[PRCo] Re: books

[John Swindler]

Sounds boring.  
 
Why not try the connections between a kick from Mrs. O'Leary's cow in Chicago leading to putting man on the moon.  Frank Sprague would play a pivotal part.  You could call it the cow that really did jump over the moon.
 
(it helps to have seen the Connections program, which aired about a decade ago.)
 
Cheers
John
> From: fwschneider at comcast.net> Subject: [PRCo] Re: books> Date: Wed, 3 Dec 2008 11:12:51 -0500> To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org> > I once wanted to do a book on electric railway patent history ... > what I had in mind could be best explained by reminding you of a show > series on the old Learning Channel (since renamed TLC after they > discovered people had a distaste for learning) called Connections. > The show started with a major invention and then traced what happened > with that invention and how it lead into the next invention. I > didn't want to start with a Birney car because that might have only > been a design patent ... all the working patents were already in the > names of other people ... but I would have started, for example with > the baby motor that P. N. Jones demanded to motorize the low-floor > trailers in Pittsburgh and follow that through all the low-floor cars > in the 1920s. Or I would have attempted to trace all the different > ways we sprung car bodies.> > I also wanted to use it as sort of a control and motor and hardware > primer for museum types so they newcomers to museums understood, for > example what generic HL control is (a remote control scheme by > Westinghouse that evolved out of the notching head control and used > compressed air unit switches whereas G. E. used magnetic solenoid > switches) that had Hand controlled progression using Line voltage > through a dropping resistor for control voltage (instead of > battery). I had gotten to the point where I had hundreds of > photographs and drawings for illustration but I never write the text.> > There are a lot of good picture books out there. Many feel good > books about my hobby. There will always be another Pacific Electric > trolley book and another Santa Fe or Southern Pacific or Colorado > narrow gauge book.> > But sadly ... sadly from my perspective ... there are no good books > out there that explain the railway technology. There is nothing > that takes the streetcar trucks from pedestal trucks on horse cars > through air-suspension designs including some of the newer radial > designs on light rail cars. There is no book that show how railway > control began with some unique and strange (to us today) ideas such > as shunting motor fields to reduce torque on starting instead of > resistance control, then progressing through resistance control, > choppers, and the newer A. C. systems. When Mark McGuire asked me > how it worked, I had to draw something out for him at Eat 'n Park > over lunch. I couldn't say, "Mark, go get this book." The result > is that we confuse terms. Even at PTM we mix things up. We use > terminology like straight air versus self-lapping air when both are > straight air. What we mean is straight air hand lapped and straight > air-self lapping. Because we have nothing in service with automatic > air, no one teaches it and no one understands it. (Actually I > suspect if we studied the piping, we might find that West Penn 1 > might be automatic air ... if it isn't, then they had to drain the > air out of a railroad car to move it. And Mon West Penn 3000 has > both ... it was the automatic air valve for trains and a straight air > independent valve for the engine alone.)> > There isn't a handy all encompassing "Physicians Desk Reference" that > you can pick up that includes motors, controls, hand brakes, air > brakes, what a 4 degree curve is, why guard rails are used, where > guard rails are used, where you are supposed to use insulators in > span wires, how many insulators you need for every 1,000 volts, what > clearance you need per 100 volts between resistors, how to run a car > with a B controller and why you do it that way.> > But Dennis, we all come to this table with different ideas on what is > important.> > I've come to believe that the whole industry and how it functioned > and how it will function in the futre was and is more important than > a railfan history of East Podunk. And anyone who wishes to disagree > is free to do so.> > On Dec 3, 2008, at 9:40 AM, Dennis F. Cramer wrote:> > > Here is a summation of the responses so far. Luckily for me, I > > have the vast majority of these on my bookshelf.> > From Horsecars to Streamliners Alan Lind> > J.G. Brill Company Debra Brill (2)> > Pittsburgh Streamlined Trolleys> > your West Penn book,> > the popular orange West Penn Book> > The Time of the Trolley (2) Middleton> > The Interurban Era (2) Middleton> > When the Steam Railroads Electrified> > Trolley Car Treasury Rowsome> > Not Only Freight CERA> > Hilton put out a useful reference on interurbans. (2)> > There was also a reprint of Moody's from around 1924.> > CERA did reprints of GE and Westinghouse phamplets.> > Interurbans did a two volume set on Trackless Trolleys> > CERA's West Penn book for the Pittsburgh region.> > PTM's pamplets on PRC.> > DeGraw's Red Arrow book> > Cox's books on Philadelphia> > PCC, The Car That Fought Back, Stephen Carlson and Fred Schneider > > III (2)> > Electric Railway Handbook, Albert Richey (ARM reprint)> > Chicago Surface Lines, Alan Lind> > Electric Railways of Japan series (3 volumes), Demery, Forty, > > DeGroote & Higgins> > The Cable Car history by George Hilton.> > They Moved the Masses> > McGraw Hill weekly magazine> > Street Railway Journal> > Electric Railway Journal,> > Transit Journal (1884-1944)> > Electric Railway Review> > Electric Railway Dictionary> > McGraw's Directory.> > Streetcar Suburbs Sam Warner> > Empires of Light Jill Jonnes> >> > Here are some that Ihave added:> >> > Breezers: The History of Open Cars 1993 Meyers Transportation Trails> > Century of Subways 2003 Cuhady Indiana University> > Fontaine Fox's Tonnerville Trolley 1972 Galewitz/Winslow Schribner> > From Bullets to Bart 1989 Middleton/Carlson CERA> > From Small Town to Downtown History of Jewett Car Co 2004 Brough/ > > Graebner Indiana Univ> > Metropolitan Railways 2003 Middleton Indiana University> > Not Only Passengers 1992 Benedict/McFarlane CERA> > Pittsburgh How to See It 1916/2003 Fleming> > Subway Lives 1991 Dwyer Crown> > The "L" Development of Chicago's Rapit Transit System 1995 Moffat > > CERA> > The Federal Role in Urban Mass Transportation 1991 Smerk Indiana Univ> > The Last Interurban 2003 Middleton CERA> > Traction Classics Vol 2 1985 Middleton Golden West> > Traction Classics Vol I 1983 Middleton Golden West> > Trolley Wars-Streetcar Workers on the Line 1996 Molloy Smithsonian> > Urban Mass Transit 2007 Post Greenwood> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> > Dennis F. Cramer> > Trombone> >> >> >> > 
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