The PCC (Presidents' Conference Committee) is a
streetcar (tram) design that was first built in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
in the 1930s. The design proved successful in its native country, and after
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
it was licensed for use elsewhere in the world where PCC based cars were made. The PCC car has proved to be a long-lasting icon of streetcar design, and many remain in service around the world.
Origins
The "PCC" initialism originated from the design committee formed in 1929 as the "Presidents' Conference Committee", renamed the "Electric Railway Presidents' Conference Committee" (ERPCC) in 1931. The group's membership consisted primarily of representatives of several large operators of U.S. urban electric
street railways plus potential manufacturers. Three
interurban
The Interurban (or radial railway in Europe and Canada) is a type of electric railway, with streetcar-like electric self-propelled rail cars which run within and between cities or towns. They were very prevalent in North America between 1900 a ...
lines and at least one "heavy rail", or
rapid transit
Rapid transit or mass rapid transit (MRT), also known as heavy rail or metro, is a type of high-capacity public transport generally found in urban areas. A rapid transit system that primarily or traditionally runs below the surface may be c ...
, operator—
Chicago Rapid Transit Company
The Chicago Rapid Transit Company (CRT) was a privately owned firm providing rapid transit rail service in Chicago, Illinois and several adjacent communities between 1924 and 1947. The CRT is one of the predecessors of the Chicago Transit Autho ...
—were represented as well. Also included on the membership roll were manufacturers of surface cars (
streetcar
A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport are ...
s) and interested component suppliers.
ERPCC's goal was to design a
streamlined
Streamlines, streaklines and pathlines are field lines in a fluid flow.
They differ only when the flow changes with time, that is, when the flow is not steady.
Considering a velocity vector field in three-dimensional space in the framework of ...
, comfortable, quiet, and fast accelerating and braking streetcar that would be operated by a seated operator using floor mounted pedal controls to better meet the needs of the street railways and appeal to riders. ERPCC prepared a detailed research plan, conducted extensive research on streetcar design, built and tested components, made necessary modifications and revisions based upon the findings, and ultimately produced a set of specifications for a standardized and fixed design. It included a modest list of available options with ample room for customer customization, but was to be built with standard parts as opposed to a custom designed car body with diverse parts added depending on the whims and requirements of the individual customer. Numerous national and international users operated large fleets of PCC cars for many years.
Many design patents resulted from the work of ERPCC. These were transferred to a new business entity called the Transit Research Corporation (TRC) when ERPCC expired in 1936. Although this company continued the work of research on improvements to the basic design of the car and issued sets of specifications three times in the ensuing years, because TRC defined a PCC car as any vehicle which used patents on which it collected royalties, it was formed for the primary purpose of controlling those patents and promoting the standardization envisioned by the ERPCC. The company was funded by its collection of patent royalties from the railways which bought PCC cars. The company was controlled by a voting trust representing the properties which had invested in the work of ERPCC. One participant in Committee meetings, Philadelphia trolley manufacturer
JG Brill Company
The J.G. Brill Company manufactured streetcars,Young, Andrew D. (1997). ''Veteran & Vintage Transit'', p. 101. St. Louis: Archway Publishing. interurban coaches, motor buses, trolleybuses and railroad cars in the United States for almos ...
brought a competitive design—the
Brilliner—to market in 1938. Because
Raymond Loewy
Raymond Loewy ( , ; November 5, 1893 – July 14, 1986) was a French-born American industrial designer who achieved fame for the magnitude of his design efforts across a variety of industries. He was recognized for this by ''Time'' magazi ...
designed elements that were very similar to the PCC look, the Brilliner attracted no large orders, being built only for Atlantic City Transit and the Red Arrow Lines in suburban Philadelphia. Fewer than 50 were sold.
A significant contribution to the PCC design was noise reduction with extensive use of rubber in springs and other components to prevent rattle, vibration, and thus noise and to provide a level of comfort unknown before. Wheel tires were mounted between rubber sandwiches, and were electrically isolated so that shunts were required to complete a ground. Resilient wheels were used on most PCC cars, with later heftier versions known as "Super-Resilient".
Gears were another source of considerable noise, solved by employing
hypoid gears which are mounted at a right angle to the axle, where three of the six teeth constantly engaged the main gear, reducing lash and noise. All movable
truck
A truck or lorry is a motor vehicle designed to transport cargo, carry specialized payloads, or perform other utilitarian work. Trucks vary greatly in size, power, and configuration, but the vast majority feature body-on-frame construction ...
parts employed rubber for noise reduction as well. "Satisfactory Cushion Wheel of Vital Importance; Develop New Truck Design; Generous Use of Rubber" are headings within a paper that Chief Engineer
Clarence F. Hirshfeld
Clarence Floyd Hirshfeld (January 30, 1881 – April 19, 1939) was an American electrical, mechanical and consulting engineer, educator, chief of research for the Detroit Edison Co., now DTE Electric Company, author, and inventor, who was awarded ...
both presented and published.
After a specification document suitable for purchasing cars was generated by TRC, orders were placed by eight companies in 1935 and 1936. First was
Brooklyn & Queens Transit Corporation (B&QT) for 100 cars, then
Baltimore Transit Co. (BTCo) for 27 cars,
Chicago Surface Lines
The Chicago Surface Lines (CSL) was operator of the street railway system of Chicago, Illinois, from 1913 to 1947. The firm is a predecessor of today's publicly owned operator, the Chicago Transit Authority.
History
The first streetcars in Chi ...
