[PRCo] Re: 4398

[Fred Schneider]

You would not recognize it.   No one at Homewood Shops would  
recognize it.   It isn't even wired the same way as it was when PRC  
ran it.   The A / B end transfer switch no longer has the heaters and  
lights and compressor on it so that there is no longer a static load  
(and an arc) when you transfer controls from one end to the other.

You can see your face in the flanks of the car.   There never was a  
PRC car that ever looked that good even when they were just  
painted.   PRC tried to keep them from rusting to the degree that  
they could afford to do so.   This isn't workman like quality, this  
is perfection like quality with remanufactured motors, remanufactured  
controllers, a brand new air-compressor, a body that is all but brand  
new (the roof carlines, the letter board and a several small pieces  
of the frame by the center door are original), with new window sash  
and new doors and new seat upholstery.   Essentially it is no longer  
St. Louis 1917 but PTM 2008.

When you consider that a car in street service ran about 35,000 miles  
a year and 4398 lasted from 1917 until 1953 (36 years) and might have  
accumulated about a million miles and it was still around in 1960 and  
able to perform albeit minimally, then this rebuild ought to be good  
for several hundred years of museum service in a much cleaner  
atmosphere....   Considering the wiring is new and all the most  
mechanical parts are new, it should run for a long time before it  
even needs much more than oil and grease!   I said most mechanical  
parts ... would me nice if someone had cut four new helical bull  
gears and helical pinions and pressed them on the armature shafts and  
axles.   They might be the weakest points.

On Apr 25, 2008, at 1:07 PM, TEP wrote:

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> Congratulations on the rebuild. Attached is a picture of a sad looking
> 4398 in the early days at Arden.
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> /Tom Parkinson P.Eng, Vancouver BC Canada 604-733-5430, fax -5437/
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