June 2008
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June 2008 |
Two New HO Scale Trolley Models Announced! |
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Bowser is also accepting reservations for this model which is also expected in the fall of 2008. One additional item not mentioned in the above announcement is that the cars will also be available undecorated using stock number #12549. For more information on this model contact Bowser or Custom Traxx. Trolleyville visits the Louisville World's Greatest Hobby on Tour! Because this show was the first such World's Greatest Hobby on Tour Show scheduled outside of the November-March peak Model Railroading portion of the year, Trolleyville was curious to see what the attendance would be and who and what manufacturers would attend. So when they invited Trolleyville to attend the June 28-29 show in Louisville, Kentucky, we were happy to see for ourselves. Louisville was founded in 1778 by George Rogers Clark, named for King Louis XVI of France, the home of the Kentucky Derby, Churchill Downs; the Louisville Slugger Museum and the Kentucky Bourbon Trail. We arrived in Louisville late Saturday evening, took a cab from the airport to the Hyatt, which is directly across the street from the Kentucky International Convention Center (KICC), where the show was held. The entire downtown area seems clean and well-maintained. In fact, there was even a Skyway that connected the hotel to the KICC. Most of the local people we met were very hospitable and proud of their city. There are even banners indicating all the different pronunciations of the name of the city.
This show was held in conjunction with the 2008 National N-scale Convention, called the Derby City Express, and was noteworthy in that it contained one of the largest, if not the largest modular layout ever displayed. The main line had 116 scale miles of mainline track and it took over four hours for a train to complete the entire main line. There were over 700 individual modules belonging to over 50 clubs participating in this display, which covered 50,000 square feet.
Trying to photograph the entire display was impossible without removing the roof of the Convention Hall. We will provide more information about the show and the display in the August Trolleyville Times. Louisville is unique in that it is one city that ordered PCC cars, had some of them delivered and never ran them in service. More about this in the next article. |
Now Accepting Reservations for the "HO" PCC Streetcars !!
Con-Cor has chosen to model a "Pre-War" model of the PCC car similar to the Los Angeles Railway PCC 3001 car which has been preserved at the Orange Empire Railway Museum near Los Angeles. Car 3001, shown above left, was built in May 1937 and is still running and giving tourists and streetcar buffs rides today, 71 years after it was first built ! The major exterior difference between most "Pre-World War II (WWII) " PCC and "Post-WWII" versions of the PCC car was that the "Post-WWII versions had small "Standee" windows above each side window. This model is of the "Pre-WWII" car with no such standee windows. While the PCC car was a intended to be a standard design, operators in the individual cities that bought them added some local touches, such as roof mounted marker lights, full width anti-climbers, folding doors rather than the original "blinker" doors, full length roof fans and longer trolley pole shrouds. Con-Cor is not modeling each and every variation. This model is based on the Los Angeles 3001-3095 series 1937-built car which is very close to the original basic pre-WWII PCC Car design. Each car will be DCC Ready with NMRA 8 pin plug. The chassis has a space for mounting a speaker and is powered by a five- pole motor with all-wheel drive. There will be working headlights and taillights and an illuminated interior with a motorman figure. The car will negotiate 9 inch radius. Some of the cars will have a "Next Car Light" which will operate in the DCC mode. The MSRP is $159.95! Road Names Offered 01-93001 Los Angeles Railway (Two-Tone Yellow) (Shown above) Six additional roadnames to be available later! Custom Traxx makes HO scale trolley pole springs and replacement trolley contacts available! *** Some additional great news for HO scale traction modelers came last month when great trolley pole springs, part 12502, and NMRA Specification S-5 compliant overhead wire contacts, part 12507, called rollers by Bowser, became available from Custom Traxx. The original Bowser trolley pole, part 1250, is again available with the 12502 contactor. Both the contractors and the springs are manufactured by Bowser Manufacturing and available at $3.00 per package of six. See the current Custom Traxx catalog, Section V, for more detailed information. More Traction Resin Car Bodies: Kansas City & ex-Kansas City PCC cars! by John McWhirter When I joined the Southern California Traction Club in April 2005, I knew that I would be learning many new things about traction, especially the Pacific Electric and Los Angeles Railway. One of the other things that I was first exposed to was the PCC car and the differences between pre-World War II (pre-war) or air-electric PCC cars and post World War II (post-war) or all-electric PCC cars. As soon as I found out about standee windows as a distinguishing feature of almost all post-war cars, I was introduced to the Kansas City All-Electric PCC. These 160 cars were unique in that they were the only post-war or all-electric PCC cars produced in the United States without standee windows. These easily identifiable PCC cars saw service in Philadelphia, Toronto, Tampico and San Francisco after their short careers in Kansas City ended. More data about these cars was reported in the May 2008 issue of the Trolleyville Times. As soon I found out that San Francisco had acquired seven and eventually operated nine ex-Kansas City PCC cars for a short time (1974 to 1979), I knew that I would love to have a model of one of them. After I obtained one of the new Custom Traxx TS-19 shells. I found out that body shells [87127] of ex-KCPS PCC car were currently available from a suburban Philadelphia firm. So I looked them up on their web site purchased one as I decided to use one of the shells to model one of San Francisco Muni 1180-1190 series cars. HO scale Kansas City traction modelers should be pleased that there are now two body shells of KCPS cars currently available. Custom Traxx recently made available a body shell for these cars as they ran in Kansas City and I decided to get one of the shells and paint it for KCPS using the decal set just issued by Custom Traxx. The shell, produced by Eric Courtney, is marketed with a complete set of KCPS decals. We recently received the following review of that shell from a Philadelphia area modeler. "...a neat model! Beautifully detailed and an outstanding decal set... ...I am most pleased with the price, quality and completeness of the kit... The interior smoothness really facilitates easy, hassle-free installation of the glazing, and Custom Traxx is very responsive to detailed questions about finishing the kit..."
My experiences with both body shells is available in a separate report! |
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LOUISVILLE & THE PCC CAR - A Brief Review! Louisville was operating a fleet of streetcars consisting of Birney single-truck cars, single end double-truck deck roof cars and steel single-end Peter Witt cars when they flirted with the PCC car in October 1940.
Streetcar service ended officially in early 1947, but the few remaining Louisville streetcars ended their long runs carrying the fans to Churchill Downs on Derby Day in May. LRCo car 501 is shown below left being unloaded in August 1946 in the rear of the West End Shops. Car 4251, formerly, LRCo 502, is shown at Cleveland's Public Square in 1951 below right:
The 25 cars lasted only six years in Cleveland as 4250 - 4274 and then sold to Toronto, Ontario in 1952, where they were again renumbered 4675 - 4699. These cars had very distinguished careers there, having been equipped with couplers and MU controls. They ran for 30 plus years in Toronto until being retired in the early 1980's. Car 4693, formerly LRCo 519, is shown below left, fresh from the paint shop in November 1952. The front skirt has been cut away for a coupler, but the couplers had not yet been installed. This is a rare picture of a Toronto PCC car with "blinker" doors. They were removed for conventional folding doors shortly after this photo was taken. Louisville's PCC cars have not been forgotten. Car 1062, shown below right, wears the LRCo livery today on San Francisco's "F" Line.
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