[PRCo] Re: One-man cars in Pittsburgh

[Schneider Fred]

Let me correct something I wrote here ... the 1938 PUC edit was  
deadman control on one-man cars by 1938.   If you had an unconverted  
car in Pennsylvania with Jones control and you simply put the handles  
on the pipes that came up through the seat frames ... sorry guys ...  
you were going to run it with one man after 1938.   That does not say  
you could not use the car.   You simply had to put a conductor on  
it.   But Pittsburgh could not use it on their schedules.

Did they remember the regulation of Rege Cordic chartered a tow-car  
in the 1950s?   I have no clue.

How about if the railfans chartered a snow plow in the 1960s?  PAT  
didn't have to pay attention to the PUC.   They were not a private  
company.

On Jan 23, 2009, at 9:55 AM, Schneider Fred wrote:

> Deadman control was not required by PUC edict until 1938.   I think
> the 5400s and 5500s at least came with it.   The 4200s through 4700s
> did not.   The design technology was there by 1916.   Self lapping
> brakes were probably one of those things which could have been built
> at any time but were not because no one said we wanted them until e
> started to put air brakes on buses and trucks ... the first air brake
> valves on the Brill trolley coaches were the same as on Birney cars
> and were mounted to work with the left hand.   When someone decided
> it might work easier if you used a foot, then the self-lapping valve
> came into being.   PRC put them on the low-floor cars when they wee
> converted to high speed cars and only then.   The reason that 3756
> and 4398 have them is that both were rebuilt as high speed cars.
> The cars running in Washington PA and Donora in 1953 were all low-
> speed double end cars and had manually lapped valves.
>
> The route cards show schedule hours but not hours per day per man.
> Cannot answer that question.   Someone needs to look at union
> contracts and federal and state legislation.   I think you just
> volunteered.
>
>
> On Jan 23, 2009, at 7:17 AM, Dennis Fred Cramer wrote:
>
>> So the move to one man cars was well underway before the economy
>> hit the
>> tank.
>>
>> How does the data reflect the changes in technology?  ie:  money vs.
>> tokens, deadman controllers, self-lapping brakes, shorter work
>> hours for
>> operators, & eventually PCC's?
>>
>>
>> Dennis F. Cramer
>>       Trombone
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>