[PRCo] Re: Johnstown 362

Sun Jul 11 10:42:25 EDT 2010

I had a couple accidents my first summer with the CTA, but they involved someone hitting rear of bus.  No accidents my second summer.

> From: ktjosephson at embarqmail.com
> To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
> Subject: [PRCo] Re: Johnstown 362
> Date: Sun, 11 Jul 2010 07:16:41 -0700
> 
> The private company contracted to run the local bus system in Las Vegas used 
> to fire drivers after their first accident, so they could get a break on 
> their insurance by claiming their work force was entirely accident free.
> 
> The turnover was so frequent, they revised their policy. Now they fire 
> drivers for their first CHARGEABLE accident.
> 
> Three hard braking applications during one's driving career will also get a 
> driver terminated.
> 
> All this for $10 per hour in a city where red light running and using 
> turning lanes as passing lanes is the rule rather than the exception.
> 
> The transit system's management team also complains to the local media they 
> cannot keep enough drivers to fill schedules and has made overtime 
> mandatory.
> 
> K.
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Fred Schneider" <fwschneider at comcast.net>
> To: <pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org>
> Sent: Sunday, July 11, 2010 5:45 AM
> Subject: [PRCo] Re: Johnstown 362
> 
> 
> > Except for one of the newest PAT bus drivers who writes the PAT column for 
> > the museum ...
> >
> > Chris was able to get a job driving a bus for PAT this year when he got 
> > his college degree but he wasn't able to get a broadcasting job. Sad.
> >
> >
> > On Jul 10, 2010, at 10:49 PM, John Swindler wrote:
> >
> >>
> >> Suspected the damage to 362 occurred in Illinois. It was stored outside 
> >> at RTY among several unused cars, so chances of an accident were 
> >> minimal. But stored in a carbarn in Illinois with cars entering and 
> >> exiting - much higher likelihood of an accident.
> >>
> >> The difference between a trolley museum and a transit system is that a 
> >> transit system has multiple routes and only one or a few trolley (or bus) 
> >> models, while a museum has only one route to learn, but every car can be 
> >> different. And as you know, I'm familiar with both situations.
> >>
> >> There is also the part time nature of a trolley museum. Transit service 
> >> is a full time job, which means 5-6 days per week. You don't forget 
> >> things day to day. But trolley museums are part time endeavors, which 
> >> means it can be a short term memory test - at least for first trip. 
> >> That's why I like to use weekdays for 'refresher' training when things 
> >> can be much less hectic.
> >>
> >>
> >> Speaking of hectic, there is a stress with schedule adherence on a 
> >> transit system. We don't operate a 90 second headway at PTM as was the 
> >> case with the 36 Broadway rush hour many years ago. That is, at PTM, we 
> >> don't have to take the "chances" in traffic that happens daily on a 
> >> transit system. We can be more concerned with safety crossing Main St. 
> >> because a tight schedule is not a consideration.
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> On transit systems, accidents happen. I see this from the rail safety 
> >> work. But a museum can truly strive for zero accidents.
> >>
> >>
> >> But as you mentioned, most operators come to museums later in life. We 
> >> are not as "agile" as in earlier years. Have to be careful of knees, 
> >> ankles, back, etc. These were not concerns in my younger years with the 
> >> CTA, nor your Strasburg days.
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> And as for younger transit operators grasping concepts better then at 
> >> museums, I would not bet on it. Museums are going to attract a much 
> >> higher educational level then the typical transit system new employee. 
> >> Even in today's economy it is difficult to find good transit employees. 
> >> Many applicants are "weeded out", either in pre-employment or initial 
> >> training. (from a large transit system manager this end of the state - 
> >> said they are still scrapping the bottom of the barrel for employees)
> >>
> >> Cheers
> >>
> >> John
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>> From: fwschneider at comcast.net
> >>> Subject: [PRCo] Re: Johnstown 362
> >>> Date: Fri, 9 Jul 2010 11:26:16 -0400
> >>> To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
> >>>
> >>> And Dave Hamley explained that the accident damage happened at the 
> >>> museum in Illinois.
> >>> Museums have several problems that probably result in a much high 
> >>> accident ratio than the street railway industry as a whole had ... just 
> >>> my hunch with no statistics to back it up. Museums really don't have 
> >>> good accident per mile stats to compare with the transit industry as a 
> >>> whole. But we do know that a streetcar probably ran 30,000 miles a year 
> >>> in public service and an operator worked about 18,000 miles. Interurban 
