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CURRENT EVENTS .......... |
Current Light Rail & Modern Streetcar News!
by Edward Havens
Los Angeles Downtown News in an editorial August 10th said the proposed downtown Los Angeles modern streetcar line needs a Grand Avenue extension to avoid a steep hike for riders to such cultural attractions as the Museum of Contemporary Art, Music Center, Walt Disney Concert Hall and nearby office buildings. But project planners say that would raise the construction cost of the streetcar to $282 million and they want to keep it below $250 million. "We understand the desire to save money, but we think it would be a terrible missed opportunity, a shortsighted and self-defeating mistake to stop the streetcar at First and Hill If this project is to happen, it must go to Grand." An artists concept of a Los Angeles streetcar in downtown Los Angeles is shown next:
Norfolk, Virginia's Hampton Roads Transit planned three days of free rides from August 19 to 21 to celebrate the first anniversary of their starter 7.4-mile "Tide" light rail line as reported by the The Virginian-Pilot newspaper reported. The events included an August 19 ceremony with speakers, food trucks, cupcakes, music and raffle prizes. Voters in nearby Virginia Beach, a seaside resort city, will decide in November whether to extend the LRT route across city line to the Town Center shopping plaza,. The referendum is advisory and the City Council is not bound by the results.
It will be costlier than expected and take longer than planned to rehabilitate 86 Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority Green Line LRVs for continued service, The Boston Globe reported August 6th. The cost will rise $11.5 million above the budgeted $104 million and the work will take one year longer. That's because of the time-consuming process of removing asbestos and fixing mechanical problems. All of the LRVs built in the 1980s and due for overhauls may not be returned to service until the end of 2017. One of Boston's Type 7 Kinki Sharyo LRVs is shown in the next photo:
On August 21, Philadelphia-based Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) planned to begin placing their Silverliner V cars multiple-unit coaches, one of which is shown in the next photograph, back in service at the rate of 10 cars each week. However, they did not expect to have all 120 of the cars built by Hyundai Rotem back in service until November, phasing in the cars as their suspension systems are repaired, as the "philly dot com" web site reported on August 3rd. Cracks developed in the welds that affixed the equalizer beams supporting the cars with the truck assemblies, so all of the units were taken out of service on July 1. Equalizer beams are part of the rail car suspension system that distributes the total car weight evenly to all axles. SEPTA General Manager Jeffrey Knueppel stated that the cracks formed as a result of a poorly designed weld that attached a plate to the main body of the beam. The repairs are under warranty but the cost of leasing substitute rolling stock and locomotives from Amtrak, NJ Transit and Maryland Area Regional Commuter train service and the lost revenue from reduced ridership is costing SEPTA about one million dollars a month and it's undetermined who will pay for that.
SEPTA also announced it would close its 2-1/2 mile trolley subway from 40th Street Portal in West Philadelphia to City Hall in Center City for three consecutive weekends starting in mid-August for maintenance and repairs, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported August 9th. In addition, weeknight service in the trolley tunnel also would be diverted to the 40th and Market rapid transit subway station for two weeks in August using all-surface "over the top" trackage, commonly called the "diversion" route. The tunnel work had been postponed because of the Democratic National Convention and the sidelining of Silverliner V cars, which comprise about one third of the entire Regional Rail fleet. Car 9026, one of the 112 1980s era Kawasaki-built vehicles in shown in the next photograph:
Dallas Area Rapid Transit planned to inaugurate service on the Bishop Arts District extension of the downtown to Oak Cliff modern streetcar line August 29, Dallas Morning News reported August 9, A preview day was set for Saturday, August 27. The extension adds two stops and the full route will take 11 minutes to ride. It remains fare free. Brookville Equipment dual-mode "Liberty" model streetcars are used on the line because of the wire free section on the historic viaduct over the Trinity River.
