I am trying to estimate the weight of a modified PCC and I thought I could base my estimate on the weight of a regular PCC car. Anybody know what a Washington DC PCC weighed?

tnold@arsengrs.com

Our three LARy PCC's weigh as follows:

Type P-1 33,800 lb built 1937
Type P-2 34,140 lb " 1943
Type P-3 37,600 lb " 1948

Wrong side of the country. Hope that helps some.

Orange Empire Railway Museum
wyld@sbcglobal.net

From PCC cars of North America by Herold Cox, the DC PCC's weighed:

1101 - 1195 33,800
1196 - 1233 34,440
1234 - 1332 34,440
1333 - 1399 35,020
1400 - 1464 36,360
1465 - 1539 35,740
1540 - 1589 35,740

Randy Hees

> I am trying to estimate the weight of a
> modified PCC and I thought I could base my
> estimate on the weight of a regular PCC car.
> Anybody know what a Washington DC PCC
> weighed?


http://www.spcrr.org
hees@ix.netcom.com

Thanks. The shop man at Tandy came up with about 40,000#, so that sounds consistent with the modifications that they made to the cars.

We're good on the weight, all I need now is a double drop deck trailer and we're ready to move our subway cars.

When I get some spare time (what is that?) I'll try to submit a brief. RadioShack gave us a subway car and we're going to work with the Leonard family on a second car. Hope to sign a lease on a carbarn this week.

Andy Nold
North Texas Historic Transportation, Inc.
Fort Worth, Texas

> From PCC cars of North America by Herold
> Cox, the DC PCC's weighed:

> 1101 - 1195 33,800
> 1196 - 1233 34,440
> 1234 - 1332 34,440
> 1333 - 1399 35,020
> 1400 - 1464 36,360
> 1465 - 1539 35,740
> 1540 - 1589 35,740

> Randy Hees


ray.nold@verizon.net

Digging up an ancient thread means that I have exhausted the search feature of this forum.

I am looking for a weight of a 1949 PCC car. I have found the light weight of the car to be around 35,000 lbs. Brookville's sales literature puts their rebuilt/modernized PCC trucks at 10,000 lbs. each. So doing a little math I find that the carbody must weigh in the neighborhood of 15,000 lbs. Is that the general consensus as to the weight of a PCC carbody?

Standard type B2 PCC trucks with motors and track brakes weighed 8650 lbs.

The PRCo 1700 series PCCs weighed right around 38,000 lbs.

OK thanks. That gets the weight of the carbody at around 21,000 lbs. Compared to some of the other stuff that I deal with that is light as a feather!

That's all? They'd practically be legal at NARCOA meets...

I'm surprised there aren't some privately owned 'travelling guest' streetcars around. All you would need to move many of them would be a RGN and semi tractor, and permission from a host line to operate, nothing as complex as a locomotive. I didn't say cheap but the cost would be in line with what many boats or private aircraft cost....

Robert

Based on experience with a well-qualified leading trucking company it costs between $8-$10,000 to move a streetcar one way on the east coast. Unlike a visit by one of the Gramling's engines or the blue engine I don't see a traveling streetcar covering costs of transportation.

I'd have to agree 100% with Wes on this one. Given the level of attraction between a steam loco and a trolley, there's no way trucking just about any trolley around would ever pay for itself. Even it you had your own truck rig, it'd still be a difficult sell. Then there's the gauge issue. Three of the more popular museums in eastern North America are not standard gauge. Yep, far better to get the public to come to your museum rather than try to take your trolleys to the public.

I just have to ask, of the "more popular museums in eastern North America," which are apparently narrow gauge, are you talking about here?

If someone was to take on such a concept, it may not always be about making a buck on it. I wonder if the Eureka covers its costs for example. A classic trolley, with a proper "green" power plant, and meeting required wheel and safety standards, might be a nice tool to draw in some visitors on some of the smaller standard gauge, or even narrow gauge, operations.

That is an interesting concept, a travelling streetcar and genset, but I see some other complications beyond what size crowd would it draw. Depending on where you ran it, it may have to be FRA legal, which gets into safety appliances, air brakes, wheel contour, having a loud enough horn, I'm sure many other things. I'm not saying this is impossible, I can picture a few spots (even here in New Jersey) where a ride on a toastrack or 'breezer' would be pleasant, but someone would have to do a lot of homework on the FRA side of things.

JR, the museums in question are not narrow gauge. I believe the poster is talking about museums that use the Pennsylvania Trolley Gauge of 5' - 2 1/2" gauge.

Keith

Ok, so by “not standard,” we are talking something other than standard. Good point. I guess my vision for such a concept is to bring a traveling trolley to locations where you don’t already have trolleys in operation, so, I was thinking standard gauge although 3’ might be interesting as well.