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CURRENT EVENTS.......... |
Election Issues - Urban Rail Transit
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By Edward Havens
Despite all the attention being focused on the Presidental Election, there are many other items that will affect many of us. Here is a brief look at light rail and other transit issues on the November 8th ballots in U.S. cities in alpabetical order.
-- ATLANTA, Georgia. -- The largest city in Georgia seeks $2.5 billion to expand Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) rail, build light rail and expand the bus network.
-- KANSAS CITY, Missouri. -- Another LRT plan from Bedford, Va., resident Clay Chastain which one critic calls a "fantasy plan" since the taxes it calls for would deprive the city bus system of funding.
-- LOS ANGELES, California -- "Measure M," a $120 billion tax plan to build new rail transit and highway projects. It requires a two-thirds approval of the countywide electorate to pass.
-- PORTLAND, Ore. -- Tigard voters will decide a referendum about building the Southwest Corridor light rail route from downtown Portland to suburban Tualatin and Tigard.
-- RALEIGH, North Carolina -- The Wake County Commission seeks approval of a tax plan to fund commuter rail from Raleigh, the state capital, to Durham and make bus system upgrades including bus rapid transit
-- SACRAMENTO, California -- The state capital city seeks approval for a $3.6 billion sales tax, "Measure B," lasting 30 years that would allocate money for roads and 30 percent for light rail and buses.
-- SAN DIEGO, California -- The Southern California city seeks a 40-year, #18 billion half-cent sales tax increase to fund light rail expansion, highway projects and open space.
-- SAN FRANCISCO, California -- Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) seeks approval for a $3.5 billion bond issue to fix crumbling rails, leaky tunnels and electronic circuitry problems.
-- SEATTLE, Washington. -- Sound Transit seeks approval of a $54 billion tax package to extend light rail and make other transportation improvements.
-- VIRGINIA BEACH, Virginia -- The seaside resort east of Norfolk will vote on a non-binding referendum to extend Norfolk "Tide" light rail three miles east of city line to Town Center shopping plaza.
-- WASHINGTON, D.C. - American Public Transportation Association, the industry's lobbying group, says nationwide there are $200 billion in transit projects on the ballot in various cities.
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Edinburgh Trams On A Roll
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by A. J. Staley
After a famously rocky start, three years late and £375 million over budget (almost $500 Million), the Edinburgh, Scotland trams seem to have regained their footing. In the second 12 months of operations, the trams have not only exceeded ridership projections, with a nine percent increase (about 5.38 million passengers annually), but also have received a 97% overall customer satisfaction rating in an independent survey. Encouraged by all this good news, Edinburgh councilors are now thinking about more construction and spending. They have commissioned a feasibility study for extending the line by three miles to Leith. “It is now our intention to ensure complete clarity before taking the next step, taking into account the needs of the city’s taxpayers.” Andrew Burns, Edinburgh city council’s leader, said reassuringly.
The picture above is of the Tram on Princess Street with the Edinburgh Castle in the background on the right side of the picture. The park is call Princes Street Gardens. Tram runs from Edinburgh Airport to Hay Market in Edinburgh.
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New Orleans North Rampart Line Opens!
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The New Orleans Rampart-Saint Claude streetcar line actually opened on Sunday, October 2nd, one day earlier then we reported last month. The route of this line is shown next:
This 1.6 mile extension connects the French Quarter and Treme neighborhoods to the Canal Street and Loyola Avenue streetcar lines. The $41.5 million dollar project was funded with proceeds from a 2010 bond sale according to the New Orleans Advocate. The red streetcars, example shown below, are replicas of the older Saint Charles cars with air-conditioning and fully compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and fabricated in New Orleans at the New Orleans Regional Transportation Authority (NORTA) Carrollton Shops!
Car 2001, one of the 24 "Von Dullen" replica streetcars, built in 1999 and 2002/2003!