(CSL) for 83 cars,
Pittsburgh Railways
Pittsburgh Railways was one of the predecessors of Pittsburgh Regional Transit. It had 666 PCC cars, the third largest fleet in North America (after Toronto (745) and Chicago (683)). It had 68 streetcar routes, of which only three (until April 5 ...
Co. (PRCO) for 101 cars,
San Diego Electric Railway
The San Diego Electric Railway (SDERy) was a mass transit system in Southern California, United States, using 600 volt DC streetcars and (in later years) buses.
The SDERy was established by sugar heir and land developer John D. Spreckels ...
(SDERy) for 25 cars,
Los Angeles Railway
The Los Angeles Railway (also known as Yellow Cars, LARy and later Los Angeles Transit Lines) was a system of streetcars that operated in Central Los Angeles and surrounding neighborhoods between 1895 and 1963. The system provided frequent loc ...
(LARy) for 60 cars, and then
Boston Elevated Railway
The Boston Elevated Railway (BERy) was a streetcar and rapid transit railroad operated on, above, and below, the streets of Boston, Massachusetts and surrounding communities. Founded in 1894, it eventually acquired the West End Street Railwa ...
(BERy) for one car. In late 1935 or early in 1936
Westinghouse Electric Corporation
The Westinghouse Electric Corporation was an American manufacturing company founded in 1886 by George Westinghouse. It was originally named "Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company" and was renamed "Westinghouse Electric Corporation" in ...
pressed for one car to be equipped with their electrical equipment for testing in Pittsburgh, since the Brooklyn order would have all cars equipped by
General Electric
General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable energ ...
, and
Clark Equipment Company
Clark Equipment Company was an American designer, manufacturer, and seller of industrial and construction machinery and equipment.
History
Clark's predecessor was the George R. Rich Manufacturing Company, founded in 1903 in Chicago, Illinoi ...
pressed for one car to be made by them of aluminum for delivery to B&QT. Agreements among the parties were reached whereby
St Louis Car Company
The St. Louis Car Company was a major United States manufacturer of railroad passenger cars, streetcars, interurbans, trolleybuses and locomotives that existed from 1887 to 1974, based in St. Louis, Missouri.
History
The St. Louis Car Company ...
would build 101 essentially identical cars and Clark would build one of its own body design.
Brooklyn received its first car number 1001 on May 28, 1936, PRCo took delivery of car number 100 on July 26, 1936, and Baltimore received its first car on September 2, 1936. In the late 1936 discussions of operating experience it was noted that the Brooklyn car had run 3,000 miles by the time the Pittsburgh car had run 1,000 miles. One of the key patents was filed by Dan H. Bell on January 8, 1937, and granted on July 5, 1938, and entitled, "Rail Car or Similar Article," Patent No. 110,384. The first car to be placed in a scheduled public service was PRCo 100 in August and B&QT launched its first scheduled service with a group of cars on October 1, 1936, followed by CSL on November 13, 1936. Production continued in North America by St. Louis Car Co. and
Pullman Standard
The Pullman Company, founded by George Pullman, was a manufacturer of railroad cars in the mid-to-late 19th century through the first half of the 20th century, during the boom of railroads in the United States. Through rapid late-19th century d ...
until 1952, with 4,978 units being built. Under license to use the designs patented by TRC, thousands more PCC and partially PCC type cars were produced in Europe through the last half of the 20th century. The cars were well-built and many hundreds are still in operation. The majority of large North American streetcar systems surviving after 1935 purchased PCC streetcars; those systems which eventually terminated streetcar operations often sold their cars to surviving operators.
The
Melbourne & Metropolitan Tramways Board
The Melbourne & Metropolitan Tramways Board (MMTB) was a government-owned authority that was responsible for the tram network in Melbourne, Australia between 1919 and 1983, when it was merged into the Metropolitan Transit Authority. It had bee ...
(MMTB) in Australia was keen to build two new tram routes after World War II, and these routes would be served by PCC Streetcars. The MMTB decided that it was too expensive and Melbourne only ever had two PCC streetcars, of which one was a prototype for a completely different class.
Several dozen remain in public transit service, such as the
in Boston, and in
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
, Kenosha, San Diego and San Francisco following extensive overhauling. All other surviving and functional North American PCC cars are operated by museums and heritage railways. Several retired PCCs from Boston, Cleveland, and Philadelphia were purchased as scrap and have been privately stored just outside
Windber, Pennsylvania
Windber is a borough in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, United States, about south of Johnstown. It was at one time a place of industrial activities which included coal mining, lumbering, and the manufacture of fire brick. In 1897, the community ...
since 1992.
Washington, D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
, PCCs were unique because of
conduit plows which collected current from a slot between the rails into which the plow dipped, contacting positive and negative rails under the street on either side. At the city limits were "plow pits", where the plow was dropped and removed, the
trolley pole
A trolley pole is a tapered cylindrical pole of wood or metal, used to transfer electricity from a "live" (electrified) overhead wire to the control and the electric traction motors of a tram or trolley bus. It is a type of current collector. Th ...
raised, and the car then continued along using overhead wire. The process was reversed in the opposite direction into Washington.
"The PCC car was not just another
modular vehicle
A modular vehicle is one in which substantial components of the vehicle are interchangeable. This modularity is intended to make repairs and maintenance easier, or to allow the vehicle to be reconfigured to suit different functions.
