Illinois Railway Museum Blog

Re: KC 755 Update - April 23, 2011 Chicago PCCs were 9 feet wide, and that width was shared by a number of other cities (including Minneapolis/St Paul). The 2 + 1 seating in the forward section was to increase standing room, and was again shared by many of the lines that ran the wide cars. Chicago and a couple of other cities (5 altogether) used 2 + 2 seating up front, but at most the Chicago cars ran 58 seats as delivered while some had as many as 61. This information comes from the foldout data sheet supplement inside the back cover of my edition of "PCC: The Car That Fought Back." Regards: Tom Fairbairn Minnesota Streetcar Museum Maintenance & Reconstruction Group

#1 Tom Fairbairn on 2011-04-25 23:34

Thanks, Tom, for the good PCC info. My memory that Chicago PCC's were wide also stems from the problems encountered when being designed, that Chicago street trackage was installed on close track centers that did not anticipate these cars. So the PCC's had an offset bolster used, resulting in the car being somewhat wider on the curb side and narrower on the devil strip side, allowing cars to pass reliably, corner, etc without scraping or hitting an opposing car. But per your info, no other PCC's were WIDER, although others were just as wide. Bob Kutella

#1.1 Robert Kutella on 2011-04-26 04:46

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