[PRCo] Re: Mattapan-Ashmont PCC-D Seats

[Fred Schneider]

Relative youth is an interesting term, isn't it Ken.

I remember people asking me at the Baltimore Streetcar Museum, "How  
many people will this car hold?"   My answer was, "At 5:15 in the  
afternoon, if you can stand on the street and look in any window and  
see daylight from the other windows on the other side of the car,  
there's room for more people."    Paraphrased, "As many as you can  
pack in."

Last October I was in München (Munich, if you wish to Anglicize it)  
and observed that ageless philosophy in practice on a Sunday  
afternoon.   By best guess is that they were packing over 200 people  
in a single articulated car.  And we saw it over and over and over,  
route at route, car after car, all over the city.

I always wondered who got the TDH 4510s and 4511s.   The common  
models were the 4509s with steel springs and then it jumped to 4512s  
with air suspension.   What was the difference with the 4511?   Width?

I would love to see a complete GMC production list.   What was the  
3611?   and why did they jump from the TDH 3612 to an air suspension  
TDH 3714?   Was there a 3613? Or was someone suspicious and there was  
no 13?   I have to admit, having driven a few GMs, that they built a  
nice vehicle.   They were easy to drive and the were certainly durable.

Oh, and there were a lot of them in Pittsburgh.

On Feb 7, 2008, at 2:42 AM, Ken & Tracie wrote:

> Mark,
>
> You are tipping off us older folk to your relative youth! :-)
>
> I grew up in a transit oriented town during the years of declining
> patronize. I can recall "standees" ("strap-hangers") not getting a  
> seat for
> several miles, often the entire length of their trip.
>
> If they transferred to another line, benches weren't the norm and they
> continued to stand, waiting for their connection!
>
> At that point, any seat might have been comfortable to them......
>
> ..........but not quite.
>
> In the interest of economy, our transit company ordered a group of GMC
> Fishbowls equipped with hard, fiberglass seats. Passengers learned  
> the fleet
> numbers of these coaches and would step back from the stops to let  
> 'em by,
> especially during rush hour or on close headway routes, if a  
> following bus
> was in sight. The older TDH-4511s and TDH-5105s, even the smelly,  
> noisier
> gasoline powered Twin Coaches were preferred to that group of 1700s  
> with
> those "awful plastic seats."
>
> Subsequent new buses orders arrived with the traditional soft seats.
>
> K.
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Mark McGuire" <macmarka at netzero.net>
> To: <pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org>
> Sent: Wednesday, February 06, 2008 3:35 PM
> Subject: [PRCo] Re: (No 
Date: Wed, 6 Feb 2008 11:22:15 -0800
>
>
>> How long is this line? I don't think it's very long and thankfully  
>> so. I
>> don't think many people could take a long ride sitting on those  
>> seats.
>
>