February 2011 Trolleyville Times

In the last issue, we reported on our experience with the Bachmann HO scale Birney. We had just gone to press with the January issue when we received our test M1T decoder for this car. We installed the decoder and tested the car in the two-rail mode. When we began testing in the overhead wire mode, we discovered that one of the wipers that conduct power from the wheels to the motor was not working at all. So we had to examine these wipers much more closely.

Of course the malfunctioning wiper was one of the two that we needed in the overhead wire mode. These wipers turn out to be the weak point of the car. With only four wheels to pick up power and only two in the overhead wire mode, our testing shows these wipers to be the "Achilles Heel" of the unit.

Users are advised to check these wipers by checking current pick-up by each wheel to minimize these problems. We removed both wheelsets and repositioned the wipers. Replacing the wheelsets is very tricky as one must line up the bearing to fit into the slots in the cast frame. The bearings are basically miniature versions of the bearings, Bowser part #1257, currently used in the Bowser traction mechanism and must be reinserted while keeping the wipers out of the way.

Since Custom Traxx and the Southern California Traction Club operate streetcars and interurbans exclusively from overhead wire, we soldered a small wire from one wiper mount on one side of the car to the wiper mount on the other side of the car. That ended the possibility of two-rail operation for that car but we do not do that anyway. The car was successfully operated at the Anaheim Great Train Expo last month.
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The reception of this warrant and the subsequent review led to a discussion among the Times staff of the relevance of the NMRA and a much overdue review of the NMRA Standards and Recommended Practices, all of which are on-line at nmra.org.

The NMRA was created in 1935 by model railroaders, manufacturer's, and publishers, in response to the need to bring order out of chaos. The NMRA Standards were developed as a way to help insure that equipment could be interchanged between one model railroad and another and that cars and locomotives of one manufacturer could run on the track of another manufacturer together with cars and equipment of still other manufacturers and modelers.

For almost 75 years, many of these basic Standards have remained virtually unchanged from the time of their original publication. They have been supplemented and refined, but they have stood the test of time and have proven to have been of great benefit to the hobby of model railroading and have contributed greatly in allowing the hobby to develop to the point where it is today.

There appears to be a misconception among many model railroaders and traction modelers that most of the Standards and Recommended Practices are out of date and need revision. A visit to the NMRA web site, showed this hardly to be the case. Not only are there Standards (S) and Recommended Practices (RP) for layouts but there are Module Standards (MS) and Module Recommended Practices (MRP). We reviewed all the standards and recommended practices applicable to traction and traction modules and concur that the existence of these guidelines must be recognized and reviewed by all who want to produce models. A lot of hard work has been done by someone to produce these guidelines. What a modeler does on his/her model railroad or traction empire is up to the individual. But if that individual wants things to work well, he or she should consider these standards and recommended practices. These are the words of those who have already "done it".

Another New Traction Modeler!
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It all started a few years ago with the purchase of a Bowser 125210 PCC car along with the desire to paint and letter it to represent the Los Angeles trolleys that he rode when he was younger. So with that desire, Rudi Volti slowly became a trolley modeler. In 2008, he procured a set of CN-3100 decals from Custom Traxx and then acquired the correct colors for the Los Angeles Railway "fruit salad"paint scheme and proceeded to finish his car.

Rudi is now Professor Emeritus, Pitzer College, a small Liberal Arts College in Claremont, California. He currently lives in that same community in a quiet residential street on the end of a cul-de-sac. Rudi has lived all over the world, including places like Hong Kong, the Netherlands, England, Spain and in other states including Maryland and Texas.

Rudi wanted to see his car run, so he searched for information. He developed his own track plan, ensured that it fit into a 6' by 3.5' space in his den and in early 2010 began to lay his track, assemble building kits and install some scenery.

When the track was tested in the two rail mode, it was found to be operational so the next thing was to erect his overhead wire. Reading literature available to him, he started to accumulate the necessary items such as line poles, overhead frogs and wire. Unfortunately, he used one of those old "loop and beads" methods of hanging overhead trolley wire. This method did not use the overhead hanger fittings by Suydam and Rivers now commonly used by most traction modelers. Compounding this was the use of the wrong type of wire used for the contact wire. By May, when he had not achieved the level of operation that he wished, he contacted Custom Traxx and the Southern California Traction Club (SCTC). John McWhirter and George Huckaby eventually made two visits to his layout. On the first visit, they discovered most of the problems that were causing the difficulties. They made some recommendations and demonstrated some techniques that they used on the SCTC modules. Rudi was a great learner and many of these had been implemented by the second visit. He had acquired the necessary overhead wire hangers and he and an associate had installed them throughout the layout. On our recent visit, Rudi wanted some assistance with some problem areas that remained and John and George did just that. In the next two photos, Rudi (left) is pointing out a troublesome location and George Huckaby (right) is repairing that area.

By this time, the goal was to get the initial level of operation. This meant two-rail operation with the poles merely staying on the wire. The summer went by and so did fall and then the holiday season. Early last month, we got another invitation to visit the layout. We finally got there on January 11th and after a few adjustments the car ran well on two-rail and the poles followed the overhead wire perfectly. In the next Photo, Rudi's Bowser PCC was shown in the next photo operating on his layout without any stalls, dewirememts or derailments.

