George, here is something that will help make things go faster for publishing articles

March 2002

Southern California Traction Action

Meet the Southern California Traction Club

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George Jones -The California Traction Club (SCTC) was founded in 1995 by five hardy souls as a purely HO scale modular traction club. Seven years and thirty-one public appearances later, the ten current members of the club continue to demonstrate the marvels of overhead wire operation to the general public. Constant public comments are “...I’ve never seen this before...” and “… is the power really in the overhead wire…” and “…how in the world do you get all that wire up just before the show…" The current members are Byron Brainard of Laguna, CA; Michael DeGhetto of Cerritos, CA; Dave Garcia of Downey, CA; Charles Hepperle of Claremont, CA; Bob Hill of Lakewood, CA; George Huckaby of West Los Angeles, CA; George Jones of Culver City, CA; Bill Kift of Long Beach, CA; Toshisuke Matsumoto of Tokyo, Japan and Akihisa Saitoh of Los Angeles, CA and Kyoto, Japan (He travels a lot). Over the past seven years, the club has appeared as far north as San Jose, CA, as far east as Las Vegas, Nevada and as far south as Del Mar, CA.

The club is currently seeking new members. Persons interested in modeling light rail systems, streetcars and interurban electric railway vehicles in HO scale need only contact one of the club officers, Bill Kift at 562-429-2627 or George Huckaby at 310-990-5422. The club members have many certified pieces of rolling stock and members are extremely knowledgeable in all phases of the traction hobby. If you need some or advice in the laying of street track, hanging overhead wire, painting models, re-motoring models, converting models to overhead wire operation or building a module. There is a member that can show you. The club has a combination clubhouse / trailer storage area and certain members are usually there Thursday evenings or Sundays working on one project or another. Shown below are club members (l to r): Kift, Matsumoto, Brainard, Hepperle, Garcia and yours truly) in front of the club test track and reference library:

Bill Kift was one of the original charter members and serves as the CFO of the club and is part of the reason for the excellent financial status of the club. Currently I am serving as the Display Coordinator for all the displays. George Huckaby is the President and one of the founders of the club. George normally takes most of the photos with a Sony Digital Camera so photos of him are rare but this one was snapped at the Arcadia show in October 2001:

The SCTC uses the physical standards of the East Penn Traction Club and a six-wire buss with Cinch-Jones connectors similar to the East Penn standards but not identical. The majority of the club modules are 2’ by 4’ with all four corners being 3’ by 3’. Minimum radius on the main line is 24”. Getting traction parts can be a problem at times but the club has solved that problem from within. Overhead wire parts and wire are available from Alpine Division Scale Models, owned by Michael DeGhetto, a club member. Some trolley parts and a growing line of HO scale traction decals are available from Custom Traxx, owned by George Huckaby. The club also had its own trolley pole base pivots and roof insulators made by Custom Traxx to ensure that these critical items are at hand when cars need to be converted to overhead operation.

The club completed an appearance at the Anaheim Convention Center, Anaheim, CA on January 5-6, 2002; and is scheduled to appear at the South Coast Botanic Garden in Rancho Palos Verdes on April 20-21, 2002; the Victorville Great American Train Show, Victorville, CA, on August 17-18, 2002; the Pomona Fairgrounds Great American Train Show, Pomona Fairplex, Nov 9-10, 2002 and the Del Mar Great American Train Show, Del Mar Fairgrounds, Del Mar, CA on December 7-8, 2002. There will most likely be an appearance at the Orange Empire Railway Museum during the swap meet in September 2002 and at the opening of the Waterfront Trolley Line in San Pedro sometime in the fall of 2002. Check future editions of the Trolleyville Times for further information. We will conclude this with some photos taken during club displays during 2001. The first contains an Illinois Terminal 3-car streamlined train, 300-330-350, recently obtained on Ebay, meeting a PERy “Blimp” train. In the siding are two articulated interurbans, Milwaukee Electric 1188-1189, another recent acquisition and Washington, Baltimore & Annapolis 29, acquired at the 2001 East Penn Meet.

(Cont’d in col. 2)

Port of Los Angeles Waterfront Trolley Open House

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George Huckaby - In several earlier issues we have been describing the status of the Port Authority of Los Angeles San Pedro Waterfront Trolley. In our January 2001 issue, we told you about the project and showed the cars being built in Seattle, Washington. In October 2001, we showed replica cars 501 and 502 joining the former Richard Fellows car 1058 at Berth 155 in Wilmington. Work has accelerated ever since. It was time to show the public how much progress has been made.

On February 2nd from 1:00 to 4:00 PM on a beautiful Saturday afternoon, the Port Authority invited the public to see how the project is going. Not only were the three cars on display but three modules of the Southern California Traction club were on hand. So models of the very full size cars in the building were running for the public to enjoy.

Many of the local citizens took part in the open house along with several port officials. Below, George Jones of the Southern California Traction Club explains how the modules work to Larry Keller, Executive Director, the Port of Los Angeles as his two grandchildren look on.

One of the Taylor trucks for the replica 500s can be seen behind Larry.

But the star of the day was Pacific Electric car 1058 just relettered and numbered after a complete repainting in P.E. Red with a French gray roof.

The next open house will be on March 9^th from 1:00 to 4:00 PM. To find Berth 155a, proceed south on the Harbor (110) freeway until you reach the C Street off-ramp in Wilmington. Follow C Street east to Fries Avenue. Turn south on Fries Avenue past Harry Bridges Ave and eventually your will cross the Port Harbor Line railroad tracks. Immediately after crossing the tracks, turn right and proceed past the railroad yard on your right until you see Berth 155A on the left. Part adjacent to the building, You will be amazed at what you see.

Meet the SCTC (cont’d from Col. 1)

In the photo below, Indiana Railroad 55 passes a local baseball game

Next, an Illinois Terminal Class B pulls an excursion train of MDC Overton cars. The excursion car just behind the locomotive was scratchbuilt. The loco and train are my own.

In the next photo, Akihisa Saitoh's PERy Medium 500 in the foreground while George Huckaby's Philadelphia Nearside car is in the back.

If you have any interest in traction modeling in HO scale and live between Santa Barbara, CA and San Diego, CA, give the club a call at 323-931-1994. They would love to talk to you!!