[PRCo] Re: 4398

[Fred Schneider]

Can you imagine riding a 3750 or a 3700 all the way from Roscoe or Washington to Pittsburgh.   One can understand why those with brains used the Pennsylvania Railroad if you were going more than a few miles for it was better than a case of whiplash.   

Ever since my friend Bill Vigrass wrote that article for Headlights on his circle tour of the West Penn and PRC when he was a kid ... he came down from Cleveland and met a friend in Mount Lebanon and they rode to Trafford, bus to Irwin, West Penn to Greensburg, Uniontown, Brownsville, PRR to Roscoe, PRC to Castle Shannon, then the shuttle back to Mount Lebanon.   He had to suffer because his particular northbound trip on the Pittsburgh interurban that day wasn't a more customary 3800 (note I didn't say that only 3800s were used) or a low 3700 but a stink'n 3750.   I've felt sorry for him every time I think of that trip.

And, Dennis and the rest of you, I sure Art was comparing suspension between a Pittsburgh low-floor and a Philly 5200 or 80-hundred.   The Philly city cars were much smoother than "our" city cars.  Now compare a 3750 which was nothing more than a very high speed city car to a Red Arrow center door with MCB trucks.   They are both capable of about the same speed.   I can notch 66 up to full speed down hill on PTM's track ... let it roll at close to 50 mph and you would think you were in a P70 coach on the Pennsylvania Railroad.   (OK, I'm stretching it.   Our track isn't that good.)   But those MCB trucks are good.   


On Jun 3, 2010, at 8:18 AM, Dennis F Cramer wrote:

> I had my first opportunity at operating PRCo 4398 at PTM on Wednesday.  As an instructor, I had to be qualified on the car before I can qualify others.  (I did receive some verbal and written direction in advance and Walt Pilof, Operations Manager was there.)  We (my conductor was a student operator working his second shift at the museum) ended up taking about 8 shop volunteers and almost 20 museum visitors on a complete trip of the line, with the project manager, Jack Sutherland, taking temperature readings from each of the 8 bearings in several different locations along the line. 
> The good news is the bearings stayed below 90 degrees and several actually cooled the longer we ran.  The ambient air temperature was in the mid 80's and it was humid.  The other good news was that after the typical start from Arden Loop, the car rolled freely to Fairgrounds Siding.  Earlier in the day, Jack Sutherland had tweaked the air horns so they we not quite so objectionable to the ears.  
> 
> The car has not been released to the operating department as of yet and the Instructors are now being qualified.  It won't be long before you too can ride into the past on what Art Ellis described as a typical Pittsburgh car after our new trainee stated it was kind of rough riding.  Art said, "Just compare the springs underneath a Pittsburgh car with those under a Philadelphia car and you will see why the ride is rough.  It is a typical Pittsburgh car, that is the way they rode."  Art would know.
> 
> 
> 
>          Dennis F. Cramer
> http://home.windstream.net/dfc1
> 
> 
>