I’m trying out for a Federal Grant from NASA…
One of my peculiar interests is streetcars. Just prior to World War Two, U.S. Trolley companies (feeling pressure from Ford’s cars and better roads) needed a new type of streetcar to compete, and designed the PCC (Presidential Conference Car). They were built in the U.S. until the early 1950s and were widely used in the United States until the 1960s (and in a fer cities beyond that).
The PCC was licensed to be made in Europe, and was also made “behind the iron curtain” and were the main form of urban transportation in much of the Soviet Empire.
Azerbeijan is Eastern neighbor of Armenia – the population is mostly Islamic by birth, not by how they live. It’s on the Caspean sea and has been influenced by many cultures and the site of many conflicts back and forth throughout all of history. Baku is the capital city.
This video is from 1999, showing streetcars (trams) running in the city. The one numbered 535 is pretty clearly one with a PCC heritage. One comment suggets the trucks (the wheel set – called a bogey in England) appears to be American made – I can’t make out details to say. Some U.S. PCC streetcars were sold to other countries (used in Toronto, Mexico City, Alexandria, Egypt) where they stuck around for a while longer.
So wouldn’t you like living in Baku? It seems like such a nice place. (this streetcar line no longer exists, though). Things have been picking up in their economy since then – a pipeline has been built to carry Caspian sea oil to the West bypassing Russia, and BP is developing some large new fields in the area.