The next step is to power the overhead wire and convert the cars to run on the overhead wire. In our final photo, Rudi is shown with his layout as his PCC passes.

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HO scale San Francisco Class B Streetcar Kit Coming!
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Greg King (Transit Classics) will soon have a San Francisco Municipal Railway Class B streetcar kit available. Traction fans will now be able to model San Francisco Muni 130 and 162 both now featured on their F-line. Those of you, who were fortunate to get one of his San Francisco Class K/L kits when they were available a few years back, know how nice his kits are. Combine them with a Hollywood Foundry power unit and you have a really nice trolley model. Keep an eye on the Times for more information!

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Soundtraxx (Tsunami) Sound Coming for the Bowser PCC!

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Based on sounds recorded in San Francisco in 2007. Soundtraxx unveiled their first Tsunami equipped PCC. The new circuit board was placed in a model of San Francisco Municipal Railway 1063, which wears the colors of the Baltimore Transit Company. Designed for the post-war all-electric PCC, sounds include the bell (gong), doors opening & closing, passenger stop signal, motor-generator start, run and shutdown and super resilient wheel groan. You will have to hear it to believe it. Some who actually did......didn't! The unit was tested prior to the opening to the public of the Great Train Expo in Anaheim on January 23rd in the company of several model railroad vendors. Much work remains to be done before the final product is released but it will be worth the wait!

The Soundtraxx people also developed the passenger stop/start feature similar to that found on the M4T decoder from Train Control Systems. When integrated with the passenger car stop signal, doors opening and closing and the two bells to start, the effect is just plain awesome!
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[Shows, from Column 1]

Then, the club acquired a model of a single Class A-49 car. So the two married cars were rewired to allow that third car, now painted as PTC 617, to be added to the train and control the headlight and taillights individually. Fortunately, this car and another A-49, 646, can now be completed due to IHP graciously supplying eight of the required truck details. Thank you, Mr. Bartel! A prototype-size six-car train is hoped to be in operation in the future.

HO scale Bowser Tsunami-equipped (Soundtraxx) Baldwin VO-1000 diesels were displayed on both the Southern California Traction Club modules and at the Custom Traxx booth. Visitors were treated to the excellent quality sound reproduction of a Baldwin diesel start-up and running in both DC and DCC operating modes.

Sunday morning prior to the show, the first Tsunami (Sound traxx) equipped Bowser PCC was tested on the 16' by 40' modular layout of the Pacific Coast Modular Club (PCMC) of Rialto, CA. The PCMC was founded in 2000 in Lakewood, CA and has eleven members. Club President, William Braden and David Pantoja, invited the SCTC to test drive the car on their layout. The car was operated on their layout for about fifteen minutes during which all of the functions were demonstrated. The quality of the sound is exceptional, and the bell (gong) is unbelievable.

Participating in the test were (l to r) David Leubben, William Braden, Club President, and David Pantoja. Everyone present was amazed at the sound, especially the bell. They also could not believe that such a intense quality sound was coming from "...that little car..." This will be a winner and every traction layout will want one or more.

Occasionally, Woodland Scenics provides a structure or one of their Accent Series for the Southern California Traction Club to evaluate. This time the structure was the BR5037 Meg-A-Watts Transformer facility. This facility is really perfect for those far corners of a small layout that are hard to realistically develop as you can see in the next photograph.

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A Really Nice-looking Air-Electric PCC Model!
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Recently, Aristocraft announced on its web site that it's long awaited model of the 1936 Saint Louis Car Company-built Air-Electric PCC car was being shipped to dealers. In the next photo is their model of Pittsburgh Railways Co 1039.

These large-scale models have been announced in the following ten road names and paint schemes:

Undecorated - ART23300
Brooklyn (original) - ART23302
Boston - ART23303*
Philadelphia (PRT/PTC) - ART23304
San Francisco Muni** - ART23305
Los Angeles Railway - ART23306
Toronto Transit Commission - ART23307
Philadelphia (SEPTA 1970s) - ART23308
Baltimore Transit - ART23309
Pittsburgh Railways - ART23342

The body shell is an excellent general representation of the prototype car. All of the schemes shown are reasonable representations of prototype 1938 or later air-electric PCC cars except for the San Francisco Muni model. **San Francisco never owned air-electric PCC cars. The number pictured on the car was actually worn by a 1948 All-Electric PCC. *Boston only had only one such car, 3001. The number shown in the announcement is totally incorrect. A thorough review of this car is available on the TrainElectronics web site.
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The Bachmann N Scale Peter Witt!
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Bachmann Industries seems to be making sure that it does not miss out on the resurgence of traction modeling in any scale. First, the Baltimore Peter Witt was introduced in HO scale, then O scale and now N scale, as promised last summer.

This car may do for N scale traction what the Bowser cars did for HO scale traction almost 50 years ago. For a review of this car, click here!


February 2011