[PRCo] Transit Happenings (Not Necessarily PRCo)

Wed Jul 9 15:02:29 EDT 2014

I hope you understand that I was joking about all these people who don't want South American children in the United States because they might have to spend some of their money.   They are the ones that need a reminder about what the Indians thought about the white man.  

But now back to Garcia…..

Now there is a guy whom I wish would get e-mail.   He once told me how he began learning about air brakes.   As a kid, he pedaled his bike over to Watts and began interrogating the guys in the Pacific Electric car house about what all those things under the cars did.   Of course, by then (he is my age), all that was left were the Blimps and some former Hollywood cars running Watts local runs.     But like a lot of us, Dave picked up enough to get him started and then he began reading, studying, asking more questions until he became the guy you ask today.   Today he is in his mid 70s and is the national expert in that field.   And because OERM has former PE Blimps, tens, twelves and locomotives, he understands not just straight air systems but also automatic (train) air.     

Don't know how advanced he is, though.   Maybe I should send him a snail mail letter to see if his knowledge goes up to the newer self-lapping automatic air systems?????

Dwight, maybe 40 years ago I came to realize that the intelligence in this hobby was contained in the minds of a small number of people and I may not know all of them but the hobby was small enough that by asking the right ten people, I could always find the person I needed to find.    And Dave Garcia is one of those people whose name always surfaces when you want to know about air brake systems.    What that man doesn't know, simply isn't important.

And I will openly thank him for his help in our PCC books.   You saw the one picture of me on the dust jacket of PCC-The Car That Fought Back standing next to a Los Angeles truck?     I needed a picture of the Los Angeles narrow gauge PCC truck for the PCC book.   Dave's solution was to take one out from under a car at Orange Empire and photograph it.   What you do not see in that picture is him running the crane.    Problem was, once he got it out from under 3001, he found other problems.   When I left at 9 PM that evening to drive back to Hollywood, he and his gang were still working in on the truck!   

On Jul 9, 2014, at 2:27 PM, Dwight Long wrote:

> 
> Not to be confused with Garcia, which is the first language of air brakes in California----------------
> 
> From: Fred Schneider 
> Sent: Wednesday, 09 July, 2014 13:10
> To: Western PA Trolley discussion 
> Subject: Re: [PRCo] Transit Happenings (Not Necessarily PRCo)
> Gracias.   (The second language in southern California.)   :<)
> 
> 
> On Jul 9, 2014, at 1:04 PM, Dwight Long wrote:
> 
>> 
>> Fred
>> 
>> It was cut back from San Bernardino to Covina, with most trips ending at Baldwin Park, on 2 November 1941.  During WW II there were numerous special runs made to SB for military personnel. Also during events at the Fairgrounds in Pomona specials were routinely run to that point.  I’m not sure when the last pax special ran into SB;  obviously some time before the wire was pulled in the early 50s, AIR.
>> 
>> The RPO you cited was the very last trolley RPO;  that of the Indiana Railroad between New Castle and Ft. Wayne was second last—it went out in 1941.
>> 
>> Dwight
>> 
>> From: Fred Schneider 
>> Sent: Wednesday, 09 July, 2014 12:45
>> To: Western PA Trolley discussion 
>> Subject: Re: [PRCo] Transit Happenings (Not Necessarily PRCo)
>> It would be nice to have the passenger numbers for that line, Dennis, but it seems like it was designed to fail like heritage trolley lines in places like Little Rock, Memphis, Tampa, Galveston…..
>> 
>> Opened in 1914.   Five years later, when Dwight Eisenhower crossed the country in a military convoy to push for better roads, it was noted that the best highways outside the east were in California.   By 1924 riding was turning down because we were in our automobiles.  So the interurban to San Berdoo had ten good years or perhaps fewer than that.   
>> 
>> Sometime in the 1930s the passenger service on the eastern end of the line ended but an RPO continued until 1950.
>> 
>> Track is still there, however.   The every-other-day Amtrak Sunset Limited uses the old PE line out of LA.   It's the line in the middle of the freeway.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> On Jul 9, 2014, at 6:30 AM, DF Cramer wrote:
>> 
>>> More not PRCo--from sunny Southern California. They always seem to know how to throw a good party.
>>> http://www.sbsun.com/general-news/20140707/the-great-silver-spike-celebration-marked-a-new-link-with-la
>>> 
>>> Dennis F. Cramer 
>>> http://home.windstream.net/dfc1/
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
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