[PRCo] Re: What Car is This????

[Ken & Tracie]

Well, I'm a hardcore workcar fan, Fred. I realize some have to be sacrificed 
to restore passenger car bodies to operating status as the passenger cars 
generate revenue for museums and tourist operations. (Unless you are part of 
the IRM Electric Car Department. Then you say your favorite car has a "leaky 
roof" or a "finicky controller" to keep it hidden in the barn 364 days of 
any given year.)

The L-5 was constructed during WW II to haul coal from the Milwaukee Road 
interchange at Powerton to the Lakeside Power Plant in St. Francis. It was 
built with a wooden body and reportedly had grounding issues (it would zap 
crew members in the cab on damp days, which Milwaukee has more than few each 
year.) It was the first (and only) road locomotive to be retired at the 
WEPCO power plants which had electric rail service. It was retired around 
1955 and sat around as parts source while the other seven steeple cabs ran 
into the late 1960s.

The L-5 was snagged for preservation and basically sat around at North Lake 
and then East Troy. Paul Averdung dismantled it for parts during the 1980s. 
There were howls of protest. As rare as wooden steeplecabs are, one has to 
wonder if its restoration would have been worth it.

CA&E car 321 was purchased for parts to restore a TM interurban car at IRM. 
A decision was made later on to restore the 321 and it toched off a 
firestorm of protest. In retrospect, it was kinda funny.

I see PTM has two Phiilly PCCs now. They scrapped a SHRT P-S PCC. Do they 
still have another one?

K.


Ol Message ----- 
From: "Fred Schneider" <fwschneider at comcast.net>
To: <pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org>
Sent: Wednesday, February 14, 2007 3:54 PM
Subject: [PRCo] Re: What Car is This????


> Ken:
>
> I should not vent my frustrations openly.   But I simply do not think
> the Baltimore Streetcar Museum is a place where Philadelphia PCCs
> (there are four or five of them there) and snow sweepers (two of
> them) belong.   It was originally created as a venue for Baltimore
> transit vehicles.   Even though I've been accused of being
> sympathetic to PCC cars after having written two books, I really
> cannot condone preserving every available PCC car on the planet.   I
> would much rather see them scrapped and the scarce resources spent
> instead on more rare streetcars or even old factory buildings or
> mansions or our national parks or perhaps even rare art.
>
> There, that ought to start a real ruckus.
>
> fws
>
> On Feb 14, 2007, at 6:29 PM, Ken & Tracie wrote:
>
>> Sheesh, is this what I started? :-)
>>
>> Okay, Titans, next time you're around Milwaukee fans, ask how they
>> feel
>> about the fate of the wooden steeple cab locomotive L-5.
>>
>> Or about CA&E passenger car 321.
>>
>> K.
>>
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Edward H. Lybarger" <trams2 at comcast.net>
>> To: <pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org>
>> Sent: Wednesday, February 14, 2007 2:30 PM
>> Subject: [PRCo] Re: What Car is This????
>>
>>
>>> Dis be da HOOK alright.  I'm glad it has a happy home.
>>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: pittsburgh-railways-bounce at lists.dementia.org
>>> [mailto:pittsburgh-railways-bounce at lists.dementia.org]On Behalf Of
>>> Fred
>>> Schneider
>>> Sent: Wednesday, February 14, 2007 4:39 PM
>>> To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
>>> Subject: [PRCo] Re: What Car is This????
>>>
>>>
>>> Is that where that piece of junk came from?   The car at BSM is the
>>> old car known as HOOK.
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>