February 2009
| |
|
February 2009 |
|
Over 40,000 people attend World's Greatest Hobby Model Train Show!
Meanwhile in California over 6,200 patrons visited the Great Train Expo in Anaheim, CA on January 3-4. This was the third model train show in Southern California within a four week period and each one was attended by more people that the one before. Good fun model train shows are back. Don't miss one when it comes anywhere close to your community. For HO scale Pacific Electric modelers, the 5000 series PCC! As most HO scale modelers are aware, Suydam imported the Pacific Electric double end PCC cars some time ago. Many modelers had problems with these cars. Many modelers thought that the front end was not shaped correctly, the visor above both windshields were much too large and the enclosed gear drive had some problems. A few years ago, a resin casting was made based on the same brass model and was offered by Jack LaRussa. This casting is still marketed by Funaro & Camerlengo and some of these were seen at the National Train Show in Anaheim last July. Recently, we received a model of the new resin casting of the Pacific Electric 5000-5029 series PCC cast by Miniatures by Eric. It currently comes with a pewter floor designed for the Bowser PCC. However, the Bowser motor is too high to allow the floor to be placed inside the shell so currently a smaller can motor must be used with the Bowser power truck. Accompanying the PCC shell are two Pullman style trolley pole shrouds, retriever/catcher castings, and the "antler" trolley pole hooks. The front end has been slightly modified and appears to be closer to the prototype. See the photo below:
Custom Traxx is considering making a complete kit available. The kit would include Bowser power, either a pewter or aluminum floor, trolley poles and decals. The price would be about the same as the other Custom Traxx resin kits. Readers, if you are interested, in having one of these cars, please let us know your desires right away. Muni Moves Forward with a Shelter for the F-line Cars! Early Monday morning, January 5th, contractors started taking soil samples for the new shelter that is to be erected over several tracks at the Geneva facility. This is the first readily identifiable piece of work to be done. They drilled down more than seventy feet on January 5-7. The first hole was drilled between tracks 11 and 12 which will be one corner of the structure. Then the next hole was drilled between track 7 and 8 and finally in the middle of the yard.
Meanwhile, another one of Muni's treasures, Melbourne 496 emerged from the shop after a shopping. __________________________________________________ Another Improvement from Bowser for HO scale traction modelers! As most of your know by now, Bowser Manufacturing Company, with the support of Custom Traxx, is developing a new injection-molded PCC car which will represent the 1947/48 PCC cars obtained from Philadelphia, now used on San Francisco's F-line. In developing the drive for this car, which was to be based on the current Bowser traction drive, two improvements were almost baseline requirements. First, a flywheel should be added as original equipment and the brass wheels should be replaced with nickel silver. As a result, new 26" wheels will soon be used in all the traction mechanisms using 26" wheels as soon as the current stocks are exhausted. This includes mechanisms 125100, 125141 and 125142. These wheels are nickel plated brass with electrochemical blackening, using the same process currently used for the wheels used in both Atlas and Stewart locomotives. The Southern California Traction Club (SCTC) tested 16 of these wheels on their two Philadelphia "Almond Joy" subway cars and found that they performed very well. Neither the track or the wheels required any cleaning after over 50 hours of continuous running. In speaking with some SCTC members at a recent appearance, the words, excellent, fantastic, great and superb were used to describe these wheels. Shown below at left is a trailing truck with the older brass wheels and at right is a power truck with the new wheels.
The new nickel silver wheelset assemblies are completely interchangeable with the current brass wheelset assemblies. Look for these new 26 inch wheels in late spring or early summer 2009! |
Train Days at the San Bernardino County Museum, Redlands, CA! The San Bernardino County Museum held its Train Days celebration on January 17-18, 2009. Railroad artifacts were on hand for public viewing and three local model railroad clubs were invited to display their operating train models during the show. Among them was the Orange County Module Railroaders, the Pacific Coast Modular Club and the Southern California Traction Club.
A Southern Pacific 2-8-0 steam engine and and caboose are "stuffed and mounted" at the rear of the museum.
The major purpose of this appearance was in consonance with the club mission to bring traction modeling, mainly operating trolley cars from a powered overhead wire, to the attention and enjoyment of the general public. Other clubs, notably the East Penn Traction Club of the Greater Philadelphia area, have been doing this for years with much success. As it turned out, over 3230 people came to the show; the Museum acquired over 40 new members and the SCTC may have found a new club member. The crowds were constant almost from opening to closing. Visitors were telling stories of having to park great distances from the museum. The SCTC can attest to that. The next photos depicts the way the visitors were around their display most of the time.
The SCTC operated their DCC controlled subway line and city streetcar line to the enjoyment and amazement of the visitors.
One of the surprises was a very detailed module built by Ken Kirkwood, who does not even belong to a model train club. This "stand-alone" module, featuring a train with cars made from craftsman wood kits, was on display in the main entrance of the museum for the entire show. This photo does not do justice to this finely detailed 2' by 4' module.
This is a great place to make an appearance. The Museum provided help with both set-up and tear-down, provided free "continental" breakfast each morning for the exhibitors as shown in the next photo:
Exhibitors were also given discount tickets for lunch. The Museum provided assistance to the clubs during move-in and move-out. The railroad clubs told us that they can not wait for next year! The event was so successful that the Museum considered making it a three-day event in 2010 but there is a resource problem. Next years Train Days celebration is already scheduled for January 16-17, 2010. Mark those dates if you are in the area next year. ________________________________________________ One modeler's report on the Custom Traxx Recently, Bob Dietrich, an East Penn Traction Club modeler, wrote the Times about his initial impressions of the Custom Traxx / Miniatures by Eric TS-17 Toronto CLRV model and we have provided them to our readers. ...I finally opened the CLRV model. As I said earlier this will go on the shelf for awhile, I'm trying to catch up with some other "shelf models". But here is a first impression: Detail parts are nicely done and clean but you may need to make new sideframe molds soon. I do not know the purpose of the "T" shaped items in the separate bag. They aren't mentioned in the instructions. _______________________________________________ By now almost every rail fan knows about the Angels Flight Railway in Los Angeles. This little funicular had been in operation for many years when shut down for a redevelopment project. The line was saved, moved to another location and eventually reopened. Eight years ago, there was an accident which resulted in a fatality and the line has been closed ever since. For those of you who would like to know the findings of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) on the accident, please click here! Bring your lunch as this is an all-day job (large report)! |
| CUSTOM TRAXX DECAL SALE - FEBRUARY 1 TO FEBRUARY 15 !! ALL IN STOCK CUSTOM TRAXX DECALS 20% OFF WITH THIS COUPON ! TAKE 20% OFF LIST PRICE OF ANY DECAL (MULTIPLY BY .8), CUT OUT THIS COUPON AND SEND IN WITH YOUR ORDER ! |
|
|
Trolleyville
| Factory
| Trolleyville Times | Info
Center/Real Estate Office | School
| Library
| Clubhouse
| Downtown |
