[PRCo] Re: Pittsburgh Railways 1200 Model

[Fred Schneider]

I agree with the all races part, Jim, but if we are going to be  
historically accurate, and you wanted to do that with motorman's  
badges, then you also need to have some accuracy with the racial  
splits of people who rode cars in the years when those cars were new  
to the property.   If you are talking a New Orleans 800 car before  
1958, the Negroes would be in the rear seats.   If we are talking a  
900 in 2000, the "People of Color" would have been in any seat.   The  
motorman in New Orleans would have been nothing other than white in  
the old days.   Just before the deluge the odds are probably better  
than 50-50 that it will be a female of color.

And 1200s new in Pittsburgh?   Most of the negroes at that time lived  
in Herron Hill and would have been on the 85 line.   Pittsburgh had a  
very small percentage of minorities and until the Lower Hill  
Redevelopment Program, they were essentially in one area.   One would  
be safe with nothing but whites in anything but a model of an 82 or  
an 85 car for many years.   If you are painting cars for PAT and  
grunging them up for later Pittsburgh Railways appearance, then  
Blacks on route 75, 76, 82, 85, 87, and 88 probably would have been  
perfectly normal but I don't think they really migrated into the area  
served by route 8 until it became the 11D bus.

Was the Muni hat badge in the Byllsby era the same as the Pittsburgh  
badge, Jim?   Could Leonid make one man with one hat?   Really, I  
think we're asking for two much detail.   A round blob or a line  
drawn on the hat symbolizes a badge.  You cannot see much more than  
that through the windshield.


On Jan 14, 2007, at 7:16 PM, Jim Holland wrote:

> Fred Schneider wrote:
> .
>
>> Well,  Mr. Holland,  I finally got out the cyano-acrolyte glue and
>> mounted the small parts on my 1200.       How do you spell Super  
>> Glue?
>>
>> One thing wrong with that model.        No one makes people in O- 
>> gauge
>> as perfectly detailed as Leonid makes the streetcar models.
>>
>> And since my 1200 model is signed for 85 BEDFORD  (and I didn't plan
>> on this for the eve of Martin Luther King Day),  it would only be
>> fitting that it has a car load of people of color.       Yes, guys,
>> they did run them on that line initially.       Who builds perfect
>> seated unpainted people in O-gauge with 1940 clothing?
>
> .
> This makes a  Very  Good  Chuckle  for  Today!       What you say  Is
> Very  True!       One customer wrote that the  SPTC  models  should be
> delivered with a Motorman but the models are  'As__Delivered'  from  
> the
> mfgr. to the operating company and To My Knowledge, none of these
> prototypes came with an Operator!!!       Yes  --  some are company
> repaints // rebuilds but even then, the Operator was not involved!!!
> .
> With  SPTC  being Highly Specific about including Every Detail on its
> models for that particular operating company, the same would be  
> true of
> any Operator that  SPTC  would want to include with its models  --
> Uniform, Cap, colors, stripes, etc. would have to be specific For That
> Property  --  a  'Generic'  Motorman would not do!!
> .
> 'Maybe'  it would be an interesting sideline for  SPTC  to make
> Operators // Passengers for its "O"-Scale models  --  Sittees,
> Standees,  StrapHangers  --  All Races!!!!
> .
> .
> .
> Jim___Holland
>
>
>