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

[Jim Holland]

This has to be the 20th time that this has been disgusted here!!!!!!!!!!!1

Fred Schneider wrote:
> 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
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>       
>>
>>     
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