[PRCo] Re: sound

[Fred Schneider]

If memory serves and it is often flawed at this age, there were about  
175 of the single deck cars (5000-5174 I think).   There was also one  
double truck car.   I can check the New York Railways roster if it  
matters.   They were one of the larger orders of cars with  
Westinghouse PK controllers.

What was PK?   Russ Jackson defined it as a "poor man's HL."    
Instead of individual pneumatic unit switches (air driven electric  
contactors) to make and break the 600 volt circuits controlled by  
light-weight, small size, low-voltage platform controllers, PK used  
the low-platform platform controllers simply to drive a K-controller  
that was usually mounted under the car.   In the case of the New York  
cars, there was so little room that I think they mounted the K- 
controller inside the car body in one of the cabs just as the mounted  
the air-compressor in one of the cabs.   The full description of PK  
depended on which controller was used, such as PK-35 (it used a K-35  
controller driven pneumatically) or PK-28 or whatever.     (The first  
PK installation included 4 cars for the IRT Steinway Tunnel in  
1918.   The other 4 cars in the same order were the first General  
Electric pneumatic cam or PC order.)

If any of you are interested in strange technology, Montreal had a  
lot of PK equipped cars and many of them actually survived at  
Seashore or Branford including the crane (I think its W51) at  
Branford.  Seashore also retrofitted two Connecticut Company open  
cars with PK with the idea of running them in trains.

On Jan 12, 2007, at 3:16 PM, Richard Allman MD wrote:

> Fred is correct about my age-where has the time gone?! Now, since he
> referred to my day job, when I'm not pursuing the trolley obsession, I
> keep an eye on the medical literature. The cover of the current
> issue(1/10/07) of JAMA, Journal of the American Medical  
> Association, is
> as always a nice reproduction of a painting. The current one shows a
> scene called the Battery in New York from 1918 w/ a line-up of some
> weird and wonderful, peresumably TARS cars. I was not aware how  
> many of
> the stepless cars there were; maybe the artist was taking creatrive
> license? Google JAMA and link to this week's cover and see what  
> everyone
> thinks! RICH
>
>>>> Fred Schneider <fwschneider at comcast.net> 01/11/07 1:40 PM >>>
> Maybe you personally need to twist Bob Dietrich's arm now that he is
> retired.    Perhaps he could get some of the East Penn types to help
> you organize it.    Rich Allman from East Penn is not clueless in
> this area but he does have a full plate as a doctor at Einstein.   We
>
> need to get him to retire first and he tells me he doesn't plan to do
>
> that before age 70 ... I think he is only about 63 now.   But perhaps
>
> he you could at least meet with him once as an advisor.   Rich lives
> in Villanova and you do have occasion to go to the Philly area
> because of your in laws.
>
> On Jan 11, 2007, at 10:51 AM, Dennis F. Cramer wrote:
>
>> For the modelers in the group:
>> Does anyone make a decent sound card that would fit in HO trolleys
>> and are there separate ones for hand controlled vs. PCCs?
>>
>> I am planning on going to the railroad show in West Springfield, MA
>
>> at the end of the month but will be unable to attend East Penn as I
>
>> have performances in NY that weekend.
>>
>> Is there interest in organizing a West Penn meet during the
>> opposite years at PTM?  I have mentioned it several times there and
>
>> it always seems to go away pretty quickly.  And yes, I have offered
>
>> to organize it.
>>
>>
>> Dennis Fred Cramer
>>      Trombone
>>
>
>
>
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