Streetcars last operated along this thoroughfare in 1949, using the most modern cars owned at that time by the New Orleans Public Service Inc., the operator of the streetcar system. The twenty 1000 series cars that operated on this line were ordered in September 1927, ten from Saint Louis Car Company and ten from the Perley A. Thomas Company. The cars were equipped with 26" wheels using Brill 76-E1 trucks, except for car 1010, which had the Saint Louis E1B-64 cast steel framed trucks. They were also four-motor cars and were quite speedy. These one-man cars were withheld from service for many years because the city refused to allow one-man cars. When converted to two man, they finally entered service on the Saint Claude route in April 1935. Because there was no market for non-PCC type streetcars by that time, they were all scrapped in 1949. At 12 years service, they were hardly "broken in"!
Car 1010, one of the ten Perley A. Thomas-built cars! (Photo from Chas. L. Franck)
Car 1017, one of the ten Saint Louis Car Company-built cars, is shown changing ends at the
Saint Claude terminal on North Rampart at Canal on July 31, 1937 . (Photo from collection of H. B. Olsen)
Electric trolley buses also ran this route from 1949 to 1962.
Car 962 after a third rebuilding, shown on Carondelet in New Orleans on the Saint Charles line!
The Green streetcars, example shown above, that operate on the Saint Charles line were spared elimination because preservationists were able to convince the city government to grant that streetcar line "historic landmark" status. Of the 73 cars of the 900-972 class, 35 were retained for that line and only those 35 cars are allowed to operate on the line. There have been the last conventional streetcars in service in the United States since the late 1950s. Several former New Orleans streetcars have also been saved and they are all over the the country:
Car 453, one of twenty-five semi-convertible cars built in 1906 by American Car Company, a Brill subsidiary and originally numbered 300-324,. later renumbered 450-474. This car is called the desire car but there is absolutely no evidence that it ran on the Desire line. It is ins storage at Carrollton Car house in New Orleans.The actual "Desire" car, the one features in the movie "Streetcar Named Desire" is car 922, which is still in service on the Saint Charles line.
Car 832 - One of the 100 cars of the 800-899 class built in 1922 similar to the 900 series except with manually operated doors. This car resides at the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum at Washington, PA.
Car 836 - Another survivor of the 800-899 series, now at the Connecticut Trolley Museum at Warehouse Point, CT.
Car 913 - For many years at the Orange Empire Railway Museum, now at San Francisco awaiting restoration.
Car 918 - North Carolina Transportation Museum, Spencer, North Carolina.
Car 919 and car 924 - Were converted to standard gauge to run on the Riverfront line, renumbered 450 and 451. Not feasible to re-convert to New Orleans gauge of 5' 2 1/4", it is now at Carrollton Barn in storage.
Car 952 - At San Francisco in operation on their F line.
Car 957 - Upgraded with new controls, now Riverfront car 457.
Car 959 - At Chattanooga Choo-Choo, Chattanooga, TN, operating as a shuttle car numbered 953.
Car 966 - Owned by Seashore Trolley Museum, Kennebunkport, ME but operated at the Lowell National Historical
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Transportation Funding – Meeting Today’s Challenges!
by A. J. Staley
Upon a special invitation, I attended a meeting on Thursday, September 29, 2016, chaired by California State Assembly member Chris Holden of the 44th District with several of his colleges’, Cheryl Brown 41st District, Richard Bloom 47th District, and Edwin “Ed” Chau of the 49th district.
The agenda was to better understand from the State level the needs to strengthen both the economic, social, and transportation needs of the Southern California and especially in the Los Angeles County and surrounding areas, for traffic, roads and mobility of the constituents in the area. It is understood by the State, County and City levels that the costs for increasing and maintaining the infrastructure will only increase in the years to come.
As a State, we can no longer ignore the transportation situation and must act now to correct the problems. It is recognized that people are frustrated with the congestion and time spent traveling on roads, the expense that is required by the individual to maintain automobiles because of the condition of the existing infrastructure and roads. It is also understood that construction costs are going up faster than inflation.
The meeting was broken up into two panels, those being infrastructure and Interconnectivity and an excellently delivered wrap up of Measure M for the half cent increase in the California Sales Tax by Phil Washington, CEO of The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation authority (LACMTA) or 'METRO' as locally known. proposed for the voters on November 8, 2016.
