July 2010
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July 2010 |
Annual Pacific Electric Days Every June
the Orange Empire Railway Museum features equipment from the Pacific Electric Railway, the electric railway that practically built the Los Angeles area. All available preserved Pacific Electric equipment is brought out for the public to ride or at least to view. On Friday, June 18th, museum staff were out strategically placing most of the Pacific Electric equipment for public view when we caught rare sight at the museum, a coupled train of Pacific Electric 'Hollywood' cars.
At this show, Custom Traxx displayed HO scale models of all 14 of the Muni series 1050 through 1063 ex-Philadelphia PCC cars, including six models that are not yet available to the public. This is the first time all fourteen of the models could be viewed at one time.
Starting at 11:00 in the preceding photo and proceeding clockwise are models of Muni 1058 (Chicago), Muni 1818 (ex-Milan Peter Witt), 1057 (Cincinnati), 1055 (Philadelphia 1955), 1053 (Brooklyn)*, 1059 (Boston), 1054 (Philadelphia 1938)*, 1060 (Newark)* and 1056 (Kansas City)* with 1050 (San Francisco), 1062 (Louisville)*, 1051 (San Francisco 1060s)*, 1063 (Baltimore) and 1061 (Pacific Electric) in the center of the module. So many Pacific Electric cars were brought out for public view that is really highlighted the shortage of available volunteers. George Huckaby was taken from the layout to operate streetcars and two club members actually helped in the kitchen preparing for the Annual Father's Day barbecue. John McWhirter and Dave Lyman are shown below right chopping onions in the kitchen. George is shown above left operating the Pacific Electric 1001 during one of the non-revenue "Drive-by's".
Three volunteers that had pledged to support the Father's Day Barbecue failed to show up so John and Dave also ended up outside also on the grills, serving up hot dogs, hamburgers and chicken as shown in the previous photo. Equipment rarely seen was made available for viewing. This required a lot of switching cars around during the previous days. First there was car 1001, the last of the original 1001-1004 series of Pacific Electric 'signature' vehicles.
The operator was in the process of changing ends when this photo was taken. The primary Pacific Electric line car 00157 was also available for inspection.
Car 1299, the former officer's car, has been at the museum for a few years now. It is not electrically complete at this time but has been towed behind another car at the museum for special occasions.
This car started its extended life in 1912 as Portland trailer 477. In 1929, The Pacific Electric desired a new steel officer's car to replace their wooden 999. Motor trucks came from a scrapped Portland combo and new brass sash windows were installed throughout. The car was in service by August 1929 and stayed in service until the end of the Pacific Electric.
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The Miniatures by Eric On June 15, Custom Traxx and the Southern California Traction Club received a sample of the new HO scale HT-K5 San Francisco Municipal Railway Breda LRV model that will soon be available from Miniatures by Eric. Eric Courtney, owner and founder of Miniatures by Eric, respectfully requested that we look over the model before he went into final production. The kit includes two bodies, metal floors, a transition section, Breda sideframes, flush window inserts that are clear and bubble free and other vacuum-formed plastic relevant detail parts, to include rear view mirrors. Each body and pewter floor weighs 2.6 ounces right out of the box. Before we installed any power trucks, motor or flywheels, each body section with floor weighed 2.6 ounces right out of the box. No power unit or trucks are supplied with the model although the model was designed for the Bowser 125100 traction mechanism.
Beginning in 1996, San Francisco acquired 151 of the Ansaldobreda Light Rail Vehicles. They replaced 130 troublesome Boeing-built United States Standard Light Rail Vehicles which had replaced the PCC cars in the early 1980s. Car 1513 is shown below at Ocean & Lakewood in November 2007.
The model arrives in two separate packages, one for the A body, which is supposed to have a pantograph and another for the B body which does not have a pantograph. Both floors are delivered fastened to the body shells with four screws, which, due to proper up-front engineering, have been located in a place where they will not restrict the movement of the trucks. The floors are very similar in concept to the Bowser 125147 Boeing USLRV mechanism available exclusively from Custom Traxx. The A body package contains, in addition to the A body and metal floor, an air conditioning unit, a small intake box and a mount for the pantograph. this mount is made for a Sommerfeldt pantograph which is not included with this kit. Also provided in this package is a two-piece transition section, a screw and bushing assembly for connecting the two bodies, four Breda sideframes made to fit the Bowser mechanism, a front light casting, an anti-climber casting, clear window castings and two side mirrors. The B body package contains, in addition to the B Body and metal floor, an air conditioning unit, the resistor banks, two Breda truck sideframes designed to fit the Bowser mechanism, a front light casting, an anticlimber casting clear window castings and two side mirrors. An excellent four-page set of instructions complete with both model and prototype photos is provided for the experienced modeler. The pewter floors use a similar design employed by Bowser/Custom Traxx in their HO scale 125147 Boeing USLRV mechanism. Eric sought and obtained permission to use their design. Our test sample had some differences from the production units. Our unit was designed to use 4-40 screws throughout while production units will be using 2-56 screws. The production transition section will be smaller than the unit shown in the next photo.
The above photo shows out test unit on a 6 1/8" radius curve made from ORR Track and Code 100 rail. Progress on The Geneva Heritage Trolley Barn Continues! By mid-June, the construction progress in San Francisco at the Geneva location had reached the following stages. The shape of a traditional trolley barn was starting to emerge. The next view was taken looking at the front of the structure on June 16th:
By June 22nd, workers were beginning to install the supports for the overhead wire troughs.
The building looked as shown on the same date:
Peter Ehrlich compiled a list of the status of all the F-line heritage PCC cars as of June 23, 2010. Click here to review that list. ______________________________________________ The Bowser HO scale Pacific Electric VO-1000 Diesel Locomotive is Coming! In mid June, the first pre-production model of the new HO scale VO-1000 arrived at the Bowser facility in Pennsylvania. VO-1000s in both Pacific Electric and Southern Pacific liveries were operated with trolley poles to activate grade crossings on the Pacific Electric that were activated from overhead wire contacts. Looks real good, doesn't it!
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At the same time the modules of the Southern California Traction Club are set up in Town Hall for the enjoyment of the visitors. 
Despite the well worn appearance, this car is very functional and has been in continuous service at the museum almost from the day it arrived. 
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