[PRCo] Re: Subway Tour

[Fred Schneider]

What is curious to my mind is my lack of knowledge about the  
longevity of patent and design patent rights during the early 20th  
century.   The fare collection scheme in 1095 clearly follows the  
Peter Witt patents but his right to collect on them may have expired.

I have been told, but have not seen documentation, that when  
Baltimore's United Railway and Electric Company bought the bought 150  
front entrance entrance, center exit, pay-as-you-pass cars from Brill  
and Cincinnati in 1930 that they paid royalties to Peter  
(1869-1948).   Supposedly, there is proof in the library at the  
Baltimore Streetcar Museum.  The cars, however, were never operated  
in revenue service in that configuration.   After the decision was  
made to buy two-man Peter Witt cars, which was done in a deal with  
the city in order to get permission to raise fares, economic  
conditions changed markedly.  It was some minor economic upheaval  
called the Depression which threw 30 percent of our workers into  
bread lines.   The end result was URE went into bankruptcy, Lucius  
Storrs, its president bailed out and wound up running Los Angeles  
Railway (a much smaller company), and the conductors worked only long  
enough to educate the passengers in how to use one-man cars.   "Now  
if you step down on the treadle at the center door, it will open  
automatically."  Then URE or the new Baltimore Transit Company fired  
all the conductors in Peter Witt service ... probably about 300  
men.   So, technically, Baltimore 6001-6150 never ran as Peter Witt  
cars in the strict sense of the word that it was a fare collection  
system.   In terms of purchase, they may have been the last two-man,  
front entrance, center exit, pay as you pass cars.

The Chicago Sedans were one year earlier.

The Indianapolis cars were built from 1933 to 1937 but I suspect they  
were strictly one-man cars.

However, one might question if Peter Witt ever collected royalties on  
PCC Peter Witt cars.   All of the Philadelphia 2500s and 2600s, for  
example, would have met the test and would have been built during his  
lifetime.  The 2701-2800 series may have come before he died.    
Minneapolis also had cars of that configuration.   So did Pacific  
Electric.  And was not the conductor in the first 83 Chicago PCCs  
amid ship?

On Aug 31, 2007, at 8:23 PM, Herb Brannon wrote:

> Yes, the trucks did come from Capital Transit.
>
>   As long as we are on the subject, also remember that 1095 was the  
> only PRCo PCC to have a conductors booth installed. Cleveland  
> Railway Company used two-man cars and the 'pay as you pass' fare  
> collection system. Hence, PRCo's Peter Witt PCC.
> Jim Holland <PRCoPCC at P-R-Co.com> wrote:
>>> . On Fri, 31 Aug 2007, Edward H. Lybarger wrote:
>>> . I believe it was PRC 1095 that operated in Cleveland for a time.
>
>> . Dr. Brashear wrote::
>
>> .That's what 3rd Fred's book claims, anyway.
> .
> .
> .
> Harold E. Cox book -- PCC Cars of North America -- confirms same
> with following note:::
> .
> "...operated from Nov 1945 to June 1946. Trucks apparently shipped
> from Capitol Transit Co Wash DC."
> .
> .
>
>
> Herb Brannon
>
>