Gettting ready for Winter

[daveklepper]

Brooklyn

The Bronx:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[pennytrains]

I need a model of this one! 

A snow remover with style! 

[Flintlock76]

Wow.

I need a shot of bourbon to warm up after looking at all that snow! 

On the plus side, all that snow could mean Christmas is coming!

On the down side, all that snow could mean Christmas has come and gone, the long dreary winter is here, and there's nothing to look forward to except Saint Patrick's Day in March.   

[NP Eddie]

The font used on the numbers are identical to the PRR's font.

 

Ed Burns

[mvlandsw]

My grandfather ran one of the sweeper cars for Pittsburgh Railways. He would work long hours when we had a snow storm. They saved the city a lot of plowing on the streets with trolley lines.

Mark Vinski

[daveklepper]

Do you have any photos or correspondence or any memoriabilia from his work?

Could someone post a picture of a Pittsburgh Railways sweeper or plow?

[rcdrye]

Link to Pennsylvania Trolley Museum's page:

https://pa-trolley.org/collection/pittsburgh-railways-snow-sweeper-m37/

Pittsburgh Railways lines were  broad gauge (5' 2 1/2") and PRy built a lot of its own equipment.  In this case the sweeper was built by McGuire (later McGuire-Cummings) of Paris, Illinois, probably the largest producer of sweepers in the transit industry.

[daveklepper]

Third Avenue's sweepers were by the same builder, and comparison with The Bronx photos shows the similarity.  Here is the Pittsburgh sweeper photo from the Museum's website:

[BaltACD]

daveklepper

Third Avenue's sweepers were by the same builder, and comparison with The Bronx photos shows the similarity.  Here is the Pittsburgh sweeper photo from the Museum's website:

 

While it may be sweeping snow - looks like the property needed a dose or two from the weed sprayer before Winter.

[mvlandsw]

daveklepper

Do you have any photos or correspondence or any memoriabilia from his work?

Could someone post a picture of a Pittsburgh Railways sweeper or plow?

 

The only thing I have related to his work is his pocket watch. He passed away when I was seven. My grandmother and I would transfer from the Arlington route to his car south of the Mt. Washington trolley tunnel to ride downtown with him.

I've been looking for an employee timetable or rulebook to learn about Pittsburgh Railways operations.

I do have some pictures that I took much later after I could get around on my own.

[Overmod]

mvlandsw

The only thing I have related to his work is his pocket watch.

As a brief digression -- what kind of watch is it, and do you have pictures, especially of the movement?

Interurbans and trolleys had a different standard for their timepieces, but they were usually built to railroad 'quality', the principal differences being they were not required to have 19 jewels or higher, and be adjusted to a full 5 positions.  Some were manufactured just as carefully as railroad watches, to the extent of having special dials (I have a couple of 'electric railroad specials') which have full jeweling in the train and are adjusted to three positions (which reflects how the watch is normally kept when not worn, 'dial up' or 'dial down' on the nightstand, plus 'pendant up' as carried in the watch pocket.   Naturally carefully adjusted for 'heat and cold' over the wide range of temperatures from cold to hot that a streetcar might have to operate under.

I do not know if these were sold with the special 'price penalty' that watch manufacturers tried to charge for railroad watches (justifying it when confronted by saying it helped pay the cost of required weekly attention and adjustment).  

[daveklepper]

mv----  great if you could post pictures, including one of the watch.

Did you ride Fineview?  Or the interurbans to Washington and Charleroi-Roscoe, with branch over a bridge to Donnora?

It was a great system when I first visited Pittsburgh in June 1949.  And West Penn was still running too, but no longer connected.

[mvlandsw]

The watch is a Hamilton Watch Company, Lancaster, Pa. 17 jewel movement, serial #1322427. There is also a number 974 on the movement. The face has to be opened and a lever pulled out to set the time. The second hand has its own dial  located at the 6 o'clock position.

I used to use it at work on the B&O until it would not keep reliable time. I had it serviced and it never worked right again.

I only rode the Fineview line once on its final day of operation in 1966. Its grades were so steep that the buses could not run on the same route. I rode the Millvale or Enta line to my home since I got off before their routes separated. The Arlington route I rode frequently to my grandparents home.

