February 2014

New HO Scale Light Rail Vehicle Model Available!
HO SEPTA (Philadelphia) Kawasaki
Single-End LRV!

 

Imperial Hobby Productions (IHP) is now producing scale display models of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) 1981-vintage Kawasaki light rail trolleys.  These 50-foot cars were delivered in 1981-1982, replacing the oldest of the PCC cars then still in use by SEPTA.  The Kawasaki cars were 50’ long and 12’ high, and had operator’s cabs at one end.  (A double-end version for suburban trolley service was also built and delivered at the same time, but this version is not represented by IHP’s model.)  All 112 single-end ‘city cars’ are still in service over 30 years later.

This model is only the second injected-plastic, USA-prototype LRV to be produced in HO scale, and it is IHP’s first model to be produced this way. Previous IHP models were produced in resin, a hands-on process intended more for limited run models.  Resin casting is more labor-intensive, messy, and less precise than plastic injection molding, hence IHP’s entry into manufacturing using injection molded styrene plastic.  The new SEPTA Kawasaki LRV from IHP is CAD-designed from scratch by Mike Bartel, owner/operator of IHP, and produced in China to IHP’s specifications.  These Kawasaki LRV models are factory painted and assembled, and made to a high degree of quality, accuracy and finish. The project is entirely an IHP-proprietary project and is not collaborative or assisted by any other manufacturer or brand.

The IHP SEPTA Kawasaki LRV is being produced as an unpowered display model.  This was a result of both SEPTA’s desire for a model at a certain price point (for sale in their Transit Gift Shop) and of IHP’s own budgetary constraints (This was IHP’s first large-scale project in China, after all).  Producing unpowered models was considered the best way to keep costs (and the retail price) low, yet still produce a high-quality scale model.  Though supplied unpowered, the model can be powered with the aid of a 3D-printed plastic frame available from IHP’s Shapeways.com online 3D parts shop.  The model’s dummy floor is removable so that powering (and lighting, adding an interior, etc.) can be easily accomplished.  IHP plans to eventually offer factory powered models if sales of the display models justify it.

The model is SEPTA-Licensed and approved.  It comes packed in an attractive color package that mimics the paint scheme on the model, which is the first paint scheme the prototypes wore in service during 1982 to about 1987.  (This wide-band scheme was modified later to a narrower 12” wide color band.)  The model features side window frames (representing open-able transom windows) that were later replaced with solid windows.  IHP has designed the model so that different paint schemes, windows, car numbers and destination signs can be modeled in the future, thus making for a highly collectible series of models.

The model and its packaging commemorate 30 years of Kawasaki operation in Philadelphia during the years 1982-2012.  Two road numbers are available: #9000 and #9111, the first and last cars.  Production is limited to 500 pieces of each number.  They are all available through the SEPTA Transit Gift Shop and direct from IHP’s web site.  They may also be available through select dealers.  The model carries an MSRP of $90.00. IHP has plans for a series of plastic HO models representing more modern urban transit and light rail vehicles.

Note: Four days before this issue went to press, the Southern California Traction Club obtained a sample of this model from GHB International and examined it. For that review, click here.
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Alpine Division Scale Models! 
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Alpine Division Scale Models (ADSM) is a limited liability Corporation located in Cerritos, California, using an Artesia, California mailing address. Ed Suydam originally started this model company in 1950 and sold products under the name of E. Suydam & Co, located in Duarte, CA.

ADSM is named after the Alpine Division of the Pacific Electric Railway in Southern California, which operated between the top of Echo Mountain, above Pasadena, CA and the famed Alpine Tavern. Built by Professor Thaddeus S. C. Lowe and engineered by David J. McPherson, the breath-taking Mount Lowe Railway was a Southern California attraction from July 4, 1893 until 1938. Alpine Division operated what was considered in it's day a magnificent attraction and an engineering marvel.

ADSM is operated by Michael and Linda DeGhetto, P.O. Box 6, Artesia, CA 90702 562-860-6060, 562-860-7800 (fax). Feel free to check out their internet web site at www.alpinedivision.com

For many years, Michael was in charge of the well known Red Cars Yellow Cars calendar put out by the Orange Empire Railway Museum and he also for a time was a member of the Southern California Traction Club until business pressures left him with so little spare time that he was forced to leave the club.

The building kits offered today are a bit different than most of the other model structures on the market. They are all handmade in the United States using the finest materials and precision techniques. But they are built with the same spirit of originality, innovation and excellence as those first Ed Suydam kits. The ease of construction and overall fun that assembling these kits provide make them an ideal project for both new and old modelers alike.

