DC Transit Company PCC Streetcar (1945)

PCC stands for President's Conference Committee, which convened during the Depression as a means of reviving the local and interurban traction industry.

Car 1470 was one of the 485 operated by the D.C. Transit Co. from 1937 through January 27, 1962. D.C. Transit was formed in the mid 1950s when O. Roy Chalk purchased Capitol Transit from Louis Wolfson.

Built by the St. Louis Car Co. in 1945, car 1470, like that of the company's other cars in the central city area, was unique. Electric current was picked up by a "plow" from a third rail under the street. In suburban areas, the conventional trolley pole gathered current from an overhead wire.

The PCC design used high-tensile alloy steel and welding techniques that allowed for a radical departure from the noisy, slow-moving, heavy cars operated by traction companies for many years. Rubber-centered wheels absorbed much of the noise originating from contact with the rail. Improved suspension of the car body and rapid acceleration contributed to the success of these cars, and even helped spur a revitalization of street car operations.

In the 1950s, major department stores paid for installation of FM receivers in the cars in exchange for advertising. The radio plan was short lived, however, because passengers complained their privacy was being invaded.

Two hundred of the Washington cars were sold to Yugoslavia and 150 to Spain, where they operated many years after 1962. During the 1980s, PCC cars were still operating in Boston, Cleveland, Pittsburg, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Toronto.

Car 1470 is displayed in an electric blue and tan paint scheme. All Washington PCC cars were initially those colors. The car is shown with the number 201 on the windshield - the number it would have carried had it been on Route 20 to Union Station from Cabin John, Maryland via Glen Echo, Georgetown, Washington Circle, the White House, Pennsylvania Avenue, the U.S. Capitol, and the U.S. Supreme Court.