Untitled Document

All Aboard Model Railroad Emporium Closes !
***

All Aboard Model Railroad Emporium was opened in 1990 by Michael Smith at 3766 Pacific Coast Highway in Torrance. Michael's idea was to bring lower prices to South Bay model railroaders.

The business was an immediate success and caused many changes in the local retail arena. In five years, he was forced to acquire additional space and move across the street to 3867 Pacific Coast Highway with almost triple the floor space. Trolleyville visited the store in May 2001 and found the store to be delightful. In 1995, the Southern California Traction Club was born in the now empty corner shown below when three of the club's modules were set up in the store to demonstrate the practicality of operating HO scale traction models from a live overhead wire.

Many changes happened to the store over the 15 years of operation as there were many changes in the hobby. but Mike's All Aboard Model Train Emporium weathered them all.

Regardless, after the sudden death of Michael's father in January, Michael decided that he should move to Florida and support his mother in this time of her life.

In a fitting gesture, several of Mike's loyal customers gave an official Good-Bye reception and dinner for him and his mother, Mary, on March 19th in a Torrance private residence.

The writing on the cake said it all. South Bay model railroaders will miss All Aboard Model Railroad Emporium and we all wish Michael and his mother the best. We really enjoyed those 15 years!

__________________________________________

[Hartland Birney, from Column 1]

NOTE: For the record, all the windows on the Hartland Birney come out from the outside, not from the inside. A sort of sandwich is formed by the window frame and the side of the cars. The "meat" is the frosted plastic for the window glass. Since we were going to repaint the car is a different prototypical paint scheme, we removed the windows and the doors. We found the two doors the hardest to remove, almost destroying them in the process.

To construct the destination sign at location "A":

1. Remove the plastic ridge at the bottom of the letterboard with an Xacto knife all the way to the first of the two marker lights in the front letterboard and file smooth. Removing some of the curve in the letterboard in this area adds to the realism of the final product.

2. Using .005" styrene, cut a rectangle 10" to 12" by 33" (using a 1:24 scale ruler) and using plastic weld cement carefully affix the rectangle to the letterboard flush with the top as shown above. This will form the base of the destination sign box.

Note: The 10" to 12" depends on the prototypical Birney to be modeled. Check your photos before deciding on the final measurements. We had the opportunity to measure destination signs of three different Birney cars at the Orange Empire Railway Museum in December 2004.

3. A typical Birney destination sign opening is about 6" by 28" so the next step is to frame that opening with .015" styrene. Using some Evergreen #115 (.015" x.100") StripStyrene, form the top and both sides of the destination box. Affix with Plastic Weld Cement. The #115 styrene is 2.5 scale inches wide so when the top and sides are added, the sign is the prototypical 28" wide. Using some additional .015" styrene, cut a rectangle 1.5" to 3.5" x 28" to fill in the bottom.

2. Changing the front window is a little simpler. Remove the bar forming the destination sign and file smooth. then take some Evergreen #157 or 167 StripStyrene (.060" or .080" x .156") and cut a length 27 scale inches long and add it to the top of the window casting as shown in the photo above. slight sanding may be necessary to get a snug fit. The modified window can be carefully slipped into place right behind the new destination sign.

The hardest part of this whole conversion will be matching the original paint and touching up the sign. But if you are careful, it can be done easily!

The car above has been converted in this manner. It will become a model of SJRR 143, which is currently operational at Kelley Park in San Jose!

This car has had detail parts from Light Rail Products added, such as the LRP #006 Ohio Brass Trolley Catcher and the LRP #007 Crouse-Hinds Streetcar Headlight. It also has a raised trolley pole base and trolley pole hooks fabricated by Custom Traxx and two LRP #004 Trolley pole kits which feature the US-13 four spring base and a trolley harp and rotating trolley wheel. For more information on these detail parts, refer to the Light Rail Products web site.


