The End Of An Era!

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As reported in the latest issue of Trolley Talk, Richard Orr, shown below, has announced that he will be discontinuing his casting of HO scale trolley track turnouts and crossings as the end of 2003. In an agreement finalized last June, Custom Traxx of West Los Angeles, California, will be producing the well known ORR line of HO scale girder rail street track beginning in 2004.

            As reported in the July 2001 Trolleyville Times, Richard Orr was casting the five turnouts and seven crossings in the basement of his Omaha. Nebraska home for many years. Very few credible HO scale streetcar layouts or modules can be found without at least one ORR turnout or crossing section of special work somewhere.

Richard has had an interest in traction dating all the back to 1950 when he began to extensively photograph the five remaining streetcar lines in his hometown of Omaha. Shortly after his marriage in 1951, he began to build a traction layout in his home. Attempting to operate model streetcars from overhead wire was a real challenge as even the limited number of related items available today were not around then. What was available was in O scale and twice the size required for realistic HO use. When the Omaha streetcars were abandoned in 1955, the desire to see the cars still running, kept Richard trying to model streetcars in HO scale. He struggled along until 1967 when he decided to investigate lost wax casting and the rest is history. He began producing a line of HO scale overhead wire components and offered them to other trolley modelers beginning in 1968. Then the issue of streetcar track, or girder rail, emerged. Most street railways used this rail which had an integral flangeway built in to the rail along with single point turnouts. Girder Rail avoided damage to flanges and wheel treads from paving blocks and also did not cause the paving problems regular railroad "T" rail did to normal paving. Richard felt that he could cast these using some original track made from code 100 and code 70 rail.  With his original casting equipment intended only for model overhead parts, he could only cast turnouts without frogs. He eventually produced a line of track that included three turnouts with frogs, five straight crossings and two curved crossings and did so for 15 years.

The entire line, including the girder rail originally fabricated by Rail Craft and the rail-curving tool, will be available to modelers from Custom Traxx in 2004. All parts are being cast in central California. Speaking with Custom Traxx, the Times learned that the main purpose of this sale was to ensure that the line of street track would continue to be available to the HO scale street railway modeler. Also available will be the original point mate turnouts without frogs that Richard had not sold for some time.

During the casting demonstration reported in the July 2001 issue of the Times, Richard Orr felt that he could not continue to do the casting of the components much longer. Richard had suffered a serious attack of Guillian-Barre' disease in the mod 1990s and although his level of recovery was remarkable, his previous extremely high level of energy had been diminished somewhat by the long recovery process. In the spring of 2003, Richard finally made the decision to turn the business over to George Huckaby (Custom Traxx), so here we go!

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CAR 500 Testing!

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Trolleyville found out that on Tuesday, November 18, testing would begin on training San Pedro Waterfront trolley car 500 with 501.  So on Wednesday, July 19, George Huckaby went down to the line and found maintenance specialist Doug Ward and motorman Bob Cook testing the cars, using a borrowed MU jumper from the Pacific Harbor Line

The sounds were reminiscent of the old 1907 built Elevated cars which I rode until 1960, especially the clickety-clack of the rails, which has long disappeared from most railroads. So the feel and sound of an old trolley car has been recreated and preserved.

Car 500 is expected to enter revenue service prior to the end of the year.

New Catalog Numbers Assigned To ORR Street Railway Track Items!

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ORR HO Track Components will be available as ORR Street Railway Track beginning January 1, 2004 using the following catalog numbers. For those of you in Southern California, these items will be officially unveiled at the Anaheim Great American Train Show on January 31-February, 2004 so stop by and examine them.

Please note the new part numbers below and when surfing the internet, review the ORR TRACK page at www.trolleyville.com for more specific information:

Girder Rail (3 ft lengths) - 2300

                4 pcs - 2304 - $9.95*

                17 pcs - 2317 - $39.95*

Girder Rail Curving Tool - 2350 - $32.00*

Right Hand Turnout (w/frog) - 2400 -$14.95

RH Point-Mate (no frog) - 2401 - $12.95

Wye Turnout (w/frog) - 2402 - $13.95

Left Hand Turnout (w/frog) - 2403 - $14.95

LH Point-Mate - 2404 - $12.95

Right Curved Crossing - 2520 - $9.95

Left Curved Crossing - 2523 - $9.95

30 Degree Crossing - 2530 - $9.95

45 Degree Crossing - 2545 - $9.95

60 Degree Crossing - 2560 - $9.95

75 Degree Crossing - 2575 - $9.95

90 Degree Crossing - 2590 - $9.95

*Shipping charges are specified on the ORR TRACK page at www.trolleyville.com. Please note the special charges for the shipment of the 2304 and 2317 girder rail.  Call 310-475-5597 or email orrtrack@customtraxx.com for more information.

Hobby shops who specialize and/or who are know for traction items are welcome to participate in our dealer program. Contact Custom Traxx for more details.

Castings will sometimes be made upon receipt of orders so allow time for delivery as production gears up in the first part of 2004. There also may be some delays as we transfer casting from Richard Orr's basement to a foundry on the West Coast.

For those of you who have never used this track, please note that by the end of this year, there will be at least three new lessons in the Trolleyville Schoolhouse detailing how to use this track. Use of this track will be featured during workshops at selected Great American Train Shows during 2004.

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Southern California Traction Club Displays at Los Angeles Arboretum

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Setting up on Halloween, the SCTC provided another glimpse into the past with their 16' by 20' display at the Arboretum, the place where the original Tarzan movies were made.

Traction was also shown on the 20s and 30s display on Charles Hepperle's module:

Charles is a member of the Southern California Traction Club and founder of the 20s and 30s club.

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ORR Track Previewed At Northern California Model Train Show

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One of the west coast's best annual model train shows occurs each Veteran's Day weekend in Roseville, CA. Formerly known as International Railfair, the Northern California Model Train Show is sponsored by five model railroad clubs. The patrons of this show were given some of the first views of almost all of the ORR Street Railway Track items along with some trackwork fabricated using same as shown below:

The items were very well received!

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Thomas The Tank Engine Appears at Orange Empire  Railway Museum

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        Several thousand Southern California youngsters got to see and get their pictures taken with Thomas the Tank engine at the Orange Empire Railway Museum this month. The engine was featured at the point of a long train on November 8, 9, 11, 14, 15 and 16. What's the trolley connection? Take a close look at the first coach in the train, none other than Pacific Electric Blimp 418. This car was used because of its passenger capacity. 400 passengers were carried on each twenty- minute train trip. More photos below of the festivities at the museum.

        This is the second year that Thomas visited OERM and he is expected back next year. Watch for the 2004 announcements.