[PRCo] Re: The "Light Rail ex-1600 1700s"

[Jim Holland]

 > Herb Brannon wrote::
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 > The PAT installed turn signals were always
 > going dead as were the interior lights. ....... By
 > the time I got to 7th/Grant the turn signals were
 > blinking slowly, the interior lights were getting dim,
 > and the radio had stopped transmitting and receiving.
 > I barely made it through the tunnel before the car
 > would no longer run.

 > .......What took 30 years to come to the point of
 > needing rebuilding took only a few years to come
 > back to that point after the PAT circuits and
 > systems were installed. This is not to fault PATransit
 > because they did not do a good job. They did do
 > a good job, however, the quality of the 'parts' in the
 > 1970's was not the same quality seen in the 1940's.
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TEP wrote:
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> Having been for 44 years, and still am, specifying, testing and 
> commissioning new electric rail vehicles I have to disagree with Herb 
> Brannon that parts today are inferior in quality to the "old days". 
> They are different and often more complex, with far more electronics 
> -- but the comparable stuff -- motors, gears, brake actuators and 
> control valves et. al., are better and more reliable. Quality control 
> is much improved across the board.

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Generally when an electric / electronic part fails it is like a light 
bulb    ----    working one minute, totally out the next.       
Exceptions, yes, but this is the rule.
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What you describe, Herb, is not failure of bad parts but Over Load of 
the battery which is slowly // Not So Slowly being sucked dry!!!       
Original PCC lighting was from the 600 overhead  --  go through an 
insulator and the lights would flicker  --  lose the pole and the lights 
went out.       Putting lighting and other additional items on a 
battery, And  'Apparently'  the battery used for control circuits is 
asking for trouble    ----    That's why the car went dead    ----    it 
was not failure of parts    ----    It  WAS  the fault of the designer 
and  ({[pat]})   I-S  to blame!!!
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The PCC accelerator also provides dynamic brakes  --  the accelerator is 
operated by a 32 volt pilot motor which works off the battery  --  when 
the battery goes dry, so does control.       On an All-Electric, the 
drums won't release as drums are spring applied, electrically released 
By Battery!       Don't know how that is handled on an air car.
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The problems you experienced with the ex-1601 series PCCs converted to 
177x+++ were created by  ({[pat]})  and were not inherent in the car 
when under PRCo.       A separate battery should have been used, not the 
control battery.
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Jim___Holland