Urban Commuter / Light Rail / Modern Streetcar News!
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LOS ANGELES, CA - Progressive Railroading reported that on June 15th Metrolink announced advancements in its Earthquake Early Warning System (EEW) that will automatically apply brakes to slow or stop trains during an earthquake in Southern California.

Metrolink deployed a previous version of the technology in September 2021 that could send automated messages to train crews to slow or stop a train, but did not include automated brake enforcement. The next phase of the technology is being tested along Metrolink's 91/Perris Valley Line between Riverside and Perris, California.

One of 40 Metrolink EMD F125 locomotives.

Note: The EMD F125 is a four-axle passenger diesel locomotive manufactured by EMD for the North American market since 2015. It is powered by a Caterpillar C175-20 V20 diesel engine rated at 4,700 hp (3,500 kW). The locomotive is capable of traveling at a maximum in-service speed of 125 mph (201 km/h) pulling consists of up to 10 cars.

The roll out is supported under a partnership with California Department of Transportation and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), Metrolink officials said in a press release.

The EEW is based on an interface between the USGS-operated ShakeAlert and Metrolink's positive train control (PTC) system. ShakeAlert is another early-detection system that provides data to train operators within seconds of an earthquake being detected.

The new system will also provide enhanced data to support inspection of the rail network and resumption of service following the earthquake, Metrolink officials said. It automatically processes ShakeAlert data and sends PTC messages to trains in the impacted area based on earthquake severity.

"The program identifies where protection is needed on a rail network to safely continue rail operations," said Robert-Michael de Groot of the USGS Earthquake Science Center in Pasadena, California.

PITTSBURGH, PA - The Port Authority of Allegheny County (PAT), Pennsylvania, announced on June 6th that it is re-branding itself as Pittsburgh Regional Transit (PRT).

The change better reflects the services, values and locations of the transit agency as it continues to modernize and simplify public transportation in the region, PRT officials said in a press release.  Their new logo is shown below:

The re-branding has been underway since 2018, in which feedback was gathered from employees, riders and external stakeholders. The initiative was put on hold due to the pandemic, but was revisited in late 2021.

Public information and materials will be redesigned in accordance with the re-branding over the next year. Vehicles will initially receive decals and a wholly new design as they are purchased, PRT officials said.

"This is more than just a new name and a new look. This marks the start of a new era and a new direction for our agency and our region," said PRT Chair Jeffrey Letwin.

WESTMINSTER, CA - In this day and age, it is major news to report a model train store expanding and that is exactly what is happening as Arnie's Model Trains opened their new larger, brighter store to the public on Saturday, June 25, 2022!

The COVID-19 Pandemic which closed many businesses and placed others on the brink of bankruptcy kept many modelers at home and the well-stocked Arnie's Model Trains was able to immediately fill their needs without waiting for mail deliveries. The customers kept coming, The members of local model railroad clubs kept coming.

In 2021, the owners of Arnie's Model Trains, which specializes in HO (1/87) and N (1/160) scale trains and accessories and Milepost 38, which specializes in S (3/16), O (1/4) and G (Large) scale trains and accessories took the leap and purchased the 6452 Industry Way building which can house two stores (6452 & 6452B), one of which, 6452B, already was already occupied by Arnie's Model Trains. When the tenants moved out of 6452A in March 2022, the sorely-needed refurbishment of that store began and Arnie's Model Trains began the process of designing that store for the move from 6452B to 6452A. 6452A was completely refurbished and new carpet was installed. The move-in began in early June and was still not completed when the store opened to the public on June 25th but it was prepared to accept visitors and it did (many of them, all day long)..

Some photos from opening day....
Top left - looking in the new store from the front door;
Top right - looking out the front windows;
Middle left - Mock-up of Santa Fe Warbonnet Diesel Locomotive, now resident in Arnie's Model Trains;
Middle right - HO scale model Diesel locos on display in jewelry store type cases;
Bottom left - HO scale Bowser and Bachmann Streetcars on display in jewelry store type cases;
Bottom right - A last look at the old store. (Sign on door directing customers to new store.

Arnie's Model Trains has a rich history dating back 45 years to 1977 when Jerome Arnold and his son Greg Arnold purchased a hobby shop at 6626 Westminster Blvd in Westminster, CA (a suburb about 35 miles south of Los Angeles) for $3,000.00. They started out with two advantages. 1-Between the two of them there was managerial experience and 2-Neither one was in the hobby of model trains. Kay Arnold, Jerome's wife, would be the bookkeeper for the business.