A federal court ruling has put federal funding for the Maryland Transit Administration Purple Line light rail route into limbo, The Washington Post reported on August 3rd, U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon ordered MTA to evaluate the impact on the 16.2-mile LRT route of reduced ridership on the D.C. Metrorail rapid transit because of its safety problems and closures to upgrade the rail system which will connect at several points with the Bethesda to New Carrollton LRT. As a result, officials postponed indefinitely a signing ceremony for a $900 million federal grant to help build the east-west car line in the suburbs just north of Washington, D.C. The Purple Line would extend from Bethesda in Montgomery County to New Carrollton in Prince George's County. It would provide direct connection to the Metrorail Red, Green and Orange lines at Bethesda, College Park and New Carrollton. It would also connect to MARC, Amtrak and local bus services. A concept vehicle is shown below:
The Kansas City Star reported on August 9th that there were no legal objections filed to a proposal by a private group to extend the starter 2.2-mile Kansas City modern streetcar line southward to the University of Missouri campus area. A Jackson County court petition seeks to expand the tax district that is helping to fund the car line. Court hearings are set for Sept. 15 and 16. If the court approves the expanded district, mail-in elections would be required. KC streetcar 801 is shown below:
Incidentally, since the opening day in May 2016 of the KC Streetcar, the line has carried over 645,000 passengers, including 182,248 in June and 233,683 in July. The highest single day ridership was Saturday, July 16, when 15, 780 passengers rode the line. The trend is definitely in the right direction!
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World's Greatest Hobby on Tour Returns to California!
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The World's Greatest Hobby on Tour (WGHoT) staff announced their 2017 show schedule with four great locations:
Atlanta, Georgia - January 7-8 - Georgia World Congress Center
Seattle, Washington - January 21-22 - Washington State Fair
Phoenix, Arizona - February 4-5 - Phoenix Convention Center
Pomona, California - February 11-12 - Pomona-Fairplex
Almost everyone in our great hobby has noticed the changes in the past ten years. There are not as many model train shows as there used to be and we all know about the "graying" of the current group of model railroaders. But the WGHoT did not come into existence until 2004 and has posted some attendance records that will stand for some time. Here is a list of some of the shows and the attendance numbers:
There is a lot of success demonstrated in the above chart. The very first show presented by the WGHoT staff yielded over 19,000 visitors. That level of attendance was at the time believed to be fantastic but as you can see some of the shows that followed that first one doubled that attendance. But you can also see why non-California shows may be preferred by their staff. So if you live in California, and love model trains but did not attend the shows in your area, you may have contributed to the issue.
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More Evidence that Los Angeles Commuters Are Switching
to Metro Light Rail!
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The August 6th edition of the Los Angeles Times contained a report on the status of the recently opened Expo Line from downtown Los Angeles to Santa Monica. The line had opened in 2012 as far as Culver City but it was not until May 20, that trains started carrying passengers to and from Santa Monica. The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority or Metro, for short, seemed to underestimate dramatically the number of people who would use this line, despite the fact that this would be the first alternative transportation to Santa Monica since 1953!
Since the line passes directly in front of the residence of the Trolleyville web site webmaster, there is a great vantage point to notice the level of ridership. Initially assigning a pitiful number of twenty-eight cars to the Division 14 facility, which would be the base of operations for the new line, it was soon found that that would not "cut it". On March 21, they had started running trains all the way to Santa Monica but did not carry passengers past Culver City. The line was running trains every twelve minutes and this required nine trains.
The Los Angeles Times in a front page article on August 6, 2016, titled "Metro Rail's Jam Sessions" stated that Metro riders at the Farmdale station in the West Adams area of Los Angeles were waiting for two trains to arrive before they could even find enough room to get on the train. These trains were that crowded. The Farmdale station is one Expo station that Metro did not even want to build in the first place. One 38 year old female passenger was quoted as saying "I love the train, but I don't think I can keep doing this" after she had stood in the sun for half an hour as two fully loaded trains came and went. In June 2016, the 11.5 mile Expo Line saw almost as many trips as the Gold Line which is twice as long.
