines crossed.    
Baltimore required one percent of gross revenues be put into a park  
fund ... this in addition to sweeping snow off the streets.  Many  
cities levied a tax on every pole used to hold up the trolley wire  
(and you wondered why the company anchored the span wires to  
buildings).   Annual licenses on trolley cars were common ... that  
helps to explain why many cars were assigned to specific routes,  
doesn't it?

When operations became a function of a transit authority run by the  
city or a group of municipalities, the old franchise awarded to  
Pittsburgh Railways was void and any requirement that the trolley  
company sweep the snow of the streets disappeared.   It was now the  
city's problem to clean the city streets (or to put up signs reading  
"state maintained highway" in order to blame the problem on the state  
after they accepted state money.

On Feb 14, 2007, at 10:32 AM, Bill Robb wrote:

> It's snowing hard and at times you can't see much in front of you.  
> I love snow sweepers as obselete as they may be and traction  
> operations in snow.
> In years past transit systems used to put great effort into  
> fighting snow storms. Crews would be send out to keep switches  
> clear. Life guards under the cars would be hooked up against the  
> underside of the car so the lifeguards would not be activated by  
> chunks of ice or hardened snow, Sweepers would be "ordered out"  
> around two-three inches of snow. Empty streetcars would be sent out  
> to run all night on lines which did not normally have all night  
> service.  Running cars up and down the line helps to keep the track  
> open and still continues today. If the snow continued the sweepers  
> would be sent out for additional trips and snow plows would be sent  
> out. Great effort went into maintaining the service. But those days  
> are gone.
>
> Some snow scenes from years past:
>
> http://www.liquala.com/pcc-152.html
>
> http://www.liquala.com/pcc-243.html
>
> http://www.liquala.com/pcc-249.html
>
> Snow sweepers in action:
>
> http://davesrailpix.com/pitts/htm/prys30.htm
>
> http://davesrailpix.com/pitts/htm/prys31.htm
>
> http://davesrailpix.com/pitts/htm/prys32.htm
>
> http://davesrailpix.com/pitts/htm/prys33.htm
>
> http://davesrailpix.com/pitts/htm/pitt043.htm
>
>
> As Fred Schneider has pointed out, this doesn't happen anymore  
> because transit systems are no longer dependent on fare box revenue  
> to survive. Subsidies continue whether or not the service operates.  
> Battling a snow storm cost a significant amount of money and would  
> probably lead to greater subsidy demands. Cars run late, operators  
> still have to be paid and crews were needed to man sweepers and plows.
>
> Generally franchise conditions required removal of snow from the  
> streetcar tracks and a certain portion of the street. Also if  
> private companies like  Pittsburgh Railways didn't operate it  
> didn't make any money, but the fixed expenses would continue.
>
> Somewhere about 1970-1973 snow sweepers disappeared from Toronto.   
> Andrew Maginis recorded the last day in Philadelphia of sweeper  
> operation as February 20, 1972. This almost exactly when transit  
> systems first received operating subsidies.
>
> If you are wondering what you missed here's a You Tube clip of a  
> snow sweeper in operation on a Budapest night:
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xm1PFx3ntAg
>
> Helsinki also has operating snow sweepers.  But these sweepers have  
> a far different appearance than the old sweepers built in the late  
> 1890s and early 1900s:
>
> http://www.nettilinja.fi/~ahellman/ratikat/helsinki/hkl/hkltyo/ 
> tyokuvat/2122_05.jpg
>
> http://www.nettilinja.fi/~ahellman/ratikat/helsinki/hkl/hkltyo/ 
> tyokuvat/h20_76.jpg
>
> http://www.nettilinja.fi/~ahellman/ratikat/helsinki/hkl/hkltyo/ 
> tyokuvat/h26mv_74.jpg
>
> http://www.nettilinja.fi/~ahellman/ratikat/helsinki/hkl/hkltyo/ 
> tyokuvat/h24mvi_74.jpg
>
> http://www.nettilinja.fi/~ahellman/ratikat/helsinki/hkl/hkltyo/ 
> tyokuvat/h24_78.jpg
>
> http://www.nettilinja.fi/~ahellman/ratikat/helsinki/hkl/hkltyo/ 
> tyokuvat/h-21_78.jpg
>
> http://www.nettilinja.fi/~ahellman/ratikat/helsinki/hkl/hkltyo/ 
> tyokuvat/2122_98.jpg
>
> http://www.nettilinja.fi/~ahellman/ratikat/helsinki/hkl/hkltyo/ 
> tyokuvat/2121_87.jpg
>
> http://www.nettilinja.fi/~ahellman/ratikat/helsinki/hkl/hkltyo/ 
> tyokuvat/h24mv_74.jpg
>
>
>
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