History

The Electric Railway Presidents' Conference Committee (PCC) car brought to the Nation's Capital years of design work to create a standard of modern excellence for street cars in the United States. Capital Transit inaugurated PCC service with the 14th Street line on August 24, 1937. Nearly twenty-five years later on January 28, 1962, DCTS 1101 wore a large banner across its dash, "D.C. Transit / Last Day / of Streetcars," to commemorate the conversion of the 14th Street car line to diesel bus operation.

Although the PCC represents standardization in street car design, operating companies and car builders individualized their vehicles. Conduit current supply and forty-four foot transfer tables gave Washington's PCCs two unique characteristics, underground plows and one less window on a side. As an early PCC, DCTS 1101 does not have the standee windows of the "post-war cars" and does employ compressed air for windshield wipers, door engines, and brakes for the final stop. The Company replaced the original external, wheel-mounted brake shoes with internal, propeller shaft-mounted drum brakes when it extended the dynamic braking down to two miles per hour.

Mr. O. Roy Chalk, president of D.C. Transit System, donated DCTS 1101 to the Museum in March, 1970.