Another appl ...
but the result of the only systems engineering approach to mass producing a rail car." Research into passenger comfort resulting from vibrations, acceleration, lighting, heating and cooling, seat spacing, cushion height, space for arms, legs, standing passengers, economies of weight affecting maintenance, cost of power, reduced wear of components and track. Dimensions were established to fit the majority but could easily be changed for special situations. Windows were spaced to match seating.
While some of the components in the PCC car had been used before—
resilient wheels,
magnetic braking, sealed gears, and modular design to name a few—the ERPCC redesigned, refined, and perfected many of these while developing new acceleration and braking controls and put them all in one package.
Manufacturing
![BostonPictureWindow](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/db/BostonPictureWindow.jpg)
PCC cars were initially built in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
by the
St Louis Car Company
The St. Louis Car Company was a major United States manufacturer of railroad passenger cars, streetcars, interurbans, trolleybuses and locomotives that existed from 1887 to 1974, based in St. Louis, Missouri.
History
The St. Louis Car Company ...
(SLCCo) and
Pullman Standard
The Pullman Company, founded by George Pullman, was a manufacturer of railroad cars in the mid-to-late 19th century through the first half of the 20th century, during the boom of railroads in the United States. Through rapid late-19th century d ...
. Clark Equipment built the only aluminum-body PCC as well as all narrow gauge B1 trucks for Los Angeles, all the standard and broad gauge B2
trucks
A truck or lorry is a motor vehicle designed to transport cargo, carry specialized payloads, or perform other utilitarian work. Trucks vary greatly in size, power, and configuration, but the vast majority feature body-on-frame construction ...
both air- and all-electric, and the B2B trucks used under PRCo 1725–1799 and Toronto 4500–4549.
SLCCo built all B3 trucks, both standard and broad gauge.
PCC cars for
Canadian
Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...
cities were assembled in
Montreal
Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...
,
Quebec
Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...
by
Canadian Car & Foundry
Canadian Car and Foundry (CC&F), also variously known as "Canadian Car & Foundry" or more familiarly as "Can Car", was a manufacturer of buses, railway rolling stock, forestry equipment, and later aircraft for the Canadian market. CC&F history g ...
from bodies and trucks supplied by St. Louis Car.
Westinghouse (
Westinghouse Electric
The Westinghouse Electric Corporation was an American manufacturing company founded in 1886 by George Westinghouse. It was originally named "Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company" and was renamed "Westinghouse Electric Corporation" in ...
,
Westinghouse Air Brake Company
The Westinghouse Air Brake Company (sometimes nicknamed or abbreviated WABCO although this was also confusingly used for spinoffs) was founded on September 28, 1869 by George Westinghouse in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Earlier in the year he had i ...
, Canadian Westinghouse Co.) and
General Electric
General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable energ ...
both supplied electrical packages and brake components which were designed and built in cooperation with the ERPCC. The customer specified the equipment which was to be installed, performance was similar and most cities ordered from both suppliers. Since Westinghouse was home based near Pittsburgh, PRCo ordered 75% of its PCC fleet with Westinghouse equipment, the balance with GE. Indeed, PCCs are often identified as either Westinghouse or GE.
The last PCC streetcars built for any North American system were a batch of 25 for the
San Francisco Municipal Railway
The San Francisco Municipal Railway (SF Muni or Muni), is the public transit system for the City and County of San Francisco. It operates a system of bus routes (including trolleybuses), the Muni Metro light rail system, three historic cable ...
, manufactured by the
St Louis Car Company
The St. Louis Car Company was a major United States manufacturer of railroad passenger cars, streetcars, interurbans, trolleybuses and locomotives that existed from 1887 to 1974, based in St. Louis, Missouri.
History
The St. Louis Car Company ...
and delivered in 1951–2.
Approximately 4,586 PCC cars were purchased by United States transit companies – 1052 by Pullman Standard and 3534 by St. Louis. Most transit companies purchased one type, but Chicago, Baltimore, Cleveland, and Shaker Heights operated both examples. The Baltimore Transit Co. (BTC) considered the Pullman cars of superior construction. The St. Louis cars had a more aesthetically pleasing design with a more rounded front and rear plus other fancy frills. The BTC found the Pullman cars easier to work on. St. Louis cars had compound curved wheel wells.
Performance
Westinghouse developed the XD-323 rotary accelerator for motor control with 99 points. It was installed in the first PRCo car, number 100, and minor modifications allowed use in the last PCCs produced in North America for San Francisco in 1952. Prior streetcar control, existing from the 1890s, required a standing operator at a three foot high vertical "switch stand" to rotate a handle to one of six brass points mounted within the stand to provide traction motor control and acceleration. The PCC had its accelerator under the floor where the pedal activated linkage to resistance ribbons were mounted to each PCC point around the outside edge of the accelerator. An arm rotating in the center had rollers on either end which cut out resistance alternately as it rotated approximately 180 degrees. This same accelerator was also used for
dynamic braking
Dynamic braking is the use of an electric traction motor as a generator when slowing a vehicle such as an electric or diesel-electric locomotive. It is termed " rheostatic" if the generated electrical power is dissipated as heat in brake grid r ...
; when the power pedal was released the accelerator sought optimum braking for the speed, which prevented a lag when the brake pedal was depressed.
General Electric
General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable energ ...
developed a control system for PCC cars that mirrored the Westinghouse scheme in function, although not in simplicity or
maintainability
In engineering, maintainability is the ease with which a product can be maintained to:
* correct defects or their cause,
* Repair or replace faulty or worn-out components without having to replace still working parts,
* prevent unexpected working ...
