Paul Ward's Collection
There were three experimental cars built by Osgood Bradley for Pittsburgh Railways in 1928 and 1929.  While they were basically Electromobiles, they differed from the others in that they had notch controllers and Timken trucks.  6000 and 6001 were like the car in the
photo while 6002 was an elongated Peter Witt design, with a center door.  As modern  as these cars were, Pittsburgh elected to wait until the true PCC car was developed and tested before buying new cars, a seven year wait.  See "Pittsburgh's Experimental 6000's" available from the Museum Store of Pennsylvania Trolley Museum here.  It was built in 1928 and withdrawn in 1940, running mainly on Rt. 38-Mt. Lebanon. This car had a feature that weighed its passengers in order to apply the optimum amount of braking! Information is from the book "The Street Railways of Pittsburgh, 1859-1967" by Tom E. Parkinson.  The location is on Brushton Avenue, a half block south of the eastern end of PRCo's Homewood Shops.  Very nearly all of the official company photographs were taken at this location. Probably due to the depression, no more cars of this type were ordered.
Caption data by Bill Volkmer, Larry Lovejoy,
Wayne Roberts and Ralph Curcico Back to Paul Ward's page
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