Phillip A. Washington, shown above during the meeting, stated “Los Angeles County is expected to have more than 2.3M more people within the next 40 years”. With this kind of growth planning must be done now rather than later down the road.
METRO currently has boardings of 1.4M per day on all delivery methods for movement of people, and now ranks 3rd in the nation behind New York and Chicago. They require a faster method of transportation. This has been the universal message for the past 12 months in over 1,000 meetings that he has attended in cities throughout the county.
In the last 12 months METRO, has been working towards that end. Both In rail lines and bus lines. The Gold line has been extended by 11.5 miles from Pasadena to Azusa, the Expo line has been extended from Culver City to Santa Monica. They are currently working on the extension from the Crenshaw Line to the Los Angeles Airport (LAX), and there are about 3 other rail projects being worked on that has not been publicly announced.
Breda-built cars on the Gold Line!
There have been bus lines that interconnect to the different rail lines that have been added. Pasadena to North Hollywood, Foothill line to Chantry Flats, a line to Santa Anita and the Botanical Gardens, and many others as the need has been identified.
Some of the Goals of METRO through Measure M are as follows:
1. Ease traffic congestion, improve freeway traffic flow, and reduce bottlenecks.
2. Expand rail and rapid transit system; accelerate rail construction and build new rail lines; enhance local regional, and express bus service; and improve system connectivity.
3. Repave local streets, repair potholes, and synchronize signals; improve neighborhood streets and intersections and enhance bike and pedestrian connections.
4. Make public transportation more accessible convenient, and affordable for seniors, students, and the disabled; and provide better mobility options for our aging population.
5. Earthquake-retrofit bridges, and keep the transit and highway system safe and in good working condition.
6. Embrace technology and innovation; incorporate modern technology, new advancements, and emerging innovations into the local transportation system.
7. Create jobs, reduce pollution, and generate local economic benefits; increase personal quality time and overall quality of life.
Measure M is expected to generate an estimated $860 million a year in 2017 dollars. Based on several Economic forecasts it would add 465,690 new jobs across the region. It would allow the continued growth of transit over the next 40 years.
Mr. Washington stated “if we build it we have to maintain it”. The following programs will receive the indicated funding over 40 years as follows:
1. Bus & Rail Operations (Metro and other City bus service such as Big Blue Bus, Long Beach Transit, Foothill Transit, etc. $29.9 Billion
2. Local Street Improvements (street/pothole repairs, signals etc.) $22.5 Billion
3. State of Good Repair (keeping the system in good working condition) $2.4 Billion
4. Programs for Students, Seniors and the Disabled (affordable fares) $2.4 Billion
5. Bike & Pedestrian connections to Transit (Including safe routes to schools) $2.4 Billion
6. Regional Rail (MetroLink) $2.9 Billion.
The Measure also includes an accountability provision for an independent oversight process including a Taxpayer Oversight Committee and annual audits.
Infrastructure:
There were four speakers: Habib F. Balian, Mark Christoffels, Wesley Reulimann and Art Leahy.
Habib F. Balian, CFO of the Construction Authority an independent firm who has built to METRO specification the Foothill Gold Line to Azusa and has delivered “on time and on budget” through the efforts of Measure R funding. They have also completed some of the preliminary work that has gone into the Phase 3 of the Gold Line from Azusa to Montclair and will be ready to start that phase if Measure M goes through. They are seeking $1.2 billion for construction funding from Measure M to continue the line to Claremont. if the Measure M is approved, work can begin immediately as soon as the funds begin to be received, which could be as early as July 2017.
This would bring the line to the farthest eastern section of Los Angeles County. To continue the line to San Bernardino County (SanBAG) must generate $63 million to expand the route from Claremont to Montclair.
The preliminary design for the 6 stations and the road work were turned over to the METRO Board in the first week in September, 2016. The Board has approved the plans and they are now in the hands officials of each city for their approval. If the measure M passes the Construction Authority is poised to start the 3rd phase as soon as funds are received which would be sometime after July 2017.