The major reason that this situation exists is the fact that Metro does not have enough cars for the service it needs to provide adequate service on the lines that it has opened. The workhorses of the Expo Line and the Blue Line are the 54 Nippon Sharyo P865 (series 100-153) and 15 P2020 (series 154-168) cars built in 1989/1990/1995 and solder on without the mid life rebuilds that they should have undergone years ago. Incidentally the 54 P865 cars were purchased by the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission, a forerunner of the Metro. The only mistake that they made in our opinion was the location of the pantographs. They were located right over the front truck instead of toward the center of the cars. The 15 P2020 cars were used to open the Green line in 1995 but after the Siemens P2000 (series 200-250, 301, 302) cars arrived they were shifted to the Blue Line to permit operation of three-car trains there.
The newspaper went on to say that after months of political infighting, AnsaldoBreda was awarded a contract for 50 cars for the Gold Line (initially Pasadena to Los Angeles but now Azusa to Los Angeles) designated P2550 (series 701-750) vehicles. Metro officials considered buying more of the P2550 Breda cars that currently rule the Gold Line but the first cars arrived late and three-tons overweight. So back to the drawing board and the usual time-consuming failure to-make-a-decision bureaucratic rigmarole until a contract was awarded in 2012 to KinkiSharyo for 235 vehicles, designated P3010. They are numbered starting with 1001. After all, buying a light rail vehicle by the year 2016 should not be an Apollo-level project.....right? But by this time Metro had used up any cushion that they had. Both the Gold Line extension to Azusa and the Expo Line extension to Santa Monica would be ready during 2016. The Gold Line extension was opening in March 2016 and the Expo Line extension in May 2016.
By August 6, the Los Angeles Times claimed that Metro has had taken delivery of 41 P3010 cars and many have been seen running either in service or as "test trains". On August 10th, car 1040 was observed in testing on the Expo Line and 1036 was seen in a two-car revenue train with 1018. Car 1041 was seen on August 16. After delivery each car must be tested for many hours before conditional acceptance approved by Metro and then approved by a representative of the state of California before it is allowed to carry passengers. Obtaining State approval has taken much longer than it should have in many instances.
A lot of Angelenos had stated that they would love to ride the trains as soon as they ran trains "...wher they wanted to go..." After building the Green Line that went from "nowhere to nowhere" but bypassing Los Angeles International and not quite reaching the Amtrak station in Orange County, they fiannly build a line that took people to a place where a lot of people wanted to go.....TO THE BEACH!!!!! When the Expo Line went as far as Culver City (the intersection of Venice & Robertson), the average ridership was 29,100 during the week, 23,000 on Saturdays and just under 16,000 on Sunday. Put Santa Monica Beach into the equation and in June almost 46,000 rode during the week and almost 35,000 rode on Saturday and a whopping 36,000 rode on Sunday. Yet Metro initally tried to cram a lot of these people into two-car trains. At the same time, bus ridership is plummeting. Makes sense! The buses are stuck in the same traffic created by too many automobiles. In fact, in mst of the larger localities in the United States, bus ridership is declining while rail riders increase.
Phillip A. Washington, LACMTA CEO since March 2015, was forced to address this issue recently after a cacophony of customer complaints. The rail car contractor, KinkiSharyo, is on contract to deliver 175 cars and is currently providing cars at the rate of four per month. The first car was delivered in October 2014 and there were issues that had to be resolved. Phillip stated that he would like to increase the delivery rate to five per month. He state that there would be three-car trains (called 3-PAKS by the staff) on both the Gold and Expo Lines "very very soon".
Phillip also addressed the safety and security concerns that have recently been on almost everyone's minds. He reported that Metro was "doubling down" on their security. Riders would see much more of a security presence on ALL of the lines, especially the Red Line (Subway from Los Angeles to North Hollywood) and the Blue Line (Light Rail from Los Angeles to Long Beach). This will consist of a uniformed presence which will be noticed and a plain-clothes presence that may not be easily noticed. He noted that users should have seen the security towers are going up around park and ride structures that are 24 feet in the air. Metro can have two people in those towers. He concluded that crime has decreased in the last six months.