April 2005

World's Greatest Hobby on Tour Shows an unqualified success! ***** The World's Greatest Hobby on Tour wrapped up it's first 2004-2005 season as an unqualified success. The only customers and manufacturers who did not share in this success were those who were not there. If they all come to their senses, they will be at the 2005-2006 shows. Every show seemed to be crowded during every hour that the show was open. A typical crowd at the Long Beach Show is shown below: Similar crowds were found at the Denver show one week later. Managed and executed by the experts at CIA, Inc, the shows had the following attendance: Edison, New Jersey - December 2004 - 19,000+ Saint Louis, Missouri - January 2005 - 33,000+ Long Beach, California - February 2005 - 28,000+ Denver, Colorado - February 2005 - 29,000+ So we are willing to bet that the overwhelming majority of the 109,000 visitors and the vendors are at lot happier after either visiting or participating in these shows. Trolleyville vendors did well at the shows that they attended and since traction is such a small part of the overall model railroading hobby, this was a good indication of the level of success of these shows. ______________________________________________________ Orange Empire Railway Museum Rolls out Pacific Electric 1299! *** On March 5th, during the Spring Railroadiana Swap Meet and Member's Day, the former Pacific Electric Business Car 1299 was brought out, coupled to PERy "Blimp" 418. Rides in the car were afforded beginning at noon. The 1299 is under complete restoration. While the underbody is virtually operational, the wiring on the roof and the trolley poles need to be installed. When these tasks are completed, the car will be ready to run again on its own. Significant work has been completed on the interior as shown below but more needs to be done. ____________________________________________________ Southern California Traction Club adds new module! *** It has been overdue for two years, but the Southern California Traction Club unveiled its latest module at the Great American Train Show in Costa Mesa, CA on March 12-13, 2005. This module, which expanded the city portion of the display, featured the Rush Limbaugh High School building shown below: This module was an immediate hit with the show visitors. Many of them photographed the building with some of them even taking their pictures next to the module, clearly showing the name of the school. The entire module is shown below: The club hopes to unveil its next new module at the Great American Train Show in Del Mar, CA in December 2005. ______________________________________________________ Improving the Appearance of the Hartland Locomotive Works Large Scale Birney * * * When we first saw the Hartland Locomotive Works Birney Safety Car at a Large Scale Train Show a few years back , we saw this as an excellent entry model for traction buffs who liked Large Scale modeling. Of course, due to the expense of the injection molding process and the limitations of the process itself, certain deviations are usually taken to ensure the producibility of the final product , so we were not surprised when there were some deviations from the prototype. In this case, we noticed that the ends appeared a little too flat, the destination sign was in the left front window rather than in the letterboard above the left front window and the upper case side windows were not mounted in the single body-long strip usually found on most of these cars. The first discrepancy would not be cost-effective to correct and the third quite an undertaking, but the second is rather easy once you get the front window out. Correcting this does much to improve the appearance of the car. The one-piece front window casting, once the adhesive holding it in place can be removed, comes out from the front of the car. Behind it is the frosted plastic window glass and a rectangular piece of plastic that fits behind the center window to force the window glazing to the shape of the front. [See Hartland Birney,Column 2)**	All Aboard Model Railroad Emporium Closes ! * All Aboard Model Railroad Emporium was opened in 1990 by Michael Smith at 3766 Pacific Coast Highway in Torrance. Michael's idea was to bring lower prices to South Bay model railroaders. The business was an immediate success and caused many changes in the local retail arena. In five years, he was forced to acquire additional space and move across the street to 3867 Pacific Coast Highway with almost triple the floor space. Trolleyville visited the store in May 2001 and found the store to be delightful. In 1995, the Southern California Traction Club was born in the now empty corner shown below when three of the club's modules were set up in the store to demonstrate the practicality of operating HO scale traction models from a live overhead wire. Many changes happened to the store over the 15 years of operation as there were many changes in the hobby. but Mike's All Aboard Model Train Emporium weathered them all. Regardless, after the sudden death of Michael's father in January, Michael decided that he should move to Florida and support his mother in this time of her life. In a fitting gesture, several of Mike's loyal customers gave an official Good-Bye reception and dinner for him and his mother, Mary, on March 19th in a Torrance private residence. The writing on the cake said it all. South Bay model railroaders will miss All Aboard Model Railroad Emporium and we all wish Michael and his mother the best. We really enjoyed those 15 years! __________________________________________ [Hartland Birney, from Column 1]** NOTE: For the record, all the windows on the Hartland Birney come out from the outside, not from the inside. A sort of sandwich is formed by the window frame and the side of the cars. The "meat" is the frosted plastic for the window glass. Since we were going to repaint the car is a different prototypical paint scheme, we removed the windows and the doors. We found the two doors the hardest to remove, almost destroying them in the process. To construct the destination sign at location "A": 1. Remove the plastic ridge at the bottom of the letterboard with an Xacto knife all the way to the first of the two marker lights in the front letterboard and file smooth. Removing some of the curve in the letterboard in this area adds to the realism of the final product. 2. Using .005" styrene, cut a rectangle 10" to 12" by 33" (using a 1:24 scale ruler) and using plastic weld cement carefully affix the rectangle to the letterboard flush with the top as shown above. This will form the base of the destination sign box. Note: The 10" to 12" depends on the prototypical Birney to be modeled. Check your photos before deciding on the final measurements. We had the opportunity to measure destination signs of three different Birney cars at the Orange Empire Railway Museum in December 2004. 3. A typical Birney destination sign opening is about 6" by 28" so the next step is to frame that opening with .015" styrene. Using some Evergreen #115 (.015" x.100") StripStyrene, form the top and both sides of the destination box. Affix with Plastic Weld Cement. The #115 styrene is 2.5 scale inches wide so when the top and sides are added, the sign is the prototypical 28" wide. Using some additional .015" styrene, cut a rectangle 1.5" to 3.5" x 28" to fill in the bottom. 2. Changing the front window is a little simpler. Remove the bar forming the destination sign and file smooth. then take some Evergreen #157 or 167 StripStyrene (.060" or .080" x .156") and cut a length 27 scale inches long and add it to the top of the window casting as shown in the photo above. slight sanding may be necessary to get a snug fit. The modified window can be carefully slipped into place right behind the new destination sign. The hardest part of this whole conversion will be matching the original paint and touching up the sign. But if you are careful, it can be done easily! The car above has been converted in this manner. It will become a model of SJRR 143, which is currently operational at Kelley Park in San Jose! This car has had detail parts from Light Rail Products added, such as the LRP #006 Ohio Brass Trolley Catcher and the LRP #007 Crouse-Hinds Streetcar Headlight. It also has a raised trolley pole base and trolley pole hooks fabricated by Custom Traxx and two LRP #004 Trolley pole kits which feature the US-13 four spring base and a trolley harp and rotating trolley wheel. For more information on these detail parts, refer to the Light Rail Products web site.