[PRCo] Re: Question about 69 Squirrel Hill Route

[Phillip Clark Campbell]

John Baxter wrote the "Electric Railroads" 1952 article about
the Prc interurbans.  This is 12-letter-sized pages.  Contributing
to the article were 3-reporters from the "Washington [Pa.]
Reporter."

Newton E. Tucker, Albert R. Dauk, William A. Keller, and
Karl H. Hittle from Prc were contributors along with
Kempton F. McNutt of the Philadelphia Co. and
Herman P. Hewitt, retired Washington operator with
46-years of local and interurban service.

Photo credits include Robert H. Brown, Charles J. Dengler,
Edward S. Miller, and Harry C. Bartley.


The following is page-6, top right above the map.  This reveals
more than I remembered and is most interesting.  I am sure many
here have this article don't they; please verify the "facts" as they
are quoted below:


"In January 1946, local PCC car 1613 from Craft Ave. car house,
with some minor body changes (fender replaced by pilot, trolley
retreiver lowered, rear window opened, fare box replaced by Ohmer
register, etc.) had some weight applied to its trucks and became
the first experimental PCC interurban car.  The next month special
St.Louis-built trucks, which had earlier been applied to PCC car
1278 for use on Rt. 37-Shannon, were rebuilt and applied to 1613.
Later 10 special trucks [sets] were bought and applied to various
PCC cars (as indicated by the accompanying roster) for
interurban service.  Placed on the Washington route, they served
as guinea pigs for various components later ordered for the
1700--1724 series of PCCs delivered in 1949 expressly for
interurban use."

"All cars in service on interurban routes are provided with extra
equipment as follows: extra trolley pole mounted on roof, fire
extinguisher, flashlight, trolley wire pickup, glass covered took
kit including axe, wrenches, sledge, etc."

The above is what I have written previously on the topic
relative to 1613 entering interurban service with B2 trucks.  New
information indicates car 1613 first used the experimental B3
trucks in revenue service Feb-1946 doesn't it.

http://lists.dementix.org/mlist/pittsburgh-railways/2012-05/msg00048.html


The complete interurban roster (mentioned above) is not included.
Please refer to your copies of this article.


Phil




________________________________
 From: TEP <tompark at telus.net>
To: pittsburgh-railways at dementix.org 
Sent: Friday, May 4, 2012 6:29 PM
Subject: [PRCo] Re: Question about 69 Squirrel Hill Route
 
Sounds odd to me as we are always trying to minimise the unsprung truck
weight -- up to the point where the truck is unstable or has wheel-lift that
could cause a derailment. Possibly this is why, a truck designed for slower
speeds on street track, needed better stability for higher speeds on "T"
railtrack. Lighter trucks mean less wheel and rail wear and slightly lower
power consumption.
Tom Parkinson P.Eng, Vancouver BC Canada 604-733-5430, fax 604-733-5437

On 04/05/2012 12:52, Fred Schneider wrote: Or does heavier simply mean super
resilient wheels instead of the regular design? There really isn't an easy
way to add weight to a B2 truck unless you were to weld weight to the
bolsteror fill the frame tubes with something like concrete. I'm skeptical.
Istill want someone to tell me how it was done rather than simply tell me
thetrucks were heavier. Phillip, where did you get this information that
weight was
 added to them? On May 4, 2012, at 3:37 PM, Derrick Brashear
wrote: