LEARN TO RUN A STREETCAR!
Port-A-Pike To Be Displayed At Selected East Coast GATS Shows
All appearances have been cancelled. We will inform you of any future developments.
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Ed Torpey's
Port-A-Pike II
It is a self-contained HO-gauge layout over two levels and utilizes the maximum amount of track in the minimum mount of space, while trying to make it look as if it has purpose and direction. It has six-inch radius curves, 16 single point hand built switches, which are more properly called turnouts. All such turnouts are controlled from overhead contactors similar to the prototype at that time and still in operation on the Saint Charles line in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Ed Torpey is explaining the operation of Port-A-Pike II to another young boy at the November 1997 Lions Model Railroad Show. The boys left hand is on the controller handle while both Ed's hand and the boys right hand are on the brake valve handle as the correct method of applying the brakes are instructed. More photos on page 2.
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Streets are made with plaster of paris with the brick and cobble stone being carved in. The lower level is cobble stone and red brick while the upper level is yellow brick with blue glazed brick between the rails.
The upper level is designed to look like the Kensington section of Philadelphia with its typical rowhouses and a ball field. According to Torpey, "The Yellow Brick Road is part of Dorothy's route to the Wizard of Oz which she uses almost every day at about 7:00 a.m." It's street name is Alfonsi Road.
The lower level is deigned to look like a city with its downtown "Metro Square". The homes on he lower level, according to Torpey are mostly occupied by lawyers waiting for accidents to happen. The Metro Square also occupies the lower level along with Vible Road, Long & Gairo Sidings and the Greenwood Carhouse. Artwork, in the form of a design of Center City Philadelphia, is by Howard Williams.
A photo of the Kensington Valley Electric Railway car leaving Greenwood Barn and approaching the brick paved streets. These streets are made from molding plaster with dry color pre-mixed. Oil is then applied to bring out the original wet color and to control plaster dust. Two of the hand built 16 single point turnouts are shown in this photo. More photos on page 2.
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Power for the layout comes from a Variac Power Supply. Power ranges from 0-15 volts (DC) and current is provided by the 4 amp power supply. The cars have poles which must contact the overhead to be operable, with the direction of the poles determining the direction of travel (also known as "trolley pole reverse").
When Port-A-Pike II is on display, it is controlled by a PC-5 controller originally built by the General Electric Company of Schenectady, New York as original equipment on a Philadelphia Rapid Transit 4000 series "Hog Island" car. These cars were acquired to get workers to the shipyards during World War I. This controller assembly was modified by Charles P. Long to operate the model cars on Port-A-Pike II. Unfortunately, the last surviving "Hog Island" type car perished in the now infamous SEPTA 1975 Woodland Car Barn fire. The brake valve used to stop the model cars is a straight air valve from a Philadelphia Rapid Transit streetcar.
Joseph Alfonsi, Bill Greenwood, Dave Gairo, Gary Sugden, Tom O'Donnell, John and David Gallagher (father and son) and many, many others contributed to the construction an set-up of this great display.
An HO scale model of a Philadelphia "Nearside" Car executes a right turn around Metro Square on Port-A-Pike II. The model was imported by MTS Imports, Inc. and is currently owned by Richard Vible. More photos on page 2.
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Ed Torpey was born in Philadelphia in 1938, the same year that the first 20 new PCC cars in their striking blue, tan and silver paint scheme arrived for service on Route 53 - Wayne Avenue. By the time he attended grade school at Saint Malachy's, trolleys were still all over the place in North Philadelphia, with a line on almost every north-south street and main east-west thoroughfares, such as Girard Avenue, Columbia (C. B. Moore) Avenue, Allegheny Avenue and Erie Avenue. The conventional cars, built between 1911 and 1926 would be around until he was almost 20 years old, the last ones disappearing from Market Street at the end of 1957. But in the summer of 1957, nineteen year old Ed went into the Navy for two years of active duty. During this time, he rode streetcars in Spain, Greece and Sweden, and they all reminded him of home. Imagine how disappointed he was when his tour was completed to return home and find out that the last conventional cars left the Philadelphia streets six months after he went on active duty. At this time, he became an avid trolley fan, as most of his clean non-polluting cars had been replaced by the new "stink-buggies". There were 14 trolley lines still left in Philadelphia, all equipped with the PCC cars ranging from eleven to twenty one years old but serving the city well. The largest car house was Luzerne Depot in North Philadelphia which served Routes 6, 47, 50, 53, 56 and 60. In November 1962, Ed joined the Philadelphia Transportation Company (PTC) as a motorman and was assigned to Luzerne Depot. He was to operate all six streetcar routes assigned to Luzerne until transferred to Woodland in April 1963. Now he would be running four trolley routes still in service today with 1981 Post-PCC Kawasaki vehicles. Meanwhile, not getting enough of his beloved trolley cars, Ed joined the Metropolitan Philadelphia Railway Association as this organization was attempting to preserve Philadelphia car 5327, and a Lancaster Birney Car 236, on loan from the State of Pennsylvania Historical Society. It is at one of these meetings that he formed a life long friendship with George Huckaby (Custom Traxx and trolleyville.com). Ed lasted at Woodland through the change to exact fare and the transfer from the PTC to the current SEPTA, an authority most people feel has proved that the old PTC used to know how to run a transit system. In 1969, he was moved to the Board Street Subway, where he was a motorman and conductor as those trains were operated with two persons in those days. He operated both express and local trains, the Ridge Avenue Spur and the Camden Hi-Speed Line before it became the Lindenwold Line. By 1976, it was time to move again. This time it was to the Market Frankford Subway Elevated as a tower operator. He was to stay there ten years until health problems forced him to become a cashier where he still works today.
Ed's passion for the operation of streetcars led him to develop Port-A-Pike II and to arrange it so that generations to come might share his love for streetcar operation using the real controls.
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