The business began operation and continues to operate with two major goals:

1 - Give the customers what they need, and then,
2 - Give the customers what they want!

The business became successful and by 1987, larger quarters were needed so they moved the store to 6452 Westminster Blvd where it continued to prosper, so 1997 found them again moving into larger quarters at 6452B Industry Way, where they would conduct business for the next 25 years until June 2022. Unfortunately, Jerome would pass away before the new store was opened and Greg would have to continue on his own.

Up to 2014. Arnie's Model Trains sold model trains from the smallest N scale to the largest G scale items, but in that year, Milepost 38, a hobby shop in Anaheim Hills, CA made it known that they would be interested in a buy-out as the owners wished to retire. So all the inventory of that store was bought and moved right next door to Arnie'sModel Trains, at 6462A, keeping the Milepost 38 name. Greg formed a partnership with a former customer, Matt Haynes and a parent corporation was formed for the operation of both stores.

Then an unusual thing happened. Instead of competing with each other, it was decided that all the HO and N scale items would be concentrated at Arnie's Model Trains and the larger O, S, and G (Large) scale trains would be handled by Milepost 38.

When the owners of the 6452 building announced that they were selling, Greg and Matt went into action and the process of purchasing the building began. (...to be continued...).

New Decal Set Coming from Custom Traxx!
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In keeping with their policy of providing decals for traction models made by 3D printers who work with them, Custom Traxx of Los Angeles, CA will be soon offering a decal set for the Atlantic City and Shore Railroad 1906 Stephenson-built 101-120 series cars, one of which is shown below. This model was 3D printed by Volkmar Meier of Paris, France. The decal set is based on a great deal of background information provided by Richard Allman and John Kennedy of the East Penn Traction Club.

These twenty cars were ordered in the summer of 1906 from the John Stephenson Company in Elizabeth, New Jersey, a subsidiary of the J.G.Brill Company of Philadelphia. Two were combines and for a time, one served as a funeral car named Absequam. They varied over the years with some having steel sides and ends added and different markings. These variances and the history of the line is documented in Bulletin 151 of the Central Electric Railfans Association. (CERA), "Trolleys To The Boardwalk" by James N. J. Henwood. This decal set will contain instructions that note these differences for the modeler along with painting suggestions. The set, CN-112, should be available by late June or nearly July.

 

Los Angeles Railway PCC 3042!
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by Richard Allman, East Penn Traction Club

Los Angeles Transit Lines car 3042 has entered operation on my Main Line Transit.

The Prototype LATL 3042

The prototype was part of the sixth major order of PCC’s (not counting a single car ordered for Pittsburgh) from St. Louis Car Company which was placed in 1936 and delivered to Los Angeles Railways in 1937. The order was for 60 cars, 3001-3060. Child movie icon Shirley Temple participated in the unveiling of the cars. They were an immediate success, and a subsequent order for an additional 35 was promptly placed and delivered in 1938. Collectively, these cars were designated Class P. Another 30 cars numbered 3096-3125 would be delivered in 1943, when new cars were back-ordered due to exigencies of wartime industrial production. They would be the last PCCs built with the short pole shroud, but nonetheless were innovative, having the center door relocated one window length towards the rear of the car to improve passenger flow. They also had full width anti-climbers and were designated Class P-2. This redesign would become an industry standard for the remainder of the PCC era. The initial paint scheme was a two-tone orange. When National Cities Lines gained control of LARy in 1946, and plans were in place to convert almost all trolley operation to buses, the system was renamed Los Angeles Transit Lines. The familiar NCL “fruit salad” paint scheme, also used in El Paso and Baltimore was applied. This remained until NCL divested itself of LATL in 1958 to the newly formed Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority. All of the PCC’s received new LAMTA logos, and many cars got an attractive two-tone green and white color scheme, which lasted until the end of trolley operation in 1963. Also, atypical for NCL, LATL would acquire an additional 40 all-electric PCC’s (3126-3165) in 1948 for use on one line. These cars, Class P-3, at 9 feet wide, were among the widest ever built, which was borderline weird, since the Los Angeles track gauge was 3 foot-6 inches. This meant an overhang of 33 inches on either side of the cars. The narrow gauge required some considerable innovation by St. Louis Car Co. and Clark Equipment Company in modifying the design of the standard PCC trucks to accommodate gear placement. Trolley maintenance differed on LATL from other NCL properties- most notably Baltimore - for both cars and infrastructure, where after NCL gained control of the latter, they willfully allowed the rail system to deteriorate. Despite the hostility of NCL and LAMTA to continued trolley operation, standards of maintenance of rails and rolling stock were outstanding until the end of service, when almost all cars were sold, including 134 to Cairo, Egypt, including car 3042. This would become the largest-ever transfer of used PCC cars. Regrettably, the maintenance of the Cairo system was very poor, and the cars eventually became inoperable.

