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STORE NEWS
Find the parts for the latest Schoolhouse article at Custom Traxx.
Bow Collectors and Power Trucks now on sale at Atsushi Sato's site.
SCHOOLHOUSE UPDATE
Learn to make trolley poles in the Room One of theSchoolhouse.
OTHER FEATURES
ON PAGE 2
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North County Model Railroaders' home page at Trolleyville
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WELCOME TO TROLLEYVILLE
Trolleyville Founder George Huckaby - The Man, The Myth
George Huckaby started
with trains early as a child. His mother used to take him to
25th and Diamond Streets to watch trains. She says
it seemed to be the only thing that would shut him up. The view
here was the four track main line of the Pennsylvania Railroad
with many steam engines, GG-1s, P-5s and unique Baldwin diesels.
A train passed almost every minute. Also there was a streetcar
line on almost every north-south street except Broad Street.
So he was in the middle of heavy trolley watching with routes
3, 8, 21, 33, 39, 57 within walking distance. By the time he
was in the first grade, he knew the different classes of cars
even before he know the official names like Peter Witt and Nearside.
PCC cars were then called "Streamliners" by the
Philadelphia Transportation Company and the general public George
did not learn about the term PCC until it was printed on a trading
card that he acquired in 1953. He distinctly remembers learning
this in the schoolyard at recess at Our Lady of the Rosary school
on 63rd Street in West Philadelphia. He also remembers
the few PCC cars painted without the maroon belt rail on Route
13, a fact he thought might have been purely imagination until
about forty-five years later when such a picture appeared on page
52 of the book "Rail Transit Philadelphia - The PTC Years"
by Richard Vible & Henry Elsner.
George's Pacific Electric
experience started in 1971 when arriving in California. Within
two months of arrival, he became member #832 of the Orange Empire
Railway Museum, where is a qualified motorman to this date. After
riding car #717, he was amazed how the interior reminded him of
the Frankford Elevated cars which had been retired in 1960. So
he immediately began learning about all that he had missed not
being in California and within years the PERy became a close second
in his interest to the native Philadelphia trolleys.
George founded Custom Traxx
in 1992 to increase the numbers of electric railway modelers.
His goal was to find out where the traction suppliers were and
let everyone know what was out there and how to do things. In
1995, George founded the Southern California Traction Club. (SCTC).
The SCTC is an HO scale traction club using the modular concept
and operating from live overhead wire. By the end of 1997, they
will have displayed their operational modules at six different
shows in California from Paso Robles to Anaheim. In 1996, Custom
Traxx began conducting workshops at the Great American Train Shows
(GATS) held in California, showing prospective modelers how to
hang operable overhead wire and by the end of the year had evidence
that several modelers had successfully erected overhead wire as
a result.
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George Huckaby and GLA Computer Services Build Your Stop on the World Wide Web
Thank you for your continued support of Trolleyville in 1999. For those who have never visited before, a Warm Welcome to you. For those who have, thanks for visiting again. As we enter into a new year we decided that this would be a good time to tell you something about Trolleyville.
Trolleyville was created in 1997 by George Huckaby and GLA Computer Services as a means for electric railway enthusiasts to find a central location for model and prototype information. A long-time electric railway enthusiast (see sidebar), George's vision was to have a web site where the modeler could find information about trolleys and interurban railways, learn with instructional articles how to build them, and provide actual shops where the materials could be purchased.
GLA Computer Services is based in Atascadero, California. Although not familiar with electric railways specifically, owners Greg Luke and Darin Volpe are avid model railroaders. When George was in the area for the North County Model Railroaders annual train show, he approached Greg about helping him make his vision a reality.
The site started with a small collection of business and soon grew to include a Library listing Trolley and Interurban books and Web sites, and a Schoolhouse where the modeler can read articles complete with photos and drawings on specific modeling tecniques. Some possibilities for the future are a forum for modelers to share ideas, and a collection of prototype photos and drawings for the Schoolhouse. Viewers are welcome to submit article ideas. Go to page 2 for submission information.
If you have any suggestions for making this web site better, you can email George at traxx@earthlink.net or the Darin at webmaster@trolleyville.com.
Thank to for supporting Trolleyville.
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