I can't post any pictures since I don't yet have a photo hosting site. Here are some links to snow sweeper pictures.

http://www.newdavesrailpix.com/pitts/htm/usr_h_pit_work_hm41_31052_sweepercastleshannon_19640113_ss.htm

http://www.newdavesrailpix.com/pitts/htm/usr_h_pit_work_hm56_31102_sweeper_19640113_ss.htm

http://www.newdavesrailpix.com/pitts/htm/usr_h_pit_work_hm19_31016_southhillscarhouse_1964_kendouglasbv.htm

[BaltACD]

mvlandsw

The watch is a Hamilton Watch Company, Lancaster, Pa. 17 jewel movement, serial #1322427. There is also a number 974 on the movement. The face has to be opened and a lever pulled out to set the time. The second hand has its own dial  located at the 6 o'clock position.

I used to use it at work on the B&O until it would not keep reliable time. I had it serviced and it never worked right again.

I only rode the Fineview line once on its final day of operation in 1966. Its grades were so steep that the buses could not run on the same route. I rode the Millvale or Enta line to my home since I got off before their routes separated. The Arlington route I rode frequently to my grandparents home.

I can't post any pictures since I don't yet have a photo hosting site. Here are some links to snow sweeper pictures.

http://www.newdavesrailpix.com/pitts/htm/usr_h_pit_work_hm41_31052_sweepercastleshannon_19640113_ss.htm

http://www.newdavesrailpix.com/pitts/htm/usr_h_pit_work_hm56_31102_sweeper_19640113_ss.htm

http://www.newdavesrailpix.com/pitts/htm/usr_h_pit_work_hm19_31016_southhillscarhouse_1964_kendouglasbv.htm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdOuNPSVHj8

[daveklepper]

Thanks

[Overmod]

Hamilton used a variety of number 'models' for its pocket watches, almost all in the 9xx series (900 being an early 12s 'luxury watch' and 992 and its redesigned successor 992B being the 'famous' 21j Hamilton that was one of the 'standards' during the first ⅔ of the 20th Century.  It is not wholly coincidence that the 'standardization' of the railroad watch and the formation of Hamilton as a high-end manufacturer came the same year, 1891.

Now Webb C. Ball, the Cleveland jeweler who took credit for the form of the standardization (e.g. no less than 19 jewels, mechanical fixation of regulator, no more than 30sec deviation in a week and adjusted to 5 positions or better, etc.) had only a couple of years earlier advertised that more than 17 jewels in a watch represented 'smokestack jewels' -- cost for show, not increased reliability of non-wearing low-friction bearing surfaces.  The added jewels (usually cap jewels on the lever and escape wheel for 21j and added on the mainspring for 23j) do add consistent precision, but it is perfectly possible to use a less-expensive movement with American quick train and 17 jewels and accurize it to 5 positions.

Now, the 974 is not as expensively finished or detailed as some of the 'flagship' railroad movements (for example, the gears are flat gilt and not gold alloy) but some of them were in fact adjusted to full railroad 5 positions and so marked.  Properly kept cleaned and oiled that movement can easily be regulated to adequate 'railroad watch' timekeeping.

For electric railroads the standard was, as noted, 3 positions, and a wide variety of good lever-set railroad-grade-construction watches were made over the years for this market ...

While the 974 isn't quite as pretty as the 992, remember that working railroaders would never get to see the movement; in fact not only couldn't they unscrew it or have a 'salesman's case' or display glass back, they could not even remove the front bezel to set the time (a principal reason for the lever set).  So a 974 of proper adjustment, which could have any dial and hands a 992 could, might be just as good a working timepiece as needed... anywhere the law did not mandate 19 jewels.

The first question is this: Does the watch now gain or lose a consistent number of seconds per hour or day?  That is adjusted with the small screw on the regulator clamp, and you can get an app for a smartphone that lets you precisely adjust for even a couple of seconds' deviation per day.

Look at the hairspring-- it should be centered, with the two pins of the regulator straddling it, and it should appear to 'breathe' concentrically as the watch runs.  A common problem with parts-changing modern 'wristwatch makers' is that they get the hairspring collet slightly misaligned with the balance when cleaning, and the watch develops an irregular beat (comparable to a pendulum clock that has a bent crutch or is not leveled right).  This is 'easily' corrected by rotating the collet slightly (it is a friction clamp fit) but this is not a casual adjustment.

I think it is unlikely that the balance adjustment would be screwed up in a cleaning.  If you had to repair a broken balance staff, though, 'all bets are off' and you'd have to go through the whole tedious adjustment to positions.

Did the guy who serviced it clean it thoroughly and use the right oil?

[BaltACD]

When this guy rebuilds a timepiece - he rebulds the timepiece!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaVx5LJ7t_c