TTC retains two of these on the property for charter work, as well as two additional PCCs which were long ago converted to rail grinders. Standardization of mechanical and body parts helped reduce cash-starved PRCo's maintenance and operation costs. By the time America entered the Second World War in December 1941, PRCo had 301 air-electric PCC cars in operation, and 100 more were on order with St. Louis Car. These new cars would prove invaluable to PRCo for the quick, efficient service they rendered during the war years, when Pittsburgh's industrial plants were booming. While many of those U.S. cities which still operated streetcars were forced to press elderly, even retired cars into service to meet wartime traffic needs, PRCo was in better shape than most.
Buffalo presents an interesting contrast.
That industrial city on the shores of Lake Erie, some 200 miles north of Pittsburgh, had a rather different wartime transit experience. Though smaller and less densely populated than Pittsburgh, Buffalo and environs nevertheless constituted an important industrial center. By early 1941, only 13 Buffalo city routes remained, the rest of the system having been converted to buses. Four of those routes were bussed during 1941, two as late as September, with IRC removing track and wire immediately in some cases. IRC had been anxious to eliminate the ponderous old trolleys during the late 1930s, replacing them with 25 passenger Mack buses on many lines.