. With the GE commutator motor controller operating by air pressure, it had to be redesigned with the advent of the All-Electric PCC. Acceleration was variable between 1.5- and 4.75-mph per second depending upon the depression of the power pedal with the accelerator advanced automatically by a low-voltage pilot motor.
Service braking was also variable and the maximum dynamic application decreased speed by 4.75-mph/s; pressing the brake pedal into emergency also brought the friction and magnetic brakes into play providing a maximum deceleration of 9.0-mph/s. Compared to a maximum of 14 points on old time equipment, the PCC was considerably smoother.
Most PCCs employed three pedals with a
dead man's switch
A dead man's switch (see alternative names) is a switch that is designed to be activated or deactivated if the human operator becomes incapacitated, such as through death, loss of consciousness, or being bodily removed from control. Originally a ...
to the left, brake in center, and power pedal on the right. Depressing the brake about half-way and then releasing the deadman pedal put the PCC in "park". Lifting the deadman alone would apply all brakes, drop sand, and balance the doors so they could be pushed open easily. Chicago used "bicycle-type levers" for power and brake but converted some cars to two pedals.
St. Louis Public Service Co. (SLPS) used two pedals, both with heel interlocks. The right pedal is the brake; depressing this pedal about half way while lifting away from the heel applied "park". Once the brake is released the heel need not be engaged with the interlock (although a professional driver is to cover the brake at all times.) The left pedal applied the power and the heel interlock had to be engaged at all times since it was the deadman; only when the brake was in "park" could the deadman be disengaged.
SLPS is unique in that all 300 of their PCCs are All-Electric with the 1500s ordered in late 1939, the 1600s ordered late 1940s and the 1700s in January 1945. SLPS was the rolling laboratory for All-Electrics and what was learned here was applied to the post-WW2 All-Electric Demonstrator in the Fall of 1945.
From 1936 to 1945, PCC cars were "Air-Electrics" with
friction brakes
A brake is a mechanical device that inhibits motion by absorbing energy from a moving system. It is used for slowing or stopping a moving vehicle, wheel, axle, or to prevent its motion, most often accomplished by means of friction.
Background ...
, doors, and windshield wipers operated by air pressure. PRCo PCC 1600 of 1945 was the post WW2 All-Electric Demonstrator which eliminated the
air compressor
An air compressor is a pneumatic device that converts power (using an electric motor, diesel or gasoline engine, etc.) into potential energy stored in pressurized air (i.e., compressed air). By one of several methods, an air compressor forces ...
and associated piping while incorporating such features as
standee windows
A standee is an wiktionary:standee, American term for a large self-standing display promoting a movie, product or event, or Point of sale display, point-of-sale advertising, often in the form of a life-size cut-out figure. They are typically made ...
, a sloped windshield to eliminate night time glare, redesigned back end, forced-air ventilation, and other features.
Dynamic brakes
Dynamic braking is the use of an electric traction motor as a Electric generator, generator when slowing a vehicle such as an electric locomotive, electric or diesel locomotive, diesel-electric locomotive. It is termed "Resistor#Adjustable resis ...
were the service brake on all PCCs; when almost stopped,
friction brakes
A brake is a mechanical device that inhibits motion by absorbing energy from a moving system. It is used for slowing or stopping a moving vehicle, wheel, axle, or to prevent its motion, most often accomplished by means of friction.
Background ...
completed the stop and held the car in "park". Dynamic brakes slowed the "Air" cars to 3.0-mph at which point a lock-out relay allowed automatic application of air-applied friction brakes against each of the eight wheels. On All-Electric cars the dynamics were effective to 0.75-mph where the lockout relay then allowed a spring applied friction brake to engage a drum on each of the four motor drive shafts; this completed the stop and held the car in park.
Drum brake
A drum brake is a brake that uses friction caused by a set of shoes or pads that press outward against a rotating cylinder-shaped part called a brake drum.
The term ''drum brake'' usually means a brake in which shoes press on the inner surfac ...
s were released by an electric solenoid operating from low-voltage battery power; a power failure would prevent the drums from releasing which would prevent power application, a
fail-safe
In engineering, a fail-safe is a design feature or practice that in the event of a specific type of failure, inherently responds in a way that will cause minimal or no harm to other equipment, to the environment or to people. Unlike inherent safe ...
feature. Drum brakes were quite popular and greatly reduced maintenance thus some "Air" cars were retrofitted with drums. Four magnetic brakes, one between the wheels on each side of each
truck
A truck or lorry is a motor vehicle designed to transport cargo, carry specialized payloads, or perform other utilitarian work. Trucks vary greatly in size, power, and configuration, but the vast majority feature body-on-frame construction ...
, applied additional braking for emergency stopping where all brakes were generally employed.
"These performances
cceleration and brakingenable the P.C.C. car to out-pace the average automobile which, in America, is of substantially higher performance than the typical British vehicle." This, of course, is only true when comparing to the automobiles of that period.
Body variations
Two main body standards were made, 1936 and 1945, sometimes called pre-war and post-war, the most prominent difference being the windows.
The pre-war cars usually had a right side arrangement of front door, five windows, center door, five windows, and one large rear quarter window. These cars were long and wide. There were variations, Washington, D.C. ordered shorter cars, at , with one less window, while Chicago ordered longer and wider cars, at by , with a three-door arrangement
Post war cars had a rationalized window arrangement. The windows and pillars were narrower, and there were small "standee" windows above each window. Right side arrangement usually was front door, 7 windows, side door, four windows, and two rear quarter windows. Most post-war cars had a length of . Other body differences were a recessed windshield and wider doors. There were far fewer variations of this style, width being the most common.
