For some time now, the Trolleyville Times has been encouraging the development and production of HO scale models of traction vehicles running today. As a result, west coast HO scale traction modelers, including members of the Southern California Traction Club (SCTC) have been searching for some models of these electric railway vehicles. The AHM/IHC/Mehano injection-molded plastic models of the Boeing Light Rail Vehicles of the 1970s are available in HO scale but the prototype cars are for all practical purposes gone. There still are no reasonably priced ready-to-run finished models of modern U.S. light rail vehicles. Models of the San Francisco 'F-line' PCC cars are on the way from Bowser Manufacturing. However, Imperial Hobby Productions (IHP) of suburban Philadelphia offers unfinished HO scale models of both the Philadelphia and Hudson-Bergen Light Rail Vehicles using cast resin car bodies and the proven Bowser traction mechanisms. The same firm has produced a model of the Philadelphia PCC-II which is a PCC body with for all practical purposes, modern LRV components. In 2004, 18 all-electric PCC cars originally built in 1947 and 1948 by the Saint Louis Car Co and put into service by the Philadelphia Transportation Company were sent to Brookville Mining & Equipment Company in western Pennsylvania. They were rebuilt into what has been called a PCC-II. They have been operating on Philadelphia's Route 15, Girard Avenue, since September 2005.

During the preparation for the July 2008 National Train Show (NTS) in Anaheim, one of the members of the SCTC happened to notice one of the HO scale models of the Philadelphia PCC-II streetcar. The model had been obtained at the East Penn Traction Club meet in May 2007 by another SCTC club member and had been painted and lettered with decals from both Custom Traxx and Bob Dietrich. The car was being operated on one of the club modules at the time. The club member began to consider getting one of these models.

Right after the NTS, the same member noticed that the price for a powered PCC-II kit had been reduced from $195.00 to a more reasonable $110.00 plus shipping & handling, so he decided the time was right to get one of the kits. On July 22nd, a money order was dispatched for one of the powered 87131A PCC-II kits based on the following information on the eBay web site at the time of purchase.

The unpowered shell also came with four track brake castings but no trolley pole or trolley pole hook. The same shell contained a rather huge .20" diameter hole in the roof at the point where the trolley pole is to be attached. Follow the red arrow in the photo below:

We initially assumed that this large hole was to accommodate the Bowser 1251 trolley pole roof insulator. But that insulator has an outer diameter of only .174" so it is anything but a snug fit. One would also question why any insulator would be needed in the first place on a resin car body when the Bowser chassis for which the shell for intended is an electrically neutral chassis. There are mounting lugs cast into the shell designed for the Bowser 125141 mechanism but the mounting holes are neither drilled nor tapped.

In evaluating the powered, ready-to-finish model, we found that the trolley pole provided and shown above, while nice in appearance in the stowed position, to be useless as an operational pole. Recently, Scale Rails, the official NMRA publication had major heartburn with the trolley pole provided with the HO scale Bachmann Peter Witt because the upward pressure was less than .20 ounces between 30 and 45 degree angles of elevation as called for by the same NMRA Specification. The pole provided with this kit was much worse, as this pole had less than .1 oz upward pressure at any angle. Sometimes the pole did not have enough spring pressure to raise itself to the wire. The trolley shoe also did not comply with NMRA Specification S-5 and we found the shoe groove to be so small (less than .045") that it would not track reliably on the overhead wire. NMRA Spec S-5 requires a minimum collector width of .0625". This is a problem to those powering from overhead wire as most commercial overhead frogs and crossings are made to comply with the S-5 specification. The San Diego Model Railroad Club, which operates a large overhead wire powered layout in Balboa Park, evaluated all available trolley shoes and wheels and concluded that cars could not operate on their layout unless they had overhead wire contactors compliant with S-5. While the Southern California Traction Club is not as strict, having used both Precision Scale and Miniatures by Eric trolley shoes and wheels, this shoe was unusable on any of their modules. This compounded with the almost non-existent spring pressure made the pole practically worthless. The Times has been presented with correspondence indicating that both of these issues were brought to the attention of Imperial Hobby Productions over one year ago, resulting in a less than favorable response. On the other hand, the Bowser 12507 contactor is now available from Custom Traxx and it is compliant with S-5. This contactor is similar to contactors widely used in brass imported trolleys cars and interurbans in the 1960s through 1980s.