Mark Christoffels represented the Alameda Corridor-East Construction Authority for Transportation. His company considers economic, freight, safety and air quality matters in moving the freight through the area. Transportation represents more than 1 million jobs in the area including up to 15K longshore jobs and 193k jobs in the ports of Los Angeles and San Pedro as well as other jobs related to the transportation. Freight is moved by trucks on Highways/roads and by rail. Wesley Reulimann, Environmental Preservation Director spoke on the work they are doing in educating the public on using bikes to ride to rail stations as another mode of transportation. Non-profit organizations such as the SGV Bike Campus are teaching about the use of bikes, including repairs and riding. There is also an effort to help those who can’t afford them to be able to acquire them. Bike safety is being taught and efforts are being made to make roadways and bike ways safer.
Art Leahy, CEO of MetroLink has currently been with MetroLink for about 17 months, but during his tenure the company has turn some adverse situations around that the Board of Directors were very upset about. The 5 county Joint Power Authority member agency has 40 thousand passenger boarding’s per day, but those who do take the MetroLink usually have 15 times longer trip than those who ride the bus or Light Rail Systems. Fare are higher, but not as high as parking prices that their customers were paying for parking and maintenance on their vehicles. They cater to the more affluent passenger, those that have higher paying positions. MetroLink has recently invested in some of the cleanest running locomotives available, at a lower investment, but they have more power than the older locomotives. One of the biggest issues that MetroLink and Amtrak have is the number of people who try to commit or do commit suicide per week. This is an issue they are working on. Financially they are improving the timely accounting and payment of bills and are working on improving maintenance issues of their assets.
Interconnectivity:
Hasan Ikhrata, Executive Director of the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) addressed the meeting. SCAG was formed in 1965 as a Joint Powers Authority under California Law and works with local governments and agencies to address regional issues on transportation. The issue for finding the right solution to help fund the projects is for a large region and involves 191 cities, includes 2 ports that handle and receive 42% of all goods and covers 6 counties in Southern California. Funding over the next 25 years just to maintain the infrastructure that exists today will cost $556.5 billion just to keep it up to par. The question needs to be asked if the .17 cent gasoline tax will be enough. What will be fair for all including those who have hybrid or electric cars that will be using the road just as much and not paying for gasoline. Is the Diesel fuel tax enough for trucks? Would .30 cents be more appropriate, or a road usage tax?
Stephen Finnegan from American Auto Club (AAA), agreed with Mr. Ikhrta. It’s all about finding the right solution and doing it right. AAA wants to be involved with the if, how and how long. What is appropriate as a replacement of gas taxes? Or is there one? How will it be monitored?
Malcolm Dougherty, Director of California Department of Transportation (CALTRANS) takes care of projects for City, County, and State. It includes Highways, rail and Bus and other transportation. 41% of 1 Billion miles a day are covered with a cost of $15 billion by truck including the port of Los Angeles and Long Beach, and $762 Billion per year to maintain for cars.
Ron Miller, Council Executive Secretary for Building and Construction Trades, indicated that their organization is working with Trade Schools and individuals to prepare them for the workforce in the trades that will be needed in the future for construction, equipment repairs and areas that will help in the future. They are working with High School Juniors and Seniors and community outreach programs to help prepare individuals for the fields of opportunity for the future.
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El Paso PCC Paint Schemes!
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Our October issue had been on-line for less than twelve hours when we got note from one of our readers. He noted that there had been four basic paint schemes used on the El Paso PCC cars from the 1950s to the 1970s and provided us a photo of the fourth. The photo of car 1508 was taken in 1973 on the International Bridge between El Paso and Ciudad Juarez.
When these ex-San Diego cars started running in El Paso in May 1950, they sported the National City Lines "fruit salad" paint scheme similar to cars in Los Angeles. Car 1505 is shown below in 1952. Note that the El Paso City Lines logo is the typical NCL style herald.
The next scheme is shown on car 1502 at Chamizal and Santa Fe in 1965:
However by 1968, there was a new paint scheme again as shown on these three cars at the Cotton street yard in that year. Car 1518 in the center is one of three cars purchased in 1952. They supplanted the original seventeen cars purchased in 1950.