Most double ended cars, at long by wide, were larger than standard, with different door arrangements. Only Dallas ordered standard size double ended cars. All double ended cars retained the pre-war style body until the end of production.
Rapid transit cars
There were four rapid transit companies on the committee, but the primary focus was streetcars, rapid transit development was slower. The difference in operations between the systems also made standardization difficult.
By 1940, Brooklyn had five
three-section articulated trainsets with PCC components, after WWII Chicago ordered
four similar trainsets. Chicago ordered two from Pullman and two from St. Louis, with different equipment, so that competing manufacturers could be directly compared. Experience from the trainsets influenced the following car standards.
Cars were to be approximately long (the Chicago maximum, Boston had some long) with one cab per car arranged in "married" two car sets, a double ended single car variant was possible. Number and type of doors and windows, interior layout, and width of cars varied with each system. Boston had two sizes, the longest at , and narrowest at , Cleveland had the widest at .
Trucks
A truck or lorry is a motor vehicle designed to transport cargo, carry specialized payloads, or perform other utilitarian work. Trucks vary greatly in size, power, and configuration, but the vast majority feature body-on-frame construction ...
were a major focus, both Clark and St. Louis developed trucks with wheels and a maximum speed, but only Boston used them, Clark B10s on 40 cars. Chicago used streetcar type trucks, with wheels and a speed of , adequate for their system. When Clark stopped building railroad equipment in 1952 PCC trucks were no longer available, Boston and Cleveland then used non PCC trucks with wheels.
Chicago ordered the first of 770 (720 + 50 double-ended)
6000 series cars in 1948 (before the standard, which they influenced), Boston (40, then later 100) in 1950, and Cleveland (70 + 18 double-ended) in 1952. Chicago's first 200 cars were entirely new, but in 1953 they started using components salvaged from new, but no longer needed, streetcars. Toronto, on the committee, did not buy any, nor did Brooklyn, who had bought the first five trainsets.
240 PCC rapid transit cars were built in four years, from 1948 to 1952, then 438 cars with non-PCC trucks until 1957, the last of Chicago's 570 cars built with salvaged components were delivered in 1958. Some Chicago cars were in regular service in 1990, car number 30 made its last revenue run in 1999.
PCC fleets
Historical
Current
Most PCC-based systems were dismantled in the
post-war period
In Western usage, the phrase post-war era (or postwar era) usually refers to the time since the end of World War II. More broadly, a post-war period (or postwar period) is the interval immediately following the end of a war. A post-war period c ...
in favor of bus-based transit networks. Of the rail transit systems that survived this period, most had replaced their PCCs with modern
light rail vehicles (LRVs) by the early 1980s. Beginning in the late 1990s, several cities began to make use of historic PCCs to serve historic streetcar lines that combined aspects of tourist attractions and transit. The following is a table of places where transit agencies still employ PCCs in revenue service as opposed to a short-run or intermittent heritage railway.
The Ashmont–Mattapan High-Speed Line in Boston is a light-rail extension of the
MBTA
The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (abbreviated MBTA and known colloquially as "the T") is the public agency responsible for operating most public transportation services in Greater Boston, Massachusetts. The MBTA transit network in ...
's heavy
Red Line. It runs from the Ashmont terminus of the Red Line to
Mattapan
Mattapan () is a neighborhood in Boston, Massachusetts. Historically a section of neighboring Dorchester, Mattapan became a part of Boston when Dorchester was annexed in 1870. Mattapan is the original Native American name for the Dorchester ar ...
, and runs PCCs exclusively. The line was shut down for reconstruction from June 24, 2006, until December 22, 2007, but PCC cars have resumed operation since the line's bridges cannot support heavier
light rail vehicles (LRV) operated on the MBTA's
Green Line. Not considered historic equipment, the PCC cars in use on the Mattapan–Ashmont line represent the oldest cars still in revenue service, originally built between 1943 and 1946. These cars are also the only air-electric PCCs still in regular service in North America. Several retired PCCs from Boston are now at the
Seashore Trolley Museum
Seashore Trolley Museum, located in Kennebunkport, Maine, United States, is the world's first and largest museum of mass transit vehicles. While the main focus of the collection is trolley cars (trams), it also includes rapid transit trains, ...
.
The McKinney Avenue Transit Authority in Dallas, Texas, owns three PCC cars, two from Toronto, one from the former Tandy Center Subway. One of the ex Toronto cars is currently in service.
Officials in El Paso expressed their desire to preserve the history of the city by refurbishing the old PCC streetcars that once made their way through Downtown from 1949 to 1974. They operated on the international streetcar line that connected El Paso, Texas in the United States, with Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. Originally, the line operated until 1973. Six cars in total have been restored, regular revenue operations began in late 2018 for the downtown loop.
The Kenosha Electric Streetcar in
Kenosha, Wisconsin
Kenosha () is a city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the seat of Kenosha County. Per the 2020 census, the population was 99,986 which made it the fourth-largest city in Wisconsin. Situated on the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan, Kenos ...
, has been operating six ex-
Toronto Transit Commission
The Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) is the public transport agency that operates bus, subway, streetcar, and paratransit services in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, some of which run into the Peel Region and York Region. It is the oldest and largest ...