For the traction modeler, ADSM offers the former line of HO scale Suydam line poles and overhead wire hangers.

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Model Railroad Clubs Beware!
(The club you save may be your own!)

Last year, the Southern California Traction Club (SCTC) experienced an issue with a local show promoter. What started as a discussion on the use of a room that the club felt was too small escalated into the larger issue as to how these clubs are treated.

In the discussion with that show promoter, the club realized that he and some other show organizers displayed the attitude that they are doing these clubs a big favor by permitting them to come to their show, set up their modules and enjoy their handiwork. But, they so conveniently forget that they have no show without the layouts. When the Great American Train Show was created back in the 1980s, it grew out of the Elmhurst (Illinois) Model Railroad Club by a forward thinker by the name of Dave Swanson. Dave today is recognized one of the most knowledgeable business minds in the model railroad and the railroad museum field.

The Great American Train Show, which eventually begat the Great Train Expo (GTE) and the World's Greatest Hobby on Tour (WGHoT) shows has always realized that the club layouts were their main draw. They provide up to 50% of the show floor space to the model railroad layouts. They have ALWAYS given the club layouts some form of remuneration and in addition to that, they provide a certificate thanking them for their efforts in making their show a success. An example of the latest certificate given to the Southern California Traction Club (SCTC) is shown next.

The SCTC has all of their certificates framed and placed on a wall in their clubhouse. Everyone now knows about the "graying" of the hobby and yet we continue to watch these getting older men struggling to get their modules into a venue and get them running without any consideration. The promoter at the Palos Verdes show dealt with the SCTC as if he was doing them a BIG favor allowing them to come to his little show and that story was related in an earlier issue of the Times.

The Palos Verdes show was conducted by a so-called representative of the National Model Railroad Association (NMRA). This is the group that purports to be advancing the cause of model railroading. Yet while they can not find the effort to officially thank the clubs for coming out and supporting their shows, they hand out titles to model railroaders such as Grand Master Model Railroader, which sounds like some of the titles used by a well known hate group.

The woman who ran that same Palos Verdes, CA show for years, Mary Barstow, had coffee and donuts for the layout members. She would even make arrangements to get them lunch and bring it to the layout attendees. It was nice to know that they were appreciated. After all they were not getting any money for appearing. People were paying somewhere to get access to the layouts but none of that money was coming to the clubs displaying at that show. She even used to write a nice letter to the clubs thanking them for participation. The clubs looked forward to being at her show for years.

A lot of this has been brought on by the club themselves. Some of them are so desperate to run their trains that they do not look out for themselves. They are not thinking about places that they could both appear and be treated with respect and appreciation. Some of the NMRA representatives have been among the worst of these people. How about setting up at a children's hospital, or a senior citizens center or a local civic center. I can guarantee that the clubs would be treated better than they have been at some of these shows where they are just helping other people make money.

The bottom line is that the clubs must always remember that they are being used to make money or gain social or political influence for these groups and they should insist on receiving some thanks for their effort. If a club appears at a venue and does not receive at least a nice letter of appreciation, do not do that venue again. In most cases, you have worked very hard for these people and they need to demonstrate their appreciation.

The plain fact is that we are all aging. There are few new clubs. The hobby is going ready-to-run. So clubs are an endangered species. We need to let these venues know these clubs are not going to be around forever.
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Southern California Traction Club Photos!

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These photos were taken of the SCTC layout over the last few months at various venues:

LAMTA 3165 is passing the new Dick's Donuts on one of the modules in a typical Los Angeles scene. Dick's Donuts has since been moved to a more visible place on the SCTC modules.

Two trolley buses under live overhead are shown on one of the SCTC modules.

In Memoriam:
Richard Vible
January 20, 1941 - January 12, 2014

With deep regret, we inform you of the death of Richard Vible in Philadelphia on January 12, 2014 after a short illness.

Richard was a native Philadelphian, growing up in South Philadelphia, Mt. Airy and recently living in Northern Liberties. After service in the Army, Richard went to work for Philadelphia Transportation Company in 1966 briefly as a bus driver and within several months of joining PTC, transferred to the trolley operations at Luzerne Depot, where he worked until 1994 when he transferred to Elmwood Depot. He operated subway-surface cars out of Elmwood until his retirement from Southeastern Pennsylvania Transit Authority in 2002. His friendly exuberant manner made him a most in-demand operator on fan trips.