Unfortunately Imperial Hobby Productions (IHP) chose to use a .058" diameter pole base mounting pin. Even if the poles were functional for operation, they would could be problem to those with fleets of cars. Currently there are two major trolley pole base mounts in use in the traction hobby. The Bowser pole, designed by George Stock many years ago, has been in use for over four decades and was the staple of the traction modeling industry for many years. It has a pin base with an .085" diameter and fits snugly into a 3/32" mounting hole. Both MTS Imports, Inc and Miniatures by Eric are using the original 1mm (.040") diameter pin base marketed by both Fairfield Traction and S.Soho some years ago. The smaller pin base allows less disruption to roof detail. Being able to swap poles is a blessing to those operating cars, especially clubs displaying at shows. Using one type of pole pivot base is very efficient and allows quick swapping of defective pole or collectors. The .058" pin base will not fit on cars designed for the other two poles. Why the manufacturer chose to introduce a different sized pin base remains a mystery. A possible replacement market was obviously not considered.

So the shell had to be modified to take any currently available trolley pole. We chose to modify the shell to take the 1mm pole base used by MTS and Miniatures by Eric. Plastruct tubing was used to fill in the large hole. Confirming the reason why model traction hobbyists save things, we used an over forty year old 10mm by 3mm trolley pole base pivot used in one of the original Model Tramway System trolley cars. Another is shown to the right of the car. It was almost a perfect fit.

We mounted the 87131 shell on a Bowser 125141 mechanism, equipped with an A-line 20040 Bowser Flywheel kit. It was a perfect fit and the bottom of the doors sit exactly one foot from the top of the rail as did the prototype. Using a #50 drill, we drilled a hole in the center of each mounting lug and tapped both for a 2-56 screw and used a Bowser 256031 screw to secure the body shell to the chassis floor. We used the same drill to create an opening for our headlight. The track brake assemblies fit snugly on the mounting lugs of the power truck (Bowser parts 1252 & 1253) and the trailing truck (Bowser parts 1290) once the bottoms are filed out to clear the extended lugs on the gear covers on the power truck (Bowser part 1254) and the trailing truck (Bowser part 1292). No prototype information or instructions are provided with the unpowered 87131 shell.

We evaluate all traction models for overhead wire operation. With the very reliable Bowser traction power unit, a reliable trolley pole, some authentic decals and at least two ounces of weight added below the floor between the trucks, the fairly well detailed shell can be made into a very good model. The car was finished with Floquil Antique White (F110085), Reading Green (F110183) and Old Silver (F110100). Since there is currently no commercial decal set available for this car, we contacted Custom Traxx to be if they could make portions of their sets available to us. Surprisingly, they told us that they occasionally have extra sheets of their various decal sets and, if available, they would put together something for their customers on an individual basis. They were able to in this case and we ended up spending a fraction of what we would had to spend for three separate decal sets. So portions of Custom Traxx finishing decal set CN2001, destination sign set CT9040 and specialty decal set CT993B plus some decals from Bob Dietrich were used to complete the detailing of the model. Both completed PCC-II models are shown in the next photo.

SEPTA 2322, made from a 87131 kit, and SEPTA 2335, made from a 87131A kit, are shown during testing being tested on the Southern California Traction Club test track on Sunday, September 28, 2008. Both cars will be operating in the next appearance of the Southern California Traction Club late this month.

Note: John McWhirter, Ladera Heights, CA, joined the Southern California Traction Club in 2005 and immediately began to influence the club to move toward the addition of illumination and interiors to many of the structures on the module and the adaptation of DCC to overhead wire operation. He spearheaded the development of the two-track subway car module along with the new downtown trolley loop, both of which are operated by DCC. By the end of 2007, the club had over twenty vehicles with DCC decoders in them. John was assigned the nickname "Mr Club" due to his persistence in moving the club in new directions. In converting cars to operate on DCC, the club had to examine all facets of the different types of drives, lighting systems and DCC systems. In doing this, the SCTC has accumulated considerable data about and knowledge of the different types of traction drives, traction kits, along with brass, resin cast and injection-molded traction vehicles. The SCTC then felt that their acquired knowledge should be shared with the entire model traction community and John became one of three club vehicle evaluators, augmenting the club ten-year-old certification system for model vehicles. In the fall of 2007, John decided to make his reviews available outside of the SCTC. In the not-too-distant future, John will be evaluating other traction kits and sharing his accomplishments in kit bashing including the AHM/IHC/Mehano Boeing Light Rail Vehicle.