PCCs (five since 2000 and the sixth since 2009) and one ex-
SEPTA
The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) is a regional public transportation authority that operates bus, rapid transit, commuter rail, light rail, and electric trolleybus services for nearly 4 million people in five coun ...
car since 2009. The Kenosha Electric is unique among modern PCC operations in that PCCs had not run in the city before 2000—the original rail system was shut down in 1932 before any PCC cars had been built. Two of its cars are still painted in their original
TTC colours, while the rest have been re-decorated in the liveries of several U.S. cities including Pittsburgh, Johnstown, Chicago and Cincinnati.
SEPTA
The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) is a regional public transportation authority that operates bus, rapid transit, commuter rail, light rail, and electric trolleybus services for nearly 4 million people in five coun ...
restored trolley service to the Route 15 Girard Avenue line in Philadelphia in September 2005 after a 15-year "temporary" suspension of trolley service in favor of diesel buses. The line uses restored and modernized (by the Brookville Manufacturing Company) PCC cars, known as
PCC-IIs, painted in their original green and cream Philadelphia Transit Company livery, rather than SEPTA's white with red and blue stripes. Modernization included all-new control systems, modern turn markers, HVAC system (which accounts for the noticeably larger roof enclosure), and
ADA
Ada may refer to:
Places
Africa
* Ada Foah, a town in Ghana
* Ada (Ghana parliament constituency)
* Ada, Osun, a town in Nigeria
Asia
* Ada, Urmia, a village in West Azerbaijan Province, Iran
* Ada, Karaman, a village in Karaman Province, ...
compliant wheelchair lifts. The line runs from Haddington to Port Richmond down the median of Girard Avenue. It crosses both the
Broad Street Subway
The Broad Street Line (BSL), also known as the Broad Street subway (BSS), Orange Line, or Broad Line, is a subway line owned by the city of Philadelphia and operated by the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA). The line r ...
and the
Market-Frankford Line, and stops at the
Philadelphia Zoo
The Philadelphia Zoo, located in the Centennial District of Philadelphia on the west bank of the Schuylkill River, is the first true zoo in the United States. It was chartered by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania on March 21, 1859, but its openin ...
, among other landmarks. SEPTA had originally planned to run modern
Kawasaki trolleys along the line once service was restored, but a combination of economics and a desire to help revive the Girard Avenue corridor with a more "romantic" vehicle led to the agency restoring the old vehicles for about half the cost of new cars. SEPTA uses Kawasaki vehicles on the rest of its trolley lines, including the
Subway-Surface Green Line linking
West Philadelphia
West Philadelphia, nicknamed West Philly, is a section of the city of Philadelphia. Alhough there are no officially defined boundaries, it is generally considered to reach from the western shore of the Schuylkill River, to City Avenue to the nort ...
with
Center City and its
69th Street Terminal
The 69th Street Transportation Center is a SEPTA terminal in the Terminal Square section of Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, just west of the city limits of Philadelphia. The terminal serves the Market–Frankford Line, Norristown High Speed Line, and t ...
with the western suburbs of
Media
Media may refer to:
Communication
* Media (communication), tools used to deliver information or data
** Advertising media, various media, content, buying and placement for advertising
** Broadcast media, communications delivered over mass el ...
and
Sharon Hill via light rail
routes 101 and 102.
San Diego Trolley
The San Diego Trolley is a light rail system operating in the metropolitan area of San Diego. It is known colloquially as "The Trolley". The Trolley's operator, San Diego Trolley, Inc. (SDTI), is a subsidiary of the San Diego Metropolitan Tra ...
currently uses 2 PCCs and is in the process of determining viability of a third car as of 2016. They are in use on the Silver Line which opened in 2011 and runs in a clockwise loop around Downtown
San Diego
San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...
.
The F Market Line (historic streetcar service) in San Francisco, opened in 1995, runs along
Market Street Market Street may refer to:
*Market Street, Cambridge, England
*Market Street, Fremantle, Western Australia, Australia
* Market Street, George Town, Penang, Malaysia
*Market Street, Manchester, England
*Market Street, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
...
from
The Castro
The Castro District, commonly referred to as the Castro, is a neighborhood in Eureka Valley in San Francisco. The Castro was one of the first gay neighborhoods in the United States. Having transformed from a working-class neighborhood throug ...
to the
Ferry Building, then along the
Embarcadero north and west to
Fisherman's Wharf. This line is run by a mixture of PCC cars built between 1946 and 1952, and earlier pre-PCC cars. Due to its success, a second heritage line was inaugurated in 2015, the
E Embarcadero
The E Embarcadero is a historic streetcar line that is the San Francisco Municipal Railway's second heritage streetcar line in San Francisco, California. Trial service first ran during the Sunday Streets events on The Embarcadero in 2008. The l ...
, which serves to facilitate a one-seat ride from the
Caltrain
Caltrain (reporting mark JPBX) is a California commuter rail line serving the San Francisco Peninsula and Santa Clara Valley (Silicon Valley). The southern terminus is in San Jose at Tamien station with weekday rush hour service running as far ...
San Francisco Station San Francisco station may refer to:
* San Francisco station (Puerto Rico), in San Juan
* San Francisco 4th and King Street station, San Francisco, California
* San Francisco (Madrid Metro), Spain
* San Francisco metro station (Quito), Ecuador
* ...
to Fisherman's Wharf. Although San Francisco had removed PCCs from revenue service when the city's light rail was transformed into the
Muni Metro
Muni Metro is a light rail system serving San Francisco, California, United States. Operated by the San Francisco Municipal Railway (Muni), a part of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA), Muni Metro served an average of 157 ...
system in 1980, they had made occasional festival trips in the ensuing years before being returned to full-time service. Car 1074 is painted in
Toronto Transit Commission
The Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) is the public transport agency that operates bus, subway, streetcar, and paratransit services in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, some of which run into the Peel Region and York Region. It is the oldest and largest ...
livery, but was never owned by the TTC.