A nagging problem with the P3010 vehicles is reported to possibly having been solved so starting on Thursday, August 11th, we noticed several 3Paks of P3010 operation in testing and in revenue service. If this problem has indeed been solved, the car problem on the Expo Line will begin to ease shortly.
3Pak of P3010 KinkiSharyo cars westbound at Bagley in Culver City!
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Cincinnati Bell Buys Streetcar Naming Rights!
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On August 23, Progressive Railroading reported that Cincinnati's new streetcar 3.6 mile system, scheduled to open on September 9th will be know as the Cincinnati Bell Connector, as accounced by city officials during the previous week.
Local telephone and internet provider, Cincinnati Bell, signed a naming rights agreement that requires the company to pay $340,000 annually for the next ten years. The revenue will be used to help fund streetcar operation.
Naturally, the streetcars appearance will change from what has been previously shown. Cincinnati Bell graphics will appear on the front, back, top and sides of all streetcars and the 18 streetcar stops wll be "rebranded" as Cincinnati Bell stations. The existing logo and colors will no longer be used.
Cincinnati Streetcar During Testing during Summer 2016!
The system is owned and funded by the city, managed by Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority (SORTA) but operated by Transdev. According to our sources, Transdev, formerly Veolia Transdev, is a French-based international private public transport operator with bus, streetcar or metro operations in 19 countries. In the United States as of 2014, they had operations in Denver, CO; Las Vegas, NV; Arcadia, CA; Miami, FL; Nassau County, New York; Phoenix, AZ; and Redding, San Diego and San Francisco, CA
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El Paso Streetcar Progress!
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The Sun Metro Mass Transit Department, or Sun Metro, is in the progress of restoring the streetcars that ran in the El Paso downtown district until the early 1970s. The $90-97 million project is slated to run 5.2 miles from downtown El Paso to the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP). The route will travel north on Oregon Street, east on Glory Road/ Baltimore and then South on Stanton street. A downtown loop will travel east on Franklin Avenue, south on Kansas street, west on Father Rahm and north on Santa Fe street.
This project will be unique in that it will use some of the same streetcars that actually ran in El Paso from 1949 to 1974.
Track construction will begin in February 2017 and the first part of the route, the downtown loop, and two streetcars should be ready for operation by 2018! The streetcars are being rebuilt by Brookville Equipment Corporation in Pennsylvania, known for their fine work on restoring streetcars in Philadelphia and San Francisco. Car 1506, formerly of El Paso and San Diego, is shown at Brookville in process of renovation:
 
Car 1506 was one of 25 PCC cars, series 501-525, ordered by the San Diego Electric Railway from the Saint Louis Car Company (SLCC) in 1936 and delivered in 1937. Three additional SLCC-built cars, 526, 527 and 528, were added in January 1938. Car 1503 had operated as car 512 in San Diego until 1948 when all streetcar service was abandoned. Cars 505, 510, 515, 522, 526 and 527 were scrapped. Twenty of these cars, 501*, 502, 503, 504, 506, 507*, 509, 511, 512, 513, 514, 516, 517, 518, 519, 520, 521*, 523, 524 and 525 were sold to El Paso City lines in February 1950 and December 1952*. They were placed in service and after front trolley poles were added for the one-mile-long trip to the car barn, operated on the United States only international streetcar line until 1973. During that year, a dispute with Mexico caused permanent cessation of service into Ciudad Juarez. The cars ran in downtown El Paso only until May 1974 when the line was abandoned. In 2002, car 1503, originally San Diego 506, was sent to the Baltimore Streetcar Museum, renumbered 7303 and now masquerades as a Baltimore PCC car. The cars have sat idle since until recently. Cars 508 and 528 still exist at a Southern California Railway Museum.
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............MODELING HINTS
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A P3010* Model for Trolleyville - Part 1!
(*Los Angeles' Newest Light Rail Vehicle!)
By Darrell Clarke
As a long-time Los Angeles advocate for modern light rail (see http://friends4expo.org), I’ve been eagerly awaiting Custom Traxx' San Diego S70 light rail vehicle model. I’ve visited the Austrian company Leopold Halling’s website looking for something more like American light rail or French trams, and had purchased their Blackpool Bombardier Flexity 2 model, but my model doesn’t seem to run as smoothly as Bowser’s PCCs and New Orleans cars.
