Hello Mr. Klepper,
The National Capital Trolley Museum acquired an original PCC streetcar recently and arranged for me to take photos of its beautifully preserved conduit plow carrier still attached to the rear truck. It even has the insulating material intact! I hung a conduit plow from their collection in the carrier and photographed it in position. I wanted to plug in the leads, but they wouldn’t go in the sockets of the plow. The leads do not appear corroded, so I suspect the collet-like parts of the sockets are too stiff from disuse. For those who may not know, the plow weighs over fifty pounds, and needs to be lifted to shoulder height when one stands in the plow pit. I tried to imagine doing that every few minutes, all day long. This is not to mention of course, being constantly exposed to inclement weather and high voltage.
The photos were mostly taken from the maintenance pit, which is deeper than the plow pits, so I actually had to heft the thing above my head to get it in position. I understand now why the plow pits were so shallow–you have to be able to reach the leads easily, in case the plugs are balky!
Please post these images on the blog, they are my work and I release them for non-commercial re-use.
Thank you!
Gratefully,
Paul Pallansch
Dot-Connector, Dioramist,
Up-Close Realism
cell: 240-277-8887
facsimile: 301-649-7525