The first PCC cars in Canada were operated by the
Toronto Transit Commission
The Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) is the public transport agency that operates bus, subway, streetcar, and paratransit services in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, some of which run into the Peel Region and York Region. It is the oldest and largest ...
(TTC) in 1938.
By 1954,
Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...
had the largest PCC fleet in the world, including many purchased second-hand from U.S. cities that abandoned streetcar service following the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
.
Although it acquired new
custom-designed streetcars in the late 1970s and 1980s (and which was replaced by modern LRVs by Dec. 2019), the TTC continued using PCCs in regular service until 1995, and retains two (numbers 4500 and 4549) for charter purposes.
Models based on the PCC streetcar
The PCC license was used worldwide after World War II had ended which resulted in adaptations based on the American PCC design. Two such licensees were successful, namely the Belgian company
La Brugeoise et Nivelles
La Brugeoise et Nivelles, later BN Constructions Ferroviaires et Métalliques was a Belgian manufacturer of railway locomotives and other rolling stock; it was formed by a merger of two companies: La Brugeoise et Nicaise et Delcuve and Les Ateli ...
(since 1988 a subsidiary of
Bombardier Transportation
Bombardier Transportation was a Canadian-German rolling stock and rail transport manufacturer, headquartered in Berlin, Germany.
It was one of the world's largest companies in the rail vehicle and equipment manufacturing and servicing industry ...
), who built both
standard-gauge
A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), International gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge and European gauge in Europe, and SGR in Ea ...
and
meter-gauge
Metre-gauge railways are narrow-gauge railways with track gauge of or 1 metre.
The metre gauge is used in around of tracks around the world. It was used by European colonial powers, such as the French, British and German Empires. In Europe, l ...
cars based on the PCC license for many networks in Belgium, France and the Netherlands; and particularly the Czech
ČKD Tatra
ČKD (Českomoravská Kolben-Daněk) () was one of the largest engineering companies in the former Czechoslovakia and today's Czech Republic. It is famous for the Tatra T3, a tramcar that sold 13,991 units worldwide.
History
ČKD was formed in ...
, who built the largest number of the PCC type in the world, supplying a number of Central and Eastern European countries. Trams such as the
Tatra T3
The T3 is a type of Czech tramcar produced by ČKD Tatra. A late-2000s study conducted on the Prague tram system has shown 98.9% reliability, the best of the Prague tram system fleet. During its period of production between 1960 and 19 ...
and its variant
Tatra T4
T4 is the name of a tram produced by ČKD Tatra. It is the narrower variant of the Tatra T3 model. A large number of cars was supplied to the GDR, the USSR, Romania and the former Yugoslavia using names T4D, T4SU, T4R and T4YU, respectively. The ...
, together the most numerous of any tram model ever produced, are still in service today in many of the regions where they were first introduced. Modern variants of the Tatra T3 are still produced today by some manufacturers, such as KOS Krnov. The Polish Konstal 13N was not built under license. Only models with direct references to the original American PCC streetcar are included here. Later models of a particular series such as the
Tatra T5
T5 is the overall typename of trams in the fifth generation, manufactured by ČKD Tatra. This generation has brand new concept, is not based on PCC streetcar, like previous generations.
* T5A5, a prototype which shortly went in service
* T5B6, ...
were adapted and modernized further.
Note that the country listed ''only'' covers areas where the cars were initially delivered; references for these areas can be found in the text.
The first PCC cars in
Brussels
Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...
(series 7000–7100) were built in prevision of the
Expo 58
Expo 58, also known as the 1958 Brussels World's Fair (french: Exposition Universelle et Internationale de Bruxelles de 1958, nl, Brusselse Wereldtentoonstelling van 1958), was a world's fair held on the Heysel/Heizel Plateau in Brussels, Bel ...
: they were single-body non-reversible two-bogie cars. Articulated trams arrived since 1965: first two-body non-reversible trams (series 7500) then two-body (series 7700–7800) and three-body (series 7900) reversible ones, the last one delivered in 1978. The last single-body PCC tram in commercial service in Brussels ran in February 2010. All series 7500 trams were converted to series 7700 by addition of a second steering post except the 7500 prototype which was versed to the collection of the
Brussels Tram Museum
The Brussels Tram Museum, officially ''Musée du Transport Urbain Bruxellois'' (French) or ''Museum voor het Stedelijk Vervoer te Brussel'' (Dutch), is a transport museum located in an old tram depot in the municipality of Woluwe-Saint-Pierre, Brus ...
. Two-body and three-body reversible PCC trams are still in regular service next to more modern low-floor trams. All these articulated PCC cars use
Jacobs bogie
Jacobs bogies (named after Wilhelm Jakobs,, 1858–1942, a German mechanical railway engineer) are a type of rail vehicle bogie commonly found on articulated railcars and tramway vehicles.
Instead of being underneath a piece of rolling stock, ...
s under the articulations (see example at right).
Brussels tramways use
standard gauge
A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), International gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge and European gauge in Europe, and SGR in Ea ...
(1.435 m);
metre-gauge
Metre-gauge railways are narrow-gauge railways with track gauge of or 1 metre.
The metre gauge is used in around of tracks around the world. It was used by European colonial powers, such as the French, British and German Empires. In Europe, la ...
