[PRCo] Re: Drum__Brakes_--_All-Electrics,__etc........

[Fred Schneider]

Motor leads disconnected.   A motor was replaced the day before and a  
lead was not properly connected.   When any one motor is removed from  
the circuit, dynamics do not work because you do not have a complete  
brake loop.   It was a new operator.   He came all the way in sliding  
through stops using just the shaft brakes and track brakes.   But he  
got out of control in the tunnel.   He was new, inadequately trained  
and didn't realize that was wrong.

There was a similar incident about the same time in Philadelphia.   A  
SEPTA motorman had a bad motor.  He cut out one of the motor pairs  
and then ran the car in violation of SEPTA rules that street  
operators are forbidden to run with motors cut out.   When he got to  
the loop at 42nd and Baltimore he found he wasn't able to stop the  
car ... he rolled it on it's side.   I think it was an air-car.    I  
saw another motorman that evening and asked what would happen to  
him.   That was during Joe Boscia's tenure at SEPTA.  Joe ran with an  
iron fist.   The rules said you don't do something and if you violate  
them you're out the door.   And that's what happened.   Joe  
eventually came up against politics and left SEPTA and is now with  
New Jersey Transit.   I saw Joe at the East Penn Traction Club meet  
in Villanova two weeks ago ... still very much a railfan and I think  
he's still with NJT.

On May 27, 2007, at 11:24 AM, Ken & Tracie wrote:

> Form Herb:
>
> Were the air cars so poorly maintained or so deteriorated  
> mechanically that
> you made it a point to change out for a 1700 whenever you had the  
> "over the
> hill" run?
>
> For anybody who recalls the 1727 runaway accident:
>
> What caused the brakes to fail on 1727 when it ran away and  
> derailed? That
> made the paper way out here in Las Vegas.
>
> No broken air lines on that car... ;-)
>
> K.
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Herb Brannon" <hrbran at sbcglobal.net>
> To: <pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org>
> Sent: Sunday, May 27, 2007 7:28 AM
> Subject: [PRCo] Re: Drum__Brakes_--_All-Electrics,__etc........
>
>
>> When mechanical 'things' (in this case a 1945 PCC streetcar, still
>> operating in 1975-76) get to a certain age, like humans, they  
>> start to
>> fall apart. Yes, it was the "Spirit of '76" car, and it had a bad air
>> leak. It would not have mattered if it would have had every type  
>> of air
>> applied brake known to mankind, it still would not have stopped  
>> without
>> any air pressure to apply the brakes. That brake system (air
>> applied/spring release), in my opinion, was one of the more stupid  
>> systems
>> devised. Couldn't at least one of the scores of engineers working  
>> on the
>> PCC project thought far enough to realize that a spring applied/air
>> released system would have been safer ???? They thought enought to  
>> put a
>> 'hand brake' on the car, why not a "fail safe" braking system?
>> Boris Cefer <westinghouse at iol.cz> wrote:  Are you sure, Herb? 1776  
>> was
>> formerly an interurban car with B-3 trucks and
>> spring-applied drum brakes with air actuators (pressure-releasing).
>>
>> B
>>
>>
>>
>> Rise Up -- Go Cavs
>>  Herb Brannon
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>