GATS Traction Activity in California
Tr2Action makes debut in the Times with San Francisco scenes from Harry Peat
George Huckaby -
This is the first of many articles that we will call TrolleyvilleTraction Action or Tr2Action for short. We are inviting any traction fans to send us traction-related photos. They can be current or historical as long as they are accompanied with two things. The photo needs (1) to be described completely and/or accompanied with the story behind the photo and (2) a little about the person sending the photo should be provided (including a method to contact the person for clarifications. If it makes sense, we will publish it.
[The rules are simple. Send the text and the photos by E-mail and we will do the rest.]
In Tr2Action-1, Trolleyville was able to get copies of two slides taken by Harry Peat over the years. Harry is a long time motorman for the San Francisco Municipal Railway who will be retiring in the near future joining the ranks which include Walter Thompson, subject of the article in the October 2000 Trolleyville Times.
The first picture below is of the first of the SEPTA-ized MUNI Boeing (ex-Boston) LRV 1320. The photo was taken at 47th and Wawona in December 2000. There is remarkable similarity of the new Muni simplified paint scheme to one recently adopted by the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) and is slowly being applied to their Kawasaki LRT vehicles.
Just for good measure, Harry provided a photo of what is believed to be the only two-car train of LRVs (1212 &1213) ever operated on Market Street. The day was August 25, 1985 and Harry was the motorman for this special charter. This is a scene that may never be seen again as none of the new Breda LRVs have trolley poles and pantographs can not go near Market Street trackage due to the parallel trolley coach wires.
It is so hard to believe that that charter trip was almost sixteen years ago. When Custom Traxx first met Harry at the last San Jose Great American Train Show in 1995, he purchased the second HO scale 'F' line PCC car produced by Custom Traxx, a model of SFMR 1052 (ex PTC 2110), which represents the Los Angeles Railway. He remarked that he had just operated that car the previous Friday. He showed the car to Bill Gunther of Franciscan Hobbies and almost 70 HO scale models of the fourteen single end "F' line PCC cars (1050 through 1063) were produced by Custom Traxx until about 1998. Custom Traxx is preparing a three part lesson for the Trolleyville schoolhouse on how to convert the Bowser PCC to represent the MUNI 'F' line PCC cars of the 1050-1063 series so stay tuned.
We hope to provide some views of Bill Everett's famous O scale traction layout in a future Tr2Action.
|
Shows in Santa Barbara and San Francisco
George Huckaby -
The month of March had plenty of model traction activity documented. There were two Great American Train Shows, both featuring some operating traction.
The Santa Barbara GATS started in beautiful California weather and ended in a southeast Asia type monsoon. Meanwhile capacity crowds toured both buildings on March 3rd and 4th. The Southern California Traction Club had eleven modules operational with two, three and four car trains of PERy 1200's running throughout the day. Also featured were nine of the San Francisco's colorful 'F' line PCC cars. In the top photo below is one of those modules containing models of Philadelphia Transportation Company (PTC) PCC 2168, Boston PCC 3299, SF Muni PC1051, PTC 1923 Brill #5322, PTC PCC 2190, PTC PCC 2705 and SEPTA LRT 9038. In the lower photo is a portion of the SCTC set-up with Jan Podganski, John Moline (back to camera) and George Jones, busily explaining to a show visitor that the cars do operate from the overhead wire.
Trolleyville was represented by Custom Traxx in one of the two buildings ,and Railway Traction Miniatures in the other. Custom Traxx displayed their new Illinois Traction System and Pacific Electric decals as shown below in the top photo. The lower photo shows two modules with SETPA Kawasaki LRT crossing in front of PTC PCC 2168.
One week later and it was the Cow Palace in San Francisco for another show. This show featured some of the best weather we have encountered in San Francisco. Trolleyville was represented by Custom Traxx, Holland Traction Supply (Mitch Holland) and Railway Traction Miniatures (Ken Dively) both shown in the right photo below:
 
|
