User:Tractionresource/PCC Rapid Transit Car

Early on in the PCC streetcar development program, it was recognized that the technology being developed for the streetcar could be gainfully employed in the construction of rapid transit cars. The goals of smooth, rapid acceleration and braking, light weight, and reduced noise were seen as just what was needed by the rapid transit industry. Since the Brooklyn and Manhattan Transit Company (BMT) in the person of its surface lines subsidiary, the Brooklyn and Queens Transit Company (B & QT) was fully engaged in support of the program of developing the PCC streetcar, and was even allowing use of its facilities for developmental testing, the application of PCC technical developments to rapid transit service was in common terms, a "no-brainer". The BMT had already established itself as an innovator by its purchase of North America's first articulated rapid transit cars in the 1920s. Although innovative for the time, the cars did not advance the technology, and were as noisy and mediocre in performance as their predecessors, although somewhat lighter due to the use use of articulation and the resulting lesser number of heavy trucks used. #REDIRECT Target page name