[PRCo] Re: Interurban Route Speeds

[Jerry Matt Matsick]

Fred your (perception is reality)  is so true, I know when living and riding the subways in
NYC the same "flying" sensation was evident, same way with the Philly subway, now I
remember riding a car out to Paoli and thought we would take off, forgot what line that
was back in mid 1960s?   Also I was reading somewhere (hate to get off of PRCo and into Philly traction) where the city put in or completely rebuilt an old line (Germantown?) and
yet they are not running street cars on it?  why is that?
Jerry Matsick.
--
Jerry "Matt" Matsick 
Jacksonville, Florida


-------------- Original message from fwschneider at comcast.net: -------------- 


> Remember too that "perception is reality." Excessive noise causes one to 
> believe they are going faster than they really are. When you are accustomed to 
> riding in an automobile on rubber tires on an asphalt highway and you are 
> morphed into an interurban car riding on poorly maintained track, suddenly it 
> seems like you have been placed on a rocket sled. 
> There is a document in the PTM library that establishes speed limits for 
> different portions of the PTM system. Most were because of track conditions. 
> I do not have access to any of my files now but I do recall that motormen were 
> told not to exceed 50 mph between Eldora Summit and Black Diamond Junction 
> because of "passenger complaints." That document was issued in the days of 
> 3700s and 3800s. The PCCs simply would not run that fast because, if memory 
> serves, they had overspeed relays and would cut out. 
> 
> I recall my early perceptions about how fast the New York City subways were. I 
> thought I must have been traveling at mile-a-minute speeds because of the heavy 
> trucks and solid steel wheels in confined spaces. I later learned that the 
> fastest part of the entire system was a short express track under the northwest 
> side of Central Park where speeds approached 50 mph. Normal was a 30 to 40 mph 
> range. I suspect the old wooden elevated cars seldom got much over 25 but 
> their advantage was not being bogged down in traffic. 
> 
> fws3 
> 
> -------------- Original message -------------- 
> From: "Boris Cefer" 
> 
> > Some of the 1700 and 1600 series PCCs were designed to carry acceleration up 
> > to a higher speed than the earlier models, that might be why you seemed 
> > flying. 
> > 
> > B 
> > 
> > ----- Original Message ----- 
> > From: "Jerry Matt Matsick" 
> > To: 
> > Sent: Monday, September 24, 2007 1:50 AM 
> > Subject: [PRCo] Re: Interurban Route Speeds 
> > 
> > 
> > >I had the opportunity to ride the Charleroi Interurban and thinking back 
> > >as a 10-12 year old boy, I thought the car was "flying", but in reality it 
> > >probably wasn't, all I know on some of the open straight aways, it seemed 
> > >like we were "flying", some thoughts on this? 
> > > and travel times from Pittsburgh to Li'l Wash and to Charleroi, the 
> > > conversations on this 
> > > group have been fantastic, keep it up! 
> > > Jerry Matsick 
> > 
> > 
> 
>