Just received an email from a friend in Dallas describing delivery of a Tandy PCC from Ft. Worth. Anyone have more details? Sorry, but I am web-challenged and cannot post the picture that came with the email.

Wesley

National Capital Trolley Museum

MATA bought one of the Tandy Subway cars from RadioShack for use on their line. They are running 7 days a week, 13 hour days with minimum of 2 cars at all times and 3 cars committed for rush hour. They desperately need additional cars to meet their service commitments and still maintain the equipment.

All of the cars at MATA have nicknames and this car has been tentatively dubbed Winnie - as in Winnebago due to its boxy appearance. It has also been tentatively renumbered 143. It is one of the Washington DC frames.

The Tandy Car will need several modifications to operate successfully on McKinney Avenue, since they are street-level and Tandy Center was platform level operations.

I helped get the car going on Wednesday evening, and all we did was put a longer pole in the trolley base and add water to the batteries. We were running the car back and forth on the reserve strip leading to the Citiplace DART Station inbetween regular service cars. Even though the body is somewhat of an ugly duck, the car is fast and quiet when compared to the traditional equipment that MATA has been running. On one run, the car approached me and I did not hear any noise until it was about 20 feet away, and then it was the blower on the MG set that I heard, not wheel noise. This car is going to become the operator's favorite fairly quickly I imagine (especially since it has AC).

The original short trolley on the car was apparently insulated from the head. And, even though the spring base was mounted on a large oak board, when we added the long trolley we energized the spring base. With the severe rain over the past two days, a short developed. It kicked the rectifier off causing service delays Friday morning.

I was surprised to see that the car did not have a seatbelt or a bar for the operator to hold on to. It was a little disconcerting to me as a long-time standard streetcar operator to be able to accelerate and brake that quickly without something to hold onto ;-)

MATA intends to make some major cosmetic alterations to the car to enhance the appearance. There has been some discussion of emulating a shovel-nose (that'd be something to see coming down the street), but I believe the priority will be to get the car in service, regardless of the appearance. MATA has also purchased extra truck frames for use under their Toronto PCC to convert to standard gage.

Radio Shack donated one of the Tandy Cars to North Texas Historic Transportation in Fort Worth and one to Marty Leonard, descendant of Marvin Leonard/Leonard's Department Store/M&O Subway. NTHT was recently given Tandy Car No. 1, the only original carbody existing - also informally known as a Silver Suppository. We are acquiring additional trucks and running gear to restore this car to operable condition. We also have an original Fort Worth Birney and a 12-window Stone & Webster Turtleback.

Andy Nold
tnold@northtexastransport.org

> Just received an email from a friend in
> Dallas describing delivery of a Tandy PCC
> from Ft. Worth. Anyone have more details?
> Sorry, but I am web-challenged and cannot
> post the picture that came with the email.

> Wesley


tnold@northtexastransport.org