Red Car runs in San Pedro

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                George Huckaby: Rumors kept circulating that San Pedro Trolley 1058 would be stealthily moved to San Pedro from berth 155-A in Wilmington for a check-out (if you can sneak anything that large out of a building, place it on tracks and tow it behind a locomotive for five miles). Trolleyville investigated and found that there could be some truth to these rumors and kept our eyes and ears open. It finally paid off.

                Early Saturday morning June 15^th, the car was eased out of the berth and loaded on a trailer for a very short trip.

                The next photo demonstrates the 55'6" length of this car.

                Car 1058 was finally placed on the rails of the Pacific Harbor Line about noon. The trolley poles and hooks were re-installed. Both had to be moved to clear the door of Berth 155a.

                The car was then coupled behind Pacific Harbor Lines engine #103 and towed to its temporary home at 22^nd and Miner in San Pedro.  

                This new home is a tent, shown below, which can house all three of the San Pedro trolleys until the new barn is finished.

                Car 1058 sat in the tent for only a few days, getting its final check out before operational tests would start on the line.

                On Friday, June 21^st, the car left the temporary tent and ventured out on the tracks of the Pacific Harbor Line as far north as the Maritime Museum. Everything worked first right the first time. The motorman was Dave Garcia, who is also a member of the Southern California Traction Club and the Orange Empire Railway Museum. Conducting was John Smatlak of Railway Preservation Resources. Several people from the Port of Los Angeles, Department of Water & Power, the Public Utilities Commission, the Southern California Traction Club and other contributors were on hand to watch the limited testing.

The above photos show the car on display outside of the Maritime Museum at 6^th Street, then proceeding south just past the Municipal Building and then at the Ports O' Call station.  

                Below is our semi-official car photo. This gives you an idea of the size of a Pacific Electric 1000 class interurban car.

Meet The GATS People

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                In the June edition, we told you about Frank Hicks but somehow his photo (below) was omitted from the article.

We apologize for the error.

Trolleyville Visits Rochelle, Illinois

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            Trolleyville - So what is in Rochelle, Illinois. That is what we wanted to know and that is what several of you wanted to know when we announced in last months edition that we were going there.  So when Ron Roberts of Rail Graphics decided to take Trolleyville out to this town in May 2002, we were curious.

                This is what we found. In this town there is a location where the two tracks of the Union Pacific Railroad (formerly the Chicago & Northwestern) cross the two tracks of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe (formerly the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy) at grade. There are four very substantial track 'diamonds' at this location as the trains barrel over them at 40+ miles an hour.

The track curving to the extreme left is not an interchange track. It is a spur to a local cannery.  There is no longer an interchange track at this location..

                Not only are rail fans welcome, but the local authorities have provided a nice train watching shed with replica hobo camp long with a very nice souvenir/hobby shop.

                Inside of the hut while we were visiting, there were two railfans running their model trains for the amusement of the fans. 

                During the almost two hours that we were there, there were never less than two dozen people at the facility. Some brought their own lawn chairs and sat on the grass. This location is passed by up to 120 trains each day so the show continues. Six or seven passed while we were there.  This is some of the action that we saw:

                On the way out of the facility, we decided to visit the gift shop which is located in the building shown below:

                Inside, we found many railroad artifacts and model railroad items as shown in the next two photos.

We even found the track diagram from the old tower that used to be on this site.