KinkiSharyo Car 1023 on the Expo Line during the opening days May 20-21!
This spring the new KinkiSharyo Los Angeles P3010 cars started to carry passengers on the Gold and Expo Lines and to me look really sleek in their stainless steel, lemon yellow, and black. For more photos of these nice looking cars, see http://friends4expo.org/p3010.htm. If only I could buy a model of one, but no. Hmmm … could model sides be laser cut from stainless steel? My modeling experience is decades old and I’ve never scratch-built a rail car, but what could I find online?
HO scale model with two Bowser traction drives!
The previous photo shows the results so car and what follows in Part 1 of this article is the short version of how I got there.
Where normally there is a will, there is usually a way. After some searching, I found a company online named Ponoko that “photochemically machines” 0.015” stainless steel (among many other materials). One provides a computer-drawn pattern – which I drew to scale using Inkscape from Kinkisharyo’s Los Angeles Technical Data fact sheet drawing. The metal is either cut through or etched half way as you see above. The resultant sheet contained enough sides to make 4-1/2 cars in Ponoko’s 14-inch-square.
I bent the pieces by hand using an old vise, vise-grips, and pliers.
Stainless steel sides and styrene roof and upper end!
The roof and floor were fabricated from from sheet .080” and .040” styrene, which turned out to be pretty easy to drill and cut and epoxy to the car sides. The hump over the cab is three layers of .080”, sanded to shape, primed and puttied. The yellow is brushed Blick’s Yellow Light Hansa artists’ acrylic paint (masked for painting, below); I have not mastered the use of an airbrush yet. (I believe that I told you that my modeling skills were a little old!)
Motors and trucks are Bowser’s #125105 traction mechanism (I obtained some 28” wheels which are not currently available from Bowser) and an A-Line #20040 flywheel from Custom Traxx. The unit currently operates only on DC and only two-rail so far. The decision had to be made to use one or two powered trucks? I first used only one, which slipped on my 6% grades. It climbs well with two, although one power truck with traction tires would probably work as well. I made an articulation joint of styrene sheet and tubing and two stainless steel sides that turn well with the center truck’s power pick up contacts.
So far the unit runs very smoothly, although a bit noisily, which was similar to the findings of Custom Traxx with their Siemens S70 project. There was a lot of trial-and-error work to get this far and there will me considerably more before this job is complete, including windows and lettering. I can get a working pantograph from Sommerfeldt but not a model of the unique single arm TransTech pantograph used by these cars. I want to figure out how to add working marker lights..... I even thought of building a second and third car so I can run a train similar to those now being operated on the Expo Line but two members of the Southern California Traction Club persuaded me to release four sides to each of them and they are working on converting some older Bowser machined aluminum floors to use with these cars. If successful, this would be reported about that in Part 2 of this article.
First model shown on the Southern California Traction Club Display at Pomona-Fairplex in July 2016!
(All photos by Darrell Clarke!)
After some additional refinements by a couple of others in the SCTC, maybe a way can be found toward making it a saleable kit. The prototype cars will continue to arrive in Los Angeles at the rate of one each week for the next year years. Further down the road, if the LRV/Modern streetcar market develops, this may be a candidate for mass production in more than one scale.
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ATTENTION N SCALE TRACTION MODELERS!!!
In our July 2016 issue, we published an article about N scale trolleys. About the same time the Southern California Traction Club (SCTC) was investigating N scale modeling and started to build their first N scale module using Kato Unitram and Unitrack. We would like to hear from other N scale modelers as this appears to be a growing portion of the hobby. So if you have any interest in N scale urban railway modeling, please, let us know!
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TROLLEYVILLE VISITS SIEMENS!!
Trolleyville just returned from a visit to the huge Siemens plant south of Sacramento, California.
About one-third of the Light Rail Vehicles now running in the United States are Siemens products!
See our October 1 issue for more details.
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