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| Re: CTA Skokie Swift 50th Anniversary (Photos) (1286716) | |||
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Re: CTA Skokie Swift 50th Anniversary (Photos) |
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Posted by ChicagoPCCLCars on Mon Apr 21 00:50:52 2014, in response to Re: CTA Skokie Swift 50th Anniversary (Photos), posted by ChicagoMotorman on Sun Apr 20 20:08:35 2014. Well, I remember my days as a operator on the Evanston one-man cars. We are called operators in those days but there no such word back then ....."opto." We were paid the same rate paid to the bus drivers. We even got time to fill forms, count transfers, and add up the money.  The one-man PCC single unit cars were the last PCC "L" cars the CTA brought. 50 cars from the 670 fleet in all. They were distinctly different from the rest of the PCC cars .....cabs at both car ends, the passenger doors were placed at the cabs instead of at the quarter points. The operator cabs had inside windows, and Johnson fare box and a drop panel in the wall where fares were collected. There were individual door controls for controlling each of the four passenger doors. The one-cars had the best motors, good dynamic brakes and if you popped the handle, braking was smooth. Even the track brakes are smooth. During rush hours, the one-man cars were coupled into four car trains to work Evanston Express downtown and run with motorman and conductor crew. Conductor's used wall door controls to work the four car trains. The one-man cars assigned the the Evanston Shuttles had a trolley on each end. It wasn't easy to put up the pole in a rainstorm, LOL. Going NB from Howard, most passengers off the car and you either used the individual door controls or you reached up and used the conductor door controls. You opened each door as needed. Going SB, you collected fares so you only used the single front door, like a bus. At Howard you threw both doors open. Working midnights, there were times the passenger load was nothing. There was a practice that showed you stopped at a station....your yellow lights came on, your dynamic brakes had gone over to the friction parking brake; you pushed one of the door controls and the door relay and power clicked out loud. It wasn't necessary to open the door wide, when it closed again, the two relays clicked twice and the Cineston would be rotated to power points of one, two, or three. The best night of the midnight was the times the clocks changed and you lost a hour. True, when clocks went back, the wasn't so good. Since you made fares, you need a bank of change. On Sundays I didn't need change. My first trip I would meet up with a C&NW commuter. I would sit while piles and piles of money would go into my cash box. And one day the train was not there! But I saw the headlight, so I waited and they caught a shuttle that was waiting......good luck they thought. I closed the doors, and radioed that I was "running to Howard now-stop". My follow-er had caught up with me. Just like a bus, LOL.   CTA man-cars at IRM.....Illinois Railway Museum, Union, IL |
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