> >>> cars? I suspect a car on the Indiana Railroad or the C&LE might have 
> >>> easily run up several hundred thousand miles in a year. I remember Jim 
> >>> Shuman telling me of seeing a trainman in the morning about to leave 
> >>> Indianpolis for Louisville and then seeing the same man later that day 
> >>> getting on a car to pilot it on his second round trip of the day to 
> >>> Louisville. That would be about 480 miles of running in one day! In the 
> >>> depression he had to be glad just to have the job. If you multiply that 
> >>> out to a full year, that is 149,760 miles of twirling a con!
> >>> troller if he was forced to work 6 days a week with no vacations and no 
> >>> holidays.
> >>>
> >>> 1. Most museum operators work a few hundred miles a year or fewer. If 
> >>> you want to get good, you need to work 18,000 miles a year.
> >>>
> >>> 2. Most museum operators suffer with all sorts of control and brake 
> >>> schemes. Even though I've never seen a drum controller that didn't wind 
> >>> up clockwise and wide off counterclockwise, you surely get confused when 
> >>> get something like an old K-8 at the Baltimore Streetcar Museum where 
> >>> the off position is at 4 o'clock instead of 1'oclock and the full 
> >>> parallel position is where your mind instinctively tells you the off 
> >>> position should be. If you were working for Pittsburgh Railways, you 
> >>> would have had PCCs of one or two classes (and they behaved pretty much 
> >>> the same) and perhaps high speed yellow cars with the same controller 
> >>> and brake valve. You couldn't get confused.
> >>>
> >>> Between the museums I work, I have K8, K35, K36, K63, PCM, PC, type M, 
> >>> HL which is really type M because that's what Pittsburgh wanted. I've 
> >>> also run foot operated type PCM and hand VA and some other weird schemes 
> >>> like the Cineston on a Muni Bandit at Western. Even PK at Branford.
> >>>
> >>> Even worse are the variety of brake schemes in museums. If you work at 
> >>> PTM you will be confronted with self-lapping straight air, manually 
> >>> lapped straight air (and with a variety of valves to the same thing but 
> >>> designed to confuse), and PCCs with air (1183) or all-electric. But I 
> >>> also work in Baltimore, so add one more type of self-lapping straight 
> >>> air and cars with hand brakes. I've also worked cars with dynamic 
> >>> braking drum controllers at National Capital (it might have been their 
> >>> Linz, Austria car) and a London double decker at Crich ... these are all 
> >>> similar to West Penn Railways had. I also had two years on the payroll 
> >>> in engine service and almost eight more years as a brakeman at the 
> >>> Strasburg Rail Road so I do understand automatic air ... I've run steam 
> >>> engines, an MU car for 35 miles on the Pennsy mainline, a CA&E car at 
> >>> RTY and a PE Blimp at Orange Empire, all with automatic air.
> >>>
> >>> 3. Today most of our museum operators come to us in their 40s, 50s, 60s. 
> >>> It's a lot easier to train a man or woman to run a vehicle when they are 
> >>> 16, 17, 18 maybe even 25 than it is when they are 65. They grasp 
> >>> concepts a lot more readily and retain them longer and better when 
> >>> they're young.
> >>>
> >>> I'm really surprised that we don't have more accidents in our museums.
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> On Jul 8, 2010, at 9:03 PM, John Swindler wrote:
> >>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> Perhaps getting some cars from Trolleyville that once operated in the 
> >>>> Chicago area had something to do with the storage space issue.
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> At one time car 362 was at RTY.
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>> From: fwschneider at comcast.net
> >>>>> Date: Thu, 8 Jul 2010 14:57:05 -0400
> >>>>> Subject: [PRCo] Johnstown 362
> >>>>> To: Pittsburgh-Railways at Dementia.Org
> >>>>>
> >>>>> Scott Becker got his name in the Johnstown Tribune Democrat yesterday. 
> >>>>> Seems the guys out at the Fox River Trolley Museum (Illinois) did not 
> >>>>> have enough storage space for their former Johnstown car. Becker found 
> >>>>> a home for it back in Cambria County. The links below lead to the 
> >>>>> story in the local papers.
> >>>>> Thanks to Ed Havens of Tucson, Arizona who forwarded the links to 
> >>>>> Frank Pfuhler in Brooklyn who passed it my way. Ed is an old 
> >>>>> Philadelphia fan.
> >>>>>
> >>>>> http://tribune-democrat.com/local/x279770942/84-year-old-streetcar-returns-to-Johnstown
> >>>>>
> >>>>> http://tinyurl.com/2wz5kvg
> >>>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> _________________________________________________________________
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> >>>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>
> >>
> >> _________________________________________________________________
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> >>
> >
> >
> > 
> 
> 

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