Accurately Modeling Rear Lights on
Bowser Tsunami-Sound-Equipped PCC Cars!
***

When the first PCC car was delivered to Brooklyn in 1936 and the last one to San Francisco in 1952, they had one thing in common. They had what was considered a major innovation at that time, Stop/Brake Lights. These two rear-facing amber lights illuminated when the operator pressed his foot on the brake pedal. In fact, they had the words STOP imprinted in the stop light lenses. Car 1059 in San Francisco sported a pair of these for a while.

Many PCC cars, when they were rebuilt in the last 20 years, added tail lights to the stop or brake lights similar to those found on almost every automobile manufactured in the last 60 years. Some operators did this by adding another pair of lights to the rear of the cars. San Francisco, when they rebuilt PCC cars from both Philadelphia and Newark, added double filament bulbs to the existing light fixtures similar to those formerly used on many automobiles.

Operating brake lights became available for HO scale PCC models when Train Control Systems (TCS) developed the M4T decoder in 2009 for the Bowser HO scale All-Electric R-T-R PCC models. Soundtraxx-Tsunami replicated this feature in their sound decoders also designed for the Bowser PCC. All the cars released by Bowser up to this time with Soundtrack sound have been models of traditional PCC cars that did not have tail lights. One of our readers obtained a Bowser Twin Cities Rapid Transit (Minneapolis-St.Paul) PCC, readdressed the unit to 311 and placed it on the track and found the taillights illuminated. Attempting to remove these lights resulted in much frustration as the current documentation provided with the car was somewhat incomplete. For these and other cars equipped with Soundtraxx-Tsunami sound decoders, CV 33 and CV 34 should both be set equal to 1. To re-instate the taillight operation, set CV 33 ad 34 equal to 3. This latter instruction should be remembered as before the end of the year, Bowser will be releasing the first San Francisco F-line PCC cars with Soundtraxx-Tsunami sound, cars 1050 (San Francisco) and 1058 (Chicago). So file this article for reference if you plan to acquire one of these cars.
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Con-Cor PRR MP-54 Commuter Cars!
***

Anyone that grew up in the Metropolitan Philadelphia are in the 1940-1950 time frame remembers the MP54 commuter cars. These electrified cars started their life as steam engine hauled coaches, the first of the steel coaches for the Pennsylvania Railroad. They were converted to electric operation starting in 1911 and upgrades continued up until 1950.

Con-Cor has produced very credible models of the coaches and combines. These models run very well. They produced a baggage-mail car also, but we have had problems finding a photo of the prototype.

When we ran our cars, we found two items not mentioned in the recent article in the August 2012 edition of Model Railroad News. The first item is that on the powered cars, one of the four wheels on each truck has a traction tire. The second is that the pantographs have a tendency to get into the "lazy diamond" shape when operated. A critical physical link that is present on prototype pantographs and many model pantographs is missing from the model pantographs supplied. Also the method chosen to lock down the pantographs resulted in two large tabs under the pantograph shoe that really show up in photographs.

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Two More 'Torpedo' Streetcars return to San Francisco!
***

On August 23rd, the second of the four 'Torpedo' streetcars now being rebuilt at Brookville arrived for testing. Car 1008 arrived some time ago and is in the burn-in cycle. Car 1006 just arrived this week and will start its burn-in shortly after acceptance. Both 1006 and 1008 are in the same 1950's Muni paint scheme, a first for the F-line (two-cars of the same type in the same scheme). Car 1006 was used in the Trolley Festivals in the 1980's and Car 1008 was converted to a utility car and equipped with a pantograph. It is reported to have been the only PCC car to have run in the subway.

Figure 1 - 1006 in 1986.

There were only ten of these cars built in 1947-48, numbered 1006 to 1015. 1007, 1010 and 1015 were rebuilt by Morrison-Knudson in the early 1990s for use on the F-line. They are dressed in the maroon and cream of the Philadelphia Urban Trans'n Co (1007), San Francisco Muni Blue and Gold (1010) and the green and cream of the Illinois Terminal Railroad (1015). Car 1014 was sent to Melbourne, Australia and cars 1012 and 1013 were scrapped. The 'Torpedos' with their double-ended capabilities no longer needed, were single ended. They sort of fell into disfavor so by the time PCC service ended, none were in service. The first three were rebuilt in the 1990s for F-line and when the E-line was conceived, the decision was made to rebuild the remaining four. Prior to rebuilding, 1006 appeared as shown at the Marin Division in Figure 2 below:

Figure 2 - Car 1008 at Marin in Storage.

The necessity to pursue new streetcar lines without currently available loops at both ends of these lines gave these cars a new lease on life. I would willing to bet that there are more than a few people at Muni who wish now that they had not scrapped 1012 and 1013 some years ago. Yet 1006 along with 1008, 1009 and 1011 were sent to Brookville and returned as seen in Figure 3 below:

Figure 3 - Car 1006 at Beech, August 22, 2012.

Another photo shown in Figure 4 below provided by Peter Groom shows car 1006 with 162 and 1818 at the MME on August 26, 2012.

Figure 4 - Car 1006 at MME with 162 and 1818.

The remaining two Torpedos, 1009 and 1011, are still at Brookville under restoration. Watch for them next year.

Meanwhile, Car 1008 would have another life entirely. Figure 5 shows the car as it was during its single-ended service in the 1970s. During this period the doors on the left side seen in the photo were sealed over and now used. But this car, again due to its double ended capability and its condition, was selected as a wrecker to replace 0130, which is now back to number 130 and has returned to service as a heritage streetcar.

Figure 5 - 1008 on Market Street in 1971.

[See Torpedos, column 2]