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| Re:PCC 6000s Were Chicago's Ultimate "L" Car; was: July Closed A Chicago CTA Era (1239849) | |||
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Re:PCC 6000s Were Chicago's Ultimate "L" Car; was: July Closed A Chicago CTA Era |
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Posted by ChicagoPCCLCars on Mon Aug 5 18:19:18 2013, in response to Re: July Closed A Chicago CTA Era, posted by randyo on Mon Aug 5 15:18:28 2013. The ultimate Chicago 'L' car featured traverse seats with individual windows, blinker doors at the quarter point, PCC techniques, lightweight design and no air brakes and was known as the 6000 series, plus 50 double-ended variants; all built by the St. Louis Car Company. The first 130 cars were ordered to open the Milwaukee-Lake-Dearborn subway in 1951 and featured the two headlights below the end windows. They were entirely built from new materials, but featured a trolley block and gravity pickup shoe similar to the 4000s from the 1930s. A follow-on order of 70 cars was almost identical. A sealed beam headlight had been developed and was used, mounted over the end door forcing the end rollsign to be moved to the left front window. Paint-wise, the green stripe at the standee window level was eliminated simplfying the color scheme. This would be the color scheme for all remaining PCC cars."There also seems to be controversy over how much Green Hornet streetcar went into the production of the rapid transit cars. Although the Chicago experts on this forum may be able to provide greater details, the way I understand it it was only window fixtures, stanchions and possibly seats from the Green Hornet streetcars that made their way into the new cars. The new cars were not Green hornet streetcars that had their ends removed and replaced by rapid transit car fronts as some in certain circle seem to think." That might be because two builders actually got a streetcar to "play with." Chicago PCC streetcars are noted for being wider the most other streetcars and partly this was accomplished by offsetting the truck kingpins, allowing the wider cars to pass each other on standard streetcar tracks, but virtually eliminating any possibility of using streetcar bodies for 'L' cars. Buff strength was another no 'L' car factor. Beginning with 6201, all PCC 6000 series cars were constructed with new body shells, just like the first two orders (6001-6200) but included parts salvaged from PCC streetcars including trucks, controls, windows, seats, lights. The Pullman built streetcars were salvaged as a fleet (6201-6510) and then the St. Louis built streetcars (6511-6720; 1-50). The original manufacturer change occurs with the adoption of a different kind of truck (6511) that included revision of the trolley block and gravity third rail shoe to the older design. By car 6511, enough track brake assemblies had been accumulated to equip the original first 200 6000s. David Harrison |
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