San Francisco Activity!
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During October 18-22, 2011, Soundtraxx from Durango, Colorado and Custom Traxx from Los Angeles, California teamed to record more trolley sounds for the next line of Bowser Manufacturing streetcar models. During that time, they had the pleasure of riding and recording many of the cars in service on the F line. It seems that we can always report good news in San Francisco. This time is no exception. The first is that car 1061, ex PTC 2116, is close to returning to service. The car is shown in the next photo inside the carhouse at Cameron Beach Yard while being reassembled for final testing prior to being returned to service.

Car 1061 needed a brake controller and it was thought prudent to ordering several of these items since all these 50+ year old cars may eventually need them. After a typically bureaucratic procurement process, the parts were eventually obtained from Bombardier. Car 1061, in its Pacific Electric livery, is shown in the Cameron Beach Memorial Car House next to Car #1 on October 20th. Car #1 has just been totally rebuilt at Brookville Equipment Co. and is the newest 100 year old streetcar in the world at this time.

The interior of the now rebuilt #1 is incredible. Many observers have observed the excellence of the woodwork. One visitor recently commented that patrons should be forced to remove their shoes before entering that car.

The F-line now has 24 runs assigned daily. This is incredible for a line that was intended to run with a base of 7 cars and then 9 during rush hours. As has been reported previously, the line began in 1995 with 14 ex-Philadelphia (PTC) 1947 and 1948 PCC cars. They were not enough for the unexpected ridership. When Philadelphia refused to sell an more of them (even though they did not want them themselves), San Francisco Municipal Railway (Muni) turned to Milan and obtained 11 1920s-era Peter Witt cars. It was soon apparent that these were also not enough so 11 ex-Newark, ex-Minneapolis PCC cars were obtained. These cars had not been rewired like the ex-Philadelphia cars an proved troublesome. At this time, two of them, which have never been sent back to Brookville for rewiring are in service, 1076 (D.C. Transit) and 1077 (Birmingham).

Six cars have been rewired at Brookville and are back at the Beech Facility, 1070 (Public Service of New Jersey), 1071 (Twin Cities Rapid Transit), 1072 (Mexico City), 1074 (Toronto), 1078 (San Diego Electric Railway), 1079 (Detroit Street Railway) and 1080 (Los Angeles Transit Lines). Shown below are 1079, 1078 and 1074 outside the Beech Facility on October 19. 2011. They are awaiting their turn at burn-in.

Cars 1073 (El Paso City Lines), and 1075 (Cleveland Transit System) are at Brookville being modified and rewired.

The current problem with the ex-Newark cars is the door motors. With the original manufacturer of the door motors no longer in business, the cars were equipped with a replacement brand of door motors when initially rebuilt by Brookville. These have proven to be unsatisfactory. Currently new motors, manufactured by another manufacturer, are being considered and are now being tested on car 1071 and, so far, they look promising. 1071 is currently in service and we observed it in service on Tuesday, October 18th. If the present favorable trend continues, these latest door motors will be installed in cars 1070, 1072, 1074, 1078, 1079 and 1080 prior to their burn-in. We observed this car in service on Tuesday, October 18th.

The recent change from 20 to 24 cars needed daily was specified without a corresponding increase in the supporting maintenance personnel. We have to commend these diligent folks with always so much to do with so little help. Car 1071 was stalled at 17th and Noe with "stuck fingers" in the controller late on October 18th but towed to the Beech facility, repaired and pronounced ready for service on Wednesday, October 19th. The next photo shows 1071 leaving the Beech Facility after repairs were completed.

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Orange Empire Railway Museum Gets New Director!
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On September 17th, the Orange Empire Railway Museum (OERM) named George Huckaby to their nine-person Board of Directors, after being named to the Museum Executive committee in June 2011. George can now add these responsibilities to running Custom Traxx and supplying data to Bowser for their HO trolley cars. George has been a member of the museum for over forty years and has been a member of Operations for almost the same length of time. He was a monthly fixture at the museum until 1979 when he left the United States Air Force and took a position with Parsons-Gilbane on the Strategic Petroleum Reserve Project nd moved to New Orleans. He returned to his monthly stints when he returned to California in 1981. He has qualified for and operates PERy 331, 332, 418 and 717 along with LARy 665, 1201, and 3001; LATL 3100 and LAMTA 3165. He was a regular operator of NOPSI 913, San Francisco Muni 171 and LATL 1160 when they were in service at the museum. George is shown below during the a Thomas the Tank Engine Preparation meeting on October 15, 2011.

George holds a Bachelor of Science (B. S.) in Physics from Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, PA and a Master of Science (M. S.) in Systems Management from the University of Southern California. During his fourteen years of service with the United States Air Force, he was an Alternate Missile Combat Crew Commander in the Minuteman II Missile System at Grand Forks, North Dakota, a Command Post Controller and Ballistic Missile Staff Course Instructor at Vandenberg AFB, CA and a Cost/Schedule Control Systems Criteria Specialist at Norton AFB, CA. It was during the last assignment that he became familiar with the management and cost control systems used at Aerojet-General, Bell Aerospace Systems, Boeing Aerospace, General Electric Re-Entry Systems Division, GTE Sylvania, Honeywell, Logicon, Thiokol Wasatch Division, and others. He completed his service at the rank of Major (O-4). After leaving the USAF and the Strategic Petroleum Reserve Project, he worked for the Aerospace Corporation, Northrop-Grumman and Vought Aerospace Industries. In his two latter positions, he supported the production of the Boeing 747 fuselage. He founded and currently runs a small business, Custom Traxx, whose primary focus is on modeling HO scale streetcars. Their major project, begun in 2007, was the joint venture with Bowser Manufacturing to produce a very successful line of HO scale PCC streetcars, available DCC-ready and recently available with sound. Custom Traxx provided 100% of the technical and finishing data for these cars to Bowser. George has traveled to China more than once for this latter project, incidentally traveling both times on Boeing 747s, and attends Mandarin (Chinese) classes on a twice weekly basis. George has communicated with the manufacturer in their own language, which has contributed greatly to the success of that model streetcar program. George helped develop and eventually applied decals currently on San Francisco Municipal Railway and has applied certain decal lettering to Los Angeles Railway 1201 and 9350, both preserved at the OERM. George has also participated in the effort to make the destination signs that still adorn Birney 10 (Pacific Electric 332) and will apply decals to the freshly painted LATL P-2 PCC 3100.