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PC: PRRT&HS convention



This past weekend I attended the Pennsylvania Railroad Techincal & 
Historical Society convention in Camp Hill, Pa. A few observations:

* I really wish I could have seen Enola Yard in the PC days. That had to 
have been cool...

* The PRRT&HS folks actually *dress up* for their convention banquet...

* During a presentation on the Metroliners, Bob Watson showed some really 
neat slides. As most of you know, the Metroliners were delivered with PRR 
keystones, but they were replaced with PC worms before they entered revenue 
service. The worms they wore were simple black worms on a silver 
background, to match the Metroliners' stainless steel bodies. However, 
there were two slides showing other PC emblems on the Metroliners that must 
have been interim or experimental. One had a square green background with 
worms, and the other had a black background with a red P.

* Also during the same program, Mr. Watson showed slides of the inaugural 
run of the Metroliners. (See the March 1969 PC POST for more info.) 
Included was the well-known scene where Stuart Saunders, Al Perlman, John 
Volpe, and others gave speeches at Washington Union Station. What I found 
interesting were some pictures of Saunders making a speech indoors, 
probably inside the station. Behind him was hanging a large sign that 
looked just like the Metroliner medallions that you see on eBay all the 
time. I remember the first thing I thought when I saw that was "I bet Gary 
Farmer would have that sign in his basement if it was still around." :-)

* For some reason, when PC applied their emblems to the Metroliners, they 
put them on the left (as you face them) side of the fronts, while the 
keystones were on the right. As a result, you had a lot of otherwise clean 
new Metroliners with a keystone-shaped blotch on their fronts. You'd have 
thought PC would have applied their emblems in the same place and made it 
look a little better...

Also at the convention were PCRRHS members Chip Syme, Mike Bradley, Rusty 
Donald, Mark Branibar, and Ross Jack. (Forgive me if I forgot someone.) It 
was a great time, with some excellent programs.

-JWJ



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