[PRCo] Re: True Tales Of The Operators -- Another Installment

[Fred Schneider]

ED LYBARGER:
TIM JONES:

IF WE DON'T HAVE AN ORAL HISTORY / EMPLOYEES HISTORY SECTION IN THE  
LIBRARY, THIS SOUND LIKE A GREAT START PIECE TO PRINT OUT.

FRED SCHNEIDER
	

On Mar 24, 2007, at 7:52 PM, Herb Brannon wrote:

> This one I like to call, "He Should Have Taken The $500.00."
>
>
>   It was a Summer Sunday night when the Mt. Washington Tunnel was  
> closed for rebuilding. Also on weekends everything was going both  
> directions over the Arlington Avenue and Warrington Avenue tracks.  
> Like I said it was Summer. I was working a night run on 35 and 36  
> beginning around 5:00 pm and getting off at 2:30 am. Around 8 pm a  
> line of strong thunderstorms moved through the Pittsburgh area  
> doing as much damage as they could before it all ended around 10  
> pm. Some wires were knocked down by the wind near South Hills Jct.  
> This caused all the streetlamps and building circuits on Warrington  
> Avenue to go out.
>
>   With no lights burning in the building and with all the  
> streetlamps out along Warrington it was nearly pitch black. I had a  
> trip coming off the 35 and arriving in the city around 12 midnight.  
> I was running late and was trying to make up as much time as  
> possible where I could. I left the S. Hill Jct Administration  
> Building and took the switch onto the right-of-way heading to  
> Warrington Avenue. Car 1702 was a good runner and held the track  
> without much bounce or sway. The car glided onto Warrington Avenue.  
> I turned on the "interurban" roof headlight because of the dark  
> conditions on the street. Looking ahead the street was clear, no  
> traffic coming or going, so I picked up the speed. We crossed  
> Beltzhover and I gave another application of power and the car  
> responded accordingly.
>
>   Now, after Beltzhoover the curbstones on Warrington were  
> abnormally high, and I mean ABNORMALLY high. Most curbs are about  
> 10 or less inches from the street surface to the sidewalk surface.  
> Not these. They were nearly 18 inches, if not more. Therefore any  
> auto parked against the curb was not going to be moved onto the  
> sidewalk by any physical forces applied to that autos left side.  
> Also, bear in mind that there was not enough room to park a 1970s  
> auto between the curb and the outside car track. Everyone parking  
> on Warrington Avenue put the right side of their auto up on the  
> curb or sidewalk to keep clear of the car tracks. That could not be  
> done is this strip of Warrington.
>
>   Just at the last minute I saw the form of an auto, painted in  
> dull black primer, sitting against the curb...........the very high  
> curb. I said something like, Holy FXXX and jammed the brake pedal  
> to the lock position and reached down with my right hand and did  
> what was called "throwing the hook", or putting the direction  
> controller handle in the up-most position. This assisted in making  
> a full emergency stop. I then got my right hand back up on the sand  
> switch. Interurban cars would not run sand even when put into  
> emergency. Things were now running in the usual "slow motion" which  
> takes over during such events. The car was trying to stop. I could  
> even feel the physical forces (easier to do in a mass moving in a  
> straight line) of forward motion trying to be arrested by the  
> braking action. It now seemed very quiet almost like the streetcar  
> was a fast moving watercraft with propellers in reverse. I turned  
> my head and looked out the number 1 door, through the glass in the
>  bottom and saw the rear bumper of the auto appear. Next the quiet  
> became one of the loudest sounds I ever heard as 28,350 pounds of  
> heavy steel pinned a tin-can stock 1963 Chrysler product between it  
> and the curbstones. The trolley did not stop its assault on the  
> auto until all 42 feet had restyled the autos body and came to a  
> stop three feet past the auto.
>
>   The results on 1702 were hardly noticeable. The bottom glass in  
> the number 1 door was cracked, not broken, but only cracked. The  
> paint on the bottom of the number one and number two doors was  
> scratched in several places but nothing that 15 minutes of cosmetic  
> repair work could correct. The rub rail on the open side of the  
> trolley had a few minor scratches.
>
>   The auto, however, was another story. I was now flat as a pancake  
> on the left side from the rear to the front. Also, it was now three  
> or four inches narrower that it was before being introduced to the  
> power of a 1949, well built, streetcar. The only window glass  
> remaining in the auto were the front and rear right side windows.  
> Left side windows, windshield, and rear window were things of the  
> past. The guy who owned the car was standing outside one of the row  
> houses talking with his buddy's when this took place. No one was in  
> the car, thank God.
>
>   Now, after all was said and done, I only got called into the  
> Superintendent's Office to explain what happened. I was not charged  
> with the accident. I wondered why but was certainly not going to  
> ask the Superintendent to go ahead and give me a chargeable accident.
>
>   About a month later I got a note from the Claims Department that  
> the guy who owned the car was suing PATransit and I should come by  
> the head office and get the court date. I did and then appeared in  
> court. The PAT attorney came up and introduced himself and said,  
> "Don't worry one bit about this. We will only be here about five  
> minutes or less. You won't even have to get on the stand." That was  
> fine with me and I settled back in the hard wood seat to watch the  
> drama unfold. The great trolley caper was the first case called.  
> The PAT attorney got up and holding a small booklet in his hand,  
> said to the judge, "Your honor I need to call to the attention of  
> the court the Motor Vehicle Code of the City of Pittsburgh." He  
> went on, to the court, "I'm sorry we are using this but it is the  
> law." He then went on to quote a law, probably on the books for a  
> century, but still very valid which more or less states that if  
> anyone blocks the car tracks with their auto they will have no
>  recourse and will have to stand ALL damages by themselves. As it  
> turned out PAT had offered the man $500 for the old car and he  
> turned it down hoping to get rich in court. He of course never read  
> the Motor Vehicle Code of the City of Pittsburgh, or at least not  
> the section covering streetcars. The PAT attorney asked the court  
> that the plaintiff pay, and was granted $350.00 for repairs to car  
> 1702, $75.00 to cover my costs for appearing and just sitting there  
> and all court and legal fees. The judge agreed. The guy now had to  
> pay well over $500.00 for all this. Like I said at the beginning,  
> he should have taken the $500.00!
>
> Herb Brannon
>
>