PCC trams are in use in
Ghent
Ghent ( nl, Gent ; french: Gand ; traditional English: Gaunt) is a city and a municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of the East Flanders province, and the third largest in the country, exceeded in ...
and
Antwerp
Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504, .
The only PCC in West Germany was delivered from La Brugeoise to Hamburg in 1951. The car was sold to Brussels in 1957. Returned to Hamburg in 1995, where it was used as a historical tram in the VVM Schönberger Strand museum. In 1999, the tram was sold to the Danish tram museum of Skjoldenaesholm.
These trams were used in
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...
from 1959 to their retirement in 2012. Several remain as maintenance cars, while others have been preserved in museums.
Konstal
Alstom Konstal is a company based in Chorzów, Poland producing rail vehicles, in particular metro cars and trams, as well as components for trains.
In 1864, the plant was founded as part of the Royal Steelworks in Chorzów and in 1917, it was ...
13Ns were not produced under a PCC licence.
One set of PCC bogies and control equipment was imported into Melbourne circa 1949 and fitted to a modified
W class body. Additional cars were planned, but never built. The single car was numbered 980, and was withdrawn from service in 1971.
Z Class tram prototype car 1041 was built in 1972 using bogies salvaged from 980.
Only two of the planned 300 of the PCC A28 type trams had been delivered to Stockholm by ASJ in 1953. This was probably due to the withdrawal of the Polish side of the contract in 1946, which primarily stated the delivery not only of the tram wagons, but also 8 locomotives and 44 electric passenger trains by the ASEA company. The only ones that were built, based on bogies and the electrical system delivered from the USA. They were the first PCCs in Europe equipped with
multiple-unit
A multiple-unit train or simply multiple unit (MU) is a self-propelled train composed of one or more carriages joined together, which when coupled to another multiple unit can be controlled by a single driver, with multiple-unit train contr ...
electrical systems and were only used in pairs (no more trams of this type were constructed) on tourist line number 700. In 1962, the routes were converted to buses. One of the two cars was scrapped, the other one (number 11) is preserved in the Tramway Museum of Malmkoping.
The
TMBT (Tokyo Metropolitan Bureau of Transportation) wanted to modernize its streetcar, so ordered one PCC car to Naniwa Koki Company(later Alna Sharyo Company in
Hankyu Hanshin Holdings
is a Japanese multinational company, multinational ''keiretsu'' holding company which owns Hankyu, Hankyu Corporation, the Hanshin Electric Railway, Hanshin Electric Railway Co., Ltd., Toho, Toho Co., Ltd., and affiliate companies.
On October ...
) in
Osaka
is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of 2. ...
in 1953.
Sumitomo Metal Industries was a steel manufacturer based in Osaka, Japan until it merged with Nippon Steel in 2012 to form Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corporation, the third largest steel manufacturer in the world as of 2015.
Its origins as a modern company date from 189 ...
as bogie manufacturer, and
Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
, established on 15 January 1921, is a Japanese multinational electronics and electrical equipment manufacturing company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. It is one of the core companies of Mitsubishi. The products from MELCO include elevators an ...
that had the electric motor licensee from
Westinghouse Electric Corporation
The Westinghouse Electric Corporation was an American manufacturing company founded in 1886 by George Westinghouse. It was originally named "Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company" and was renamed "Westinghouse Electric Corporation" in ...
, also participated in the project. The streetcar was completed in 1954 with number 5501. The class 5500 was extended with other 6 cars (5502–5507), but these were called no real PCC cars because of their different configuration.
In fiction
Genie, a character from
Robot Trains
A robot is a machine—especially one programmable by a computer—capable of carrying out a complex series of actions automatically. A robot can be guided by an external control device, or the control may be embedded within. Robots may be c ...
, is based on a PCC streetcar.
See also
*
Brilliner
* Russian PCC streetcars
KTM-1,
MTV-82
MTV-82 (russian: МТВ-82, with russian: МТВ, label=none standing for russian: Московский ТрамВай, Moskovskij TramVaj, Moscow Tram, label=none) is a Soviet four-axle tramcar.
The first prototype of the MTV-82 tramcar was bui ...
&
RVZ-6
*
Streetcars in North America
Streetcars or trolley(car)s (North American English for the European word ''tram'') were once the chief mode of public transit in hundreds of North American cities and towns. Most of the original urban streetcar systems were either dismantled in ...
References
Further reading
*
*
* Carlson et al. (1986), ''The Colorful Streetcars We Rode'', Bulletin 125 of the Central Electric Railfans' Association, Chicago, Il.
* Kashin, S.; Demoro, H. (1986), ''An American Original: The PCC Car'',
Interurban Press
Interurban Press was a small, privately owned American publishing company, specializing in books about streetcars, other forms of rail transit and railroads in North America, from 1943MacDougall, Kent (May 19, 1983). "Books Ring Bell With Devotees ...
,
* López Bustos, Carlos, ''Tranvías de Madrid'', Aldaba Ediciones, Madrid 1986,
*
External links
*
*
*
*
*
*
Madrid trams (in Dutch)
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pcc Streetcar
Tram vehicles
Tram vehicles of Belgium
Tram vehicles of Canada
Tram vehicles of Mexico
Tram vehicles of Serbia
Tram vehicles of Spain
Streetcars of the United States
Tram vehicles of the Netherlands
600 V DC multiple units
Train-related introductions in 1936
750 V DC multiple units
Electric multiple units of the United States