[PRCo] Re: True Tales -- Another Installment

[Ken & Tracie]

Now we know why most of the high speed interurban systems converted to shoes 
early on... ;-)

Imagine a C&LE or NSL car snagging a wire like that at 70 mph???? OUCH!

K.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Herb Brannon" <hrbran at sbcglobal.net>
To: <pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org>
Sent: Sunday, May 20, 2007 4:37 PM
Subject: [PRCo] True Tales -- Another Installment


> This one I call,   Two Days // Two Trolley Poles
>
>
>  In Summer, 1978 I was working weekends on the 35 and 36, having Thursday 
> and Friday as off-days. This was on a July Saturday and the weather was 
> nice. It was sunny and around 75 degrees and everything was running pretty 
> normal. I had a 1700 series interurban car and it was a good runner. I 
> left Library Loop and made all the time points on the 'advertised' 
> schedule times. I had a moderate passenger load, maybe 28 or 30 people on 
> board.
>
>  We came gliding into Castle Shannon to the front of the former car house 
> Administration Building, now the Castle Shannon Municipal Building. 
> Continuing on past leafy Linden Grove heading north through the sparkling 
> sunlight. The car was running great. It held the rail well. The only odd 
> thing was a "twanging" sound every now and then coming from the overhead. 
> I made a mental note to tell the zone supervisor, who would be at South 
> Hills Junction.
>
>  On we sped stopping every now and then for passengers boarding or 
> alighting. Then past Ansonia Street and the beginning of the South Busway 
> and joint running with the buses. This was really good track and in a 
> flash we were at the Saw Mill Run Blvd overpass and the end of joint 
> bus/rail car operation and the beginning of single track. I got a 'good' 
> light and started across the bridge.
>
>  Then there was a very loud 'twanging' noise and the interior lights 
> (which operated directly off the 600-volt DC trolley wire and which I kept 
> on at all times) began flashing on and off. We made it across the bridge 
> and into the curve just before the passing siding. All the time the lights 
> were flashing and the 'twanging' was replaced with 'banging' noise. Then 
> the car began slowing down. A couple pushes on the power pedal told me the 
> car was dead.
>
>  I could get no power whatsoever. Checking all the circuit breakers in the 
> cabinet under the dash showed no open breakers. Next thing was to get out 
> and check outside. Now, what I saw when I stepped outside and began 
> looking around made me speechless for a minute. The trolley pole was bent 
> into a pretzel type of shape and the wheel and harp were missing from the 
> end of the pole. A piece of trolley rope, about three feet long, still 
> hung off the bent pole. The remaining rope had wound itself back inside 
> the retriever after the rope broke. Now, looking up the overhead wire was 
> really in bad shape. All the wire on the bridge was hanging about 10 feet 
> above the tracks with some span wires broken. The wire in the curve was 
> just above the car and many spans and pull-offs were broken and/or down.
>
>  My radio was out, so I started walking north, toward the next telephone 
> box at Smith Siding. When I got to Smith the outbound car was coming into 
> the siding and that operator called the Traffic Controller and related the 
> details back to them.
>
>  All in all the line was down for a good three hours. No cars could move 
> through the Overbrook trackage since the wires were down and my car was 
> disabled in single track. Buses had to take over between South Hills Jct 
> and Castle Shannon and all 35 and 36 cars were operating via Mount Lebanon 
> and down the 38A trackage to Castle Shannon then out to Library or Drake. 
> Repair crews made temporary repairs to the overhead and got a new pole on 
> my car. When I finally got to move again it was one-hour past my quitting 
> time. So I sat out the last three hours of my run broken down.
>
>  What caused all this...............the trolley wheel split into two 
> pieces right around the groove. The now 'two piece' wheel caught the 
> overhead wire between the two halves and pulled broke the overhead apart 
> from hangars on the bridge. The pole and wheel must have let loose once 
> and bounced down and up again, catching in the overhead wire a second time 
> and pulling apart more of the wiring. The harp and wheel then separated 
> from the pole and was flung off to the side of the tracks. The rope broke 
> somewhere during all this and the pole shot up into the overhead in the 
> curve and as it caught on spans and pull-offs became bent and also broke 
> the spans and pull-offs.
>
>  Not many people can say they have had this type of thing happen to them. 
> It only happens on real life trolley operations.
>
>  Stay tuned folks.................find out what happened on 
> Sunday..............Another installment to follow 
> soon.............................
>
>
>  NOTE:
>  Copyright 2007--Herb Brannon--Cleveland, Ohio dba High Energy Productions 
> Ltd.
>  All domestic and international rights reserved.
>
> Herb Brannon
>
>
>