THE MODEL:

At a prior show, (I am unsure if it was an East Penn Meet or one of the wonderful New Brunswick shows) I saw an epoxy PCC air car shell made by Q Car Company on a dealer table for a very attractive price. Confession-I am a sucker for air-electric PCCs. I considered modeling the Boston “Queen Mary” car 3001, Boston’s only St. Louis-built car. Although I love Boston cars, there were enough subtle differences that a different plan was needed. I already had modeled a PTC “popper” car, a Baltimore St. Louis-built car, and a Toronto A-1 series car. I considered a Pittsburgh 1100-series car, but the belt rail retriever wasn’t right, so by default, the Los Angeles car was the best fit. Further, readily available decals from Custom Traxx helped seal the deal. The car was powered with a Bowser drive, which, if possible, is always my “go-to” choice, with an A-Line flywheel. I chose car 3042 because I had a photo from my late friend, John Bromley which showed that it didn’t have the hard-to-mask scalloped interface of the white and green on the front of the roof or the hard-to-apply yellow in the belt rail for placement of FRONT ENTRANCE by the front door or EXIT by the center door.

The floor mounts were too low, so they needed to be removed and replaced by horizontal styrene struts to have the step height at the correct 12 inches above the rail heads. The full width anti-climbers needed to be shortened to follow Class P prototype. Color choice is always a challenge. The best matches were Santa Fe Orange, Depot Olive Green, and Reefer White. Also used was Testor’s Aluminum for anti-climbers and end window posts. Rust was used for wheels and Bowser side frames. As always, in my (questionable) opinion, color selection is incredibly arbitrary: films, lighting, exposure are so variable, and different photos were taken at different time intervals from car painting. Looking at a bunch of available photos, the match is acceptable, or else with age I am becoming more tolerant. Accurately modeling the trucks and side frames is admittedly a no-win for a prototypic 3 foot-6-inch gauge truck, but the new Bowser PCC side frames are acceptably close-at least viewing the car from 2-3 feet away! I used a Custom Traxx pole bushing and an early PCC-type pole. Black decals were used for roof mats. Applying decals was most challenging in positioning the headlight wings, which took more patience that I thought I had. Fortunately, I had several sets on hand and on the third try, got it. The destination sign took some brainstorming to figure out how to make it fit and be visible, given the thickness of the epoxy shell. The pole hook was made from 0.10 x.003 inch brass strip.

The shell was not perfect, but good enough-there were some minor rough spots. The thickness of it made thinning around the truck cutouts necessary to enable swing of the trucks on tight curves, but I knew that would happen. I still am scheming about how to make the fender more visible given the thickness of the shell at the front-maybe some thinning and filing there also. But for now, it looks acceptable to me and runs reliably.

Figure 1 - LATL 3042 leaving Keystone Junction towards Bay State Junction

Figure 2 - LATL 3042 at Seaver Street Loop with Boston Elevated Railway Center Entrance Car 6119.

Figure 3 - LATL 3042 turning into inner loop at Seaver Street.

Figure 4 - LATL 3042 at Seaver Street with Boston MTA Type 4 Car 5230.

Figure 5 - LATL 3042 arriving on inner track at New England Village.

Figure 6 - LATL 3042 navigating Orr turnout leaving inner track at New England Village.

Now for acknowledgments:

Q Car Company - for the shell. They receive far too little recognition for the quality of HO models they have offered!

Bowser Manufacturing Co. - the drive is easy to install and maintain, and the floor works well even though some adjustment to the floor was needed to fit, and the drive still has some noise issues I need to address. Looks good, runs good-all is well.

Custom Traxx - for the outstanding decal set, and George Huckaby, for prototype advice.

John Bromley, who was one of the supreme traction photo archivists and generously shared his outstanding collection.

Bob Dietrich - whenever I do a car building project, he is there, front and center with advice and hands-on assistance.

Those who have followed my car building efforts over the past year will note a pattern: the Johnstown 356 car, the Shaker Heights 300-series car, and now the Los Angeles PCC. All the prototypes were built by St. Louis Car Company. That is the theme for our 2023 East Penn Traction Club Meet. Hopefully others also are similarly inspired!

That said, next in the queue will be the Atlantic City and Shore John Stephenson “Shore Fast” cars. There are now around 20 of those in the hands of East Penn members and friends getting ready to be powered and finished!