We have also been provided some photos of some of the special paint schemes and advertising used on some of the cars during the 1950-1973 era.
Car 1506 below, which is one of the cars currently in preservation, had at least two different advertisements:
Car 1510 next, was the Rainbo Bread poster for a while. This photo was taken in 1962 at the Cotton Street yard:
Car 1511, which is also in line for preservation right now, had many different faces over the years. Here are some of them:
1952 at Av Septiembre & Av Juarez in Juarez, Mexico!
 September 9. 1958 on Santa Fe Street Northbound in El Paso!
June 9, 1960 on San Antonio Street in El Paso!
1961- At U.S. Border Northbound in El Paso!
1962
in Juarez, Mexico!
May 6, 1965 at Chamizal Court in El Paso!
Trolleyville has learned from the Camino Real Regional Mobility Authority that the six cars currently at Brookville include 1504, 1506, 1511, 1512, 1514 and 1515! Thanks to John Bromley for all these fine photographs!
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Urban Commuter / Light Rail / Modern Streetcar News!
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On Monday, October 3rd, the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) commuter rail system resumed somewhat normal operations after a few months of disruptions due to the problems with their new Silverliner V fleet.
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In July SEPTA sidelined all 120 of the vehicles after cracks were discovered in the vehicle's equalizer beams. These cars constituted one-third of the commuter rail fleet. They had maintained a portion of service by leasing vehicles from New Jersey Transit, Amtrak and Maryland Transit, but by October 3rd, 50 of the Silverliner Vs had been returned to service. they should all be back in service by November.
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Almost all of the 120 cars were found to have these cracks. These cracks developed over time due to a poorly designed weld that attached a plate to the main body of the equalizer beam. They would have posed a significant safety hazard had they not been discovered by an alert SEPTA inspector. See illustration at right. A fatigue test would have revealed the defect before they were installed on the cars but that test was never performed.
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SEPTA also expanded the "Quick Trip" program, reported in last month's issue, to all stations along the Broad Street Subway and Market-Frankford Subway Elevated. This program allows the use of credit or debit cards to purchase single-trip tickets by swiping at SEPTA's new "Key" turnstiles.
On the West Coast, Progressive Railroading reported on October 5th that the TSA is using some of the former San Diego Trolley U2 vehicles for security training. Two such vehicles, the former 1021 and 1022, were separated into their two sections and sent to Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas.
1022 before separation on October 3, 2016!
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1022B after separation on October 3, 2016!
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The vehicles will be used to train bomb-sniffing dogs. The dogs will be trained to detect explosive devices at transit facilities and on board all types of vehicles. These two U2s had operated in San Diego since 1981 and were retired in 2015, being replaced by the Siemens S70s.
Los Angeles' Expo Line, which opened to Santa Monica officially on May 21 with trains every 12 minutes, increased the frequency of service to six minutes on Monday, October 24. This is a view of the ridership for the last two years:
LACMTA EXPO LINE |
July 2014* |
July 2015* |
July 2016 |
| Average Weekday Boardings |
31,720 |
30,685 |
43,199
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Average Saturday Boardings
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22,828 |
22,321 |
34,440 |
| Average Sunday and Holiday Boardings |
14,996 |
16,729 |
31,617
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| Total Monthly Boardings |
863,910 |
856,363 |
1,225,882 |
*Line operated only as far as Culver City, 6 miles from Santa Monica.
Progressive Railroading reported that Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) opened their 3-mile Blue Line light-rail extension to the University of North Texas (UNT) at Dallas on October 24th.
 DART staffers greet riders at the new UNT Dallas Station!
