[PRCo] Re: Grades

Tue May 29 11:33:33 EDT 2007

I sent you the roster several year ago....

First a basic lesson in drum controller terminology:

K controllers are the most common, garden variety machines in the  
United States.  They are designed to both cut out resistance and  
transition motors from series to parallel.

R controllers are very uncommon.   They are in a sense "rheostatic"  
except that they have a finite number of points without any  
transition from series to parallel.   They were generally used on  
mine or industrial locomotives.   You might have also found them on  
the Chicago Tunnel locomotives.

B controllers were nothing more than K controllers that when operated  
backwards beyond the off position set up a brake loop and put all the  
resistance in, and then cut it back out ... the same as you would do  
plugging a car in an emergency stop by throwing the canopy switch,  
pulling the reverse key, and then notching up.

Now the PRC roster I sent out did not show compressors or brake  
valves but it did show controllers.   If a car had B controller, it  
was pretty logical that it didn't have a compressor.   It probably  
simply had a hand brake to make the final stop.

All of the early post-consolidation Pittsburgh Railways cars, both  
single and double truck, both open and closed, had B-8 or B-23  
controllers up through the 3400s.  The 3500s in 1908 were the first  
with K controllers and probably, therefore, the first with air  
brakes.     Some of those early cars like 3487 in 1902, 1903 etc. had  
B controllers and were probably retrofitted with air.   If you look  
at 3487 you will note that the brake valve has been inserted into the  
controller and not installed as a stand adjacent thereto.   The  
roster shows the 3400s had a mix of B and K controllers but I suspect  
that was after rebuilding.

The Baltimore 1902 cars were hand brake while the 1906 semi- 
convertibles had air brakes.

I suspect the same was true in Philadelphia with the pre-Mitten  
standard cars probably having hand brakes and the Nearsides coming  
with air.   A lot of Conestoga Traction Company's earlier cars were  
retrofitted with air brakes in the early years of the 20th century.

West Penn might have been the last system in the United States to use  
B controllers in normal service.   They used B-50s (they were  
essentially K-35s designed for dynamic braking) on the 286-297 series  
and 701-739 until 1952.   Pittsburgh apparently either scrapped all  
of their cars with B controllers or converted the cars to air brakes.

I suspect that runaways in the early years might have had as much to  
do with the hot tempers of youth as it did with the frailties of the  
equipment.   Remember that the industry expanded rapidly between 1890  
and 1900 and we had a lot of men in their late teens and twenties  
running the equipment.   Remember that was the cause of the 1917  
Christmas wreck.

The worst wreck in the history of Pennsylvania Traction Co., a  
predecessor of Conestoga Traction, of Lancaster, happened on a summer  
evening in 1896 when two kids brought an 18-foot bodied single truck  
car down the hill from Chickies Park into the outskirts of Columbia  
Pa like a rocket sled.   It had rained.   The rails were slippery.    
The crew ... both motorman and conductor were under age 20.   The  
motorman had so much strength we actually broke the brake chain.    
The car was overloaded ... can you imagine over 100 people packed  
like sardines into an 18 foot long body of a single truck car ... the  
entire car including platforms did measure more than 30 feet long.    
When he hit the curve at the bottom of the hill at Laurel Hill  
Cemetery, the car rolled over on its side killing the motorman, the  
conductor, the mayor of Columbia, the chief of police of Columbia and  
two others and injuring almost everyone else.

On May 28, 2007, at 11:12 PM, John Swindler wrote:

>
> When did PRC start buying steel cars and cars equipped with air  
> brakes; and
> how does this compare with other cities???
>
> From about 3 months worth of Pgh Dispatch, circa 1903, there were  
> run-aways
> on Troy Hill, Wilmerding, Murray Ave., Homewood, Glenwood RR  
> crossing  --
> and possibly more.  It answered some questions concerning missing car
> numbers in PRC fleet.
>
> John
>
>
>
>
>> From: "Ken & Tracie" <ktjosephson at earthlink.net>
>> Reply-To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
>> To: <pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org>
>> Subject: [PRCo] Re: Grades
>> Date: Sun, 27 May 2007 11:39:15 -0700
>>
>> I have to wonder if Pittsburgh Railways' predecessors had a hard time
>> getting financial backing to build some of those steep-grade  
>> lines. Steel
>> wheels on often damp steel rails using conventional  
>> traction...somebody had
>> to have some doubts before shelling out the cash.
>>
>> Ed, Fred, any records on this?
>>
>> K.
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Fred Schneider" <fwschneider at comcast.net>
>> To: <pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org>
>> Sent: Sunday, May 27, 2007 11:03 AM
>> Subject: [PRCo] Re: Grades
>>
>>
>>> Federal Street from Perrysville down past Henderson is also not  
>>> shown
>>> and that has to be around 8 to 9 percent.
>>>
>>> On May 27, 2007, at 12:27 AM, Boris Cefer wrote:
>>>
>>>> True, but you don't ask me why.
>>>>
>>>> B
>>>>
>>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>>> From: "Jim Holland" <PRCoPCC at P-R-Co.com>
>>>> To: <pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org>
>>>> Sent: Sunday, May 27, 2007 3:36 AM
>>>> Subject: [PRCo] Re: Grades
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> Boris Cefer wrote:
>>>>> .
>>>>>> It seems the subject of the jerky operation of 1711 somewhat
>>>>>> evaporated...
>>>>>>
>>>>>> But there is an interesting chart which I got from Russ Jackson.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Boris
>>>>> http://lists.dementia.org/files/pittsburgh-railways/Pgh% 
>>>>> 20Grades.jpg
>>>>> .
>>>>> .
>>>>> Interesting that the grade for the tunnel is not listed!!!!!!!
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>
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