Besides being an operator, Richard was a respected historian. With the late East Penn Traction Club icon, Henry Elsner, Richard co-authored an outstanding photo book about PTC Rail Transit Philadelphia: the PTC Years, 1940-1968 in 1992. Richard was the go-to guy for photos, line and roster questions about all things related to Philadelphia trolleys. Any question would be promptly answered with a detailed response and as many photos as he could retrieve from his enormous archive. Long a skilled trolley modeler, with a great preference for his beloved PTC, in recently years Richard, in collaboration with his close friends Chet Moore and Larry Loyko built a highly awarded, detailed and perfectly running modular HO trolley layout which they displayed often throughout the region to great acclaim, most recently at the annual East Penn Open House at Bryn Mawr Hospital on Thanksgiving weekend, 2012. He had looked forward to setting up and operating at the World’s Greatest Hobby Show at Oaks, PA on the weekend of January 17, 2014. Richard was also a skilled joke teller with the perfect timing of a stand-up comic. He had strongly held opinions about many issues with which I strongly disagreed with him, but it never impeded our friendship or mutual enjoyment of each other’s company. He will be missed by everyone in East Penn Traction Club as a skilled modeler, a rich repository of traction knowledge, and all-round good guy.

Richard L. Allman, MD Past President,
East Penn Traction Club

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I was first introduced to Richard Vible by Ed Torpey in 1965 right after he came back from the Army. We went to the home he shared with his mother and grandmother on Mower St. in Mt. Airy, just around the corner from George Stock’s Sedgwick St. shop. I was particularly interested in seeing Richard’s Mt. Airy Traction layout, as a photo of it was in a Traction Fan’s Directory I had seen and the photo appeared to be of a small segment of a large and detailed HO layout. The actual layout was indeed fully detailed but it was just a small table top diorama. Over the years I learned a lot of modeling techniques from Richard. Shortly thereafter on a winter Saturday morning Ed and I went up on the 23 trolley to Richard’s house and we went to Orbisonia for the first winter spectacular which featured the PRR M1 on the EBT railroad and rides on the recently opened Shade Gap Electric Railway using Johnstown streetcar 311. Richard kept us well entertained on the long turnpike trip with stories of his recent time in the Army. I went on several photo excursions with Richard locally in Philadelphia, we not only photographed trolleys, but unique buses and historical sites. I learned a lot about how to photograph and about Philadelphia history. When he started working for PTC as a Germantown bus driver I rode with him one afternoon all the way up from Broad & Olney to Johnsville and back including the route through the Lacey Gardens housing project in Warminster. Riding all those miles on a bus through heavy traffic was the one time in my life that I had a headache and needed to take an aspirin for relief. One evening John Tucker and I met him at Broad and Olney and rode with him to Willow Grove when Willow Grove Park was still operating. The out of service dead head run back to Germantown Depot was straight down Easton Road. He then transferred to Germantown rail. I rode many times with him. My routine would be to take the Reading Wall Street from Oak Lane – today’s Melrose Park, to Wayne Junction just after dinner and ride with him on the 23 trolley for the evening and then leave at Chelten Avenue and wait for an eastbound K bus under the infrared gas heaters at the Rowell’s department store awning. One time I rode the entire night liner shift with him through to the morning rush hour. In late summer of 1966 Richard took me for my first trip to Pittsburgh in his Rambler American. We stayed with his friend Rick Hannigan and his family at their home near McKeesport. My first introduction to Pittsburgh was driving along Ardmore Blvd. and seeing a Rt. 87 air car lit up for the evening traveling along the right of way. We then took a late night ride on the Drake interurban. For the next few days we concentrated on riding and photographing Mt. Washington and the east end lines as these were shortly scheduled for bus replacement. The north side lines were already gone. Richard was great to travel with. I made several trips with him to Newark and New York, both by car and by train. I also traveled with him four times to San Francisco and two times to Europe. Early one evening when he was working at Luzerne he gave me a call and said he had a Kansas City car on Route 47 and to go right down to the 5th and Godfrey loop. I went down with my camera and sure enough he had 2266 sitting in the loop. He would do anything for you. He was a great friend and will be sorely missed.

Charles Long,
Treasurer, East Penn Traction Club

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Richard had become my great friend over the last ten years, following the passing of Ed Torpey in 2004, who I had known since 1962. Richard was the source of many details for the Bowser/Custom Traxx HO scale Ready-to-Run streetcar project started in 2007. In fact, he produced so much reliable information that to this day no one at Bowser Manufacturing has ever needed to see a prototype PCC car. The Bowser PTC PCC 2171, signed for Route 5, Frankford Bridge with the sign on the dash "Front Entrance Pay Enter" was dedicated to him. Richard had opinions but I usually agreed with most of them. The Trolleyville Times featured his layout in the October 2011 issue and that article is reprinted here in testimony to him.

