[PRCo] Re: 3800 Series LOST

[Fred Schneider]

OOOOPS!   Phil, all of the early low-floor production cars were  
double end.   Note the word production.
The first four cars were converted trailers.   They were initially  
single-end but I think they evolved with time into double end cars.    
The only one that last any length of time was 4423 which became an  
instruction car and then became a play room for Bob Brown and company  
in the old Pittsburgh Chapter of the National Railway Historical  
Society.   Most of the NRHS members were drafted during the war and  
the car shell became a lovely candidate for a war time metal scrap  
drive.   After the war most of those guys created the Pittsburgh  
Electric Railway Club.   I think many years later there was a  
Pittsburgh NRHS Chapter again but not the same guys.   And there  
really isn't any one I can ask.   Note that there are three founding  
members of PERC still around but all the old guys that were in the  
prewar NRHS group are pushing up daisies.

Then came the 4200s and 4300s. the double end motor cars came between  
1914 and 1917.   There were also a dozen second hand double-end cars  
from Beaver Valley Traction Company that PRC acquired in the 1920s  
and numbered 4400-4411; they were built in 1917 as a tag onto the 4350s.

The single end cars were all built starting in 1917 and continuing  
into 1927.

The exception to that rule is that 3556 was the prototype for the  
3700-3714 interurbans.

The 3750s were equivalent to the multiple unit equipped 5000s, 5100s  
and 5200s except that they were built for interurban service.  When  
new they had toilets.   They also had a higher gear ratio between  
traction motor pinions and the bull gears on the axles allowing for  
higher speeds but of course slower acceleration.   When the company  
selectively speeded up certain cars of the 4700-5549 group, I think  
they also did all the 3750s.   Ultimately ten of the 4350s were done,  
probably for the 99 Glassport line and our 4398 is one of the few  
high speed double end cars.

One thing I noticed when the truck was apart a few weeks ago is that  
it has helical drive gears.   Now that wasn't something that the car  
got when it was new.   I suspect the helical gears were installed as  
part of the rebuilding when the cars were speeded up to make them a  
little less noisy.   That was done in the early 1930s

I put a roster on line perhaps five years ago and I'm putting it on  
again.   But you need Microsoft Word to open it.

To make life easier for those who do not have Word, i.e. those who  
have the home MS Works edition or have Word Perfect, I resaved it as  
a text file.   It isn't formatted into pages ... just a bloody run on  
document, but you will be able to open it and read it.








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