[PRCo] Re: FW: New Bachmann "Scale HO" DCC Peter De Witt Trolley

[Herb Brannon]

I notice we have told everything about a "Peter Witt" car but nothing about Mr. Peter Witt. Now, bear in mind we must use the "C" word when talking about Mr. Witt.
   
  Peter Witt was the Commissioner of Street Railways for the City of Cleveland, Ohio from 1912 to 1915. He was a very far sighted man and knew the electric railway business thoroughly. The first "Peter Witt" type car (Pay As You Pass fare collection) was designed personally by Mr. Witt and was constructed by Cleveland Railway Company shop employees at the Lakeview Shops in 1915. That car was numbered "33", later to become "330". The car first operated on the East 79Th Crosstown line. This car differed slightly from the more "modern" Peter Witt's built during the 1920s and early 1930s inasmuch as technology improved and style changed. Mr. Witt, after leaving the Street Railway Commissioner position became a private transit consultant. His influence was evident all across the United States in streetcar and bus design. Mr. Witt did make a run for mayor of the City of Cleveland in 1915, however, lost. Today, in the Cultural Gardens in Rockefeller Park is a very nice monument to
 Peter Witt, complete with a granite model of a Peter Witt streetcar. 
Fred Schneider <fwschneider at comcast.net> wrote:
  Not that I know of, Bob, but I've never been able to find the 
patents. Supposedly, Witt patented a front entrance, center exit, 
pay as you pass fare collection system with the conductor just front 
of the center doors. I understand that there is a copy of the 
royalty agreement in the Baltimore Streetcar Museum library covering 
the 1930 PW cars that Bachman modeled. However, there is an 8x10 
Brill negative owned jointly by Don Duke and Bill Middleton that 
shows a fare box in the front of the car. The Brill cars (and 6119 
at BSM is one of them) were built with a conductor's station foreward 
of the enter door, and with a door valve and bell button at that 
position.

What really happened? United Railways and Electric Company's daily 
passenger counts dropped from 2 million on a normal weekday to 1 
million in the Depression. The company fell into bankruptcy and was 
reorganized as Baltimore Transit. Lucius Storrs, its president, 
bailed out and wound up working for Los Angles Railway Company. The 
cars never did run as two man cars. They entered service as one man 
car with the conductors sitting at their station explaining to the 
public that, when they wanted off, they needed to step down into the 
stairwell onto the treadle and the doors would open for them. Then 
roughly 400 conductors were fired. The first 27 PCCs that came in 
1936 were one-man.

Capital Transit's 20 pre-PCC streamliners built in 1935 were fitted 
in the Peter Witt configuration but I never had anyone tell me that 
royalties were paid.

Frankly, what the hell would you do if you lost half your business? 
Maybe I can tease Dick Kotulak into coming up with an answer. Maybe 
no one knows for sure. Of course it would all depend on when the 
original patent was issued and when it expired. The Philadelphia 
PCCs in the 2500s, 2600s and 2700s were configured as Peter Witt cars.

Several years ago I attempted to find patents under Peter Witts name 
but the current computerized patent library does not go back that far.





On Nov 9, 2007, at 3:32 PM, ROBERT R ROCKWELL wrote:

> Just what defined a "Peter Witt" car. Was it more than just the 
> center door fare collection ? And did Peter Witt actually collect 
> royalties on these ?
> Robert Rockwell
> w3syt1 at msn.com
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Herb Brannon
> To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org> railways at dementia.org>
> Sent: Thursday, November 08, 2007 5:23 PM
> Subject: [PRCo] Re: FW: New Bachmann "Scale HO" DCC Peter De Witt 
> Trolley
>





Herb Brannon