Richard was born on January 20, 1941 in West Philadelphia and lived until age six on South 13th Street in South Philadelphia when the family moved to Mount Airy just one block from Germantown Avenue, and three blocks from Germantown Depot. Between the 13th Street address and living in Mt. Airy he was fully immersed in "traction action." Being a family without an automobile, they rode the Philadelphia Transportation Company (PTC) wherever they went. By age eight he was riding alone on route 23 with a transfer at Allegheny Avenue to route 20 for week end visits with his grandparents in South Philadelphia. When he was in high school he used car routes 23 (Germantown Avenue) and 52 (Midvale Avenue) to and from school. He guesses that riding all the trolleys in his early years is when the "bug" bit, and the rest is history.

At age six he got his first set of American Flyer electric trains. In 1954 at Christmas he was given a Pennsylvania Scale Models Brill car, and has been modeling ever since.

He has been a life long resident of Philadelphia except for two years in Key West, Florida with the U.S. Army. After leaving the Army in December, 1965 he went to work for PTC on February 22, 1966 driving buses from Germantown Depot. In May, 1966 he transferred to the streetcars at Germantown, and did two years on Route 23. In May, 1968 he transferred to Luzerne Depot and worked routes 6, 47, 50, 53, 56 and 60. While at Luzerne he worked air-electric and all electric cars on all the lines. He even got to operate the ex-Toronto cars, which were originally from both Kansas City, Missouri and Birmingham, Alabama. The Birmingham cars would be the only Pullman-Standard -built PCC cars to ever run in Philadelphia.

A little known chapter of Richard's life involved his good friend Virginia. She was a fellow trolley operator who unfortunately was stabbed in the neck by a piece of "sludge" at 49th & Woodland while operating a PCC car. She was sort of forced to go back to work before she was both physically and emotionally ready and the combination of all that happened led to her early death. Virginia and Richard are shown in this rare photograph in front of ex-Kansas City PCC car at Wayne & Carpenter on route 53 on Mother's Day, May 8, 1977. (...Yes, that is 36 year old Richard on the right...) Richard always used to voice the feeling that if he had married her she might have lived longer. He carried a photo of Virginia in his wallet until his passing.



In February, 1994 he was transferred "with work" to Elmwood Depot. While there he worked routes 11 (Woodland Ave), 13 (Chester Ave) and 36 (Elmwood Ave) using Kawasaki cars. He never had a run on either routes 10 (Lancaster Ave) or 34 (Baltimore Ave). Often times he operated 1926 Brill-built Peter Witt car 8534 which was on loan from the Buckingham Valley Trolley Association museum for charters. I personally rode with him on the 8534 during the late 1980s. In February 24, 2002, Richard retired after 36 years of service with PTC and SEPTA operating car 8534 on a charter put together by friends. The charter finished in late afternoon with he literally "riding the dusty tail into the purple sunset," westbound on Woodland Avenue in a 76 year old streetcar! The car is shown at 39th & Filbert and at the 22nd & Market street Subway station in the photos below:

He resided in the Northern Liberties section of Philadelphia with his dog and cat building HO modules. In the next photo, Richard is shown at right with Chet Moore and Larry Loyko holding the award that all three were awarded for their modular layout at the 2011 East Penn Traction Club Meet. That layout was simply marvelous and was dubbed the Vi-Moore-Ko layout.

Richard Vible is shown above at his workbench. He had been a streetcar/trolley fan for most of his life. As an avid modeler, knowledgeable about prototype streetcars, he was always willing to share knowledge with other modelers but hates to get into arguments with modelers with other ideas. So you never saw Richard on the yahoo groups as some of the questions and discussions make "...his head explode...".

I really got to know Richard when the HO scale Nearside cars came out in the 1980s. He numbered his Nearside Center Entrance Car (NSCE) using his address on Mower Street at the time. According to the Harold Cox pertinent publications, that car had never received the center door modification. When I told him about that, I initially thought that his "...head would explode...". Unlike some other hobbyists in the area, it didn't and we became close friends. Richard was definitely unique and it will take me a long time to get used to not being able to pick up my cell phone and talk to him long distance late at night from California about trolleys, and other subjects. I will always remember him sanding in front of my display module at the 2011 East Penn Meet taking photos of the module and talking about his view of the world. That was Richard Vible!

George L. Huckaby
We will miss you, good friend!

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