(DART photo)
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The extension runs south of the Ledbetter Station in the Oak Cliff neighborhood of Dallas as shown in the map above left, and includes two new stations. DART crews broke ground on the $104 million project in October 2014. The new route connects UNT Dallas, Paul Quinn College and Cedar Valley College with downtown Dallas, DART officials said in a press release. "This extension goes to a part of our community that is in need of more transportation choices. Now a young person starting out in life can pursue a complete, high-quality college education without the burden of car ownership," said DART President and Executive Director Gary Thomas. DART's Blue Line opened in 1996. Today, the agency operates the nation's longest electric light-rail system at 93 miles. DART light rail stations have attracted more than $7 billion worth of new or planned development within a quarter mile radius of those stations, the agency announced on October 25th. They cited a report prepared by UNT researchers who also stated that the same activity generated 43,000 jobs and nearly $3 billion in wages, salaries and benefits in 2014 and 2015.
Kansas City opened its KC Streetcar line on May 6, 2016, The operators projected their 1,000,000th rider would occur on Friday October 7. At 1:35PM that very day, that passenger boarded streetcar #803. This would mean that the line averaged almost 6,500 riders daily in the first 154 days of operation. The KC Streetcar was projected to have 2,700 riders per day.
KC Streetcar on July 27, 2016 in a scene a little bit similar to upper Market Street on San Francisco!
Streetcar ridership, otherwise known as Unlinked Passenger Trips, is calculated by Automatic Passenger Counters (APC) located over each door of each streetcar. Riders are counted both as they enter and exit the cars. The data shows what stops have the most activity. Such data is downloaded dailty and analyzed by a third party for accuracy. Similar counters are on cars in other cities. Members of the KC Streetcar staff also do random manual checks of passenger entances and exits on the cars. So far manual counts and APC counts are within 1.4% of each other.
On October 24th, the Miami-Dade Department of Transportation and Public Works announced that the first two rail cars in their Metrorail's new fleet had been assembled and were ready for testing, The units were designed and manufactured by Hitachi Rail USA (formerly AnsaldoBreda), which opened a new plant in Medley, Fla., in March.
Over the next eight to nine months, the cars will undergo continuity testing to ensure the wiring is correct, compatibility testing to determine whether the cars can communicate properly and high voltage testing to ensure the wiring is shielded properly. The cars also will receive a weight distribution test, department officials said in a press release. All 136 cars in the new fleet are expected to be assembled, tested and placed into service by the end of 2019. In addition to exterior updates, the new trains will feature free Wi-Fi, interior bicycle racks, digital signs displaying the next station and high-efficiency air conditioning units. "Beyond providing clean, safe, and reliable service, we are harnessing the latest technologies to improve our services and make it easier and more enjoyable for our residents and visitors to use transit for their daily commutes," said Alice Bravo, director of the Miami-Dade Department of Transportation and Public Works.
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More Urban Rail Happenings!
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by Edward Havens
First Detroit Q-line Car at Brookville in Pennsylvania!
Detroit M-1 Rail, branded for marketing as Q Line, is expected to open its 3.3-mile modern streetcar line on Woodward Avenue running north from downtown in 2017. It will use Brookville Equipment Corp. dual-mode "Liberty" model cars with battery power and pantographs because much of the car line will be wire free. Its new operating hours have been announced, the Detroit Free Press reported on October 13, noting that there will be late night service on weekends. Streetcars are planned to be operating until 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday, until midnight Friday and Saturday, and until 8 p.m. on Sunday. Holiday hours have not been announced. Six Liberty streetcars are being purchased. They will provide 8 to 12 minute headways during weekday peak hours. Meanwhile, Crain's Detroit Business reported DTE Energy is building four electrical substations to power the streetcar line. In keeping with the practice started in Cincinnati and Kansas City, the first Brookville car will be numbered 287. Detroit's highest numbered streetcar at the time of abandonment in 1956 was 286, the last of 106 extra long (50' 6") PCC cars provided by Saint Louis Car Company in 1949.
The "mesa independent dot com" site reported that Valley Metro was scheduled to hold a groundbreaking for its second light rail extension in suburban Mesa east of Phoenix on Saturday, Oct. 15. When the Phoenix-based LRT opened its $1.4 billion starter line, the eastern terminal was only one mile inside Mesa, missing the central business district. That was corrected with a three-mile extension now in operation but the line will be extended 1.9 miles farther east to Gilbert Road. The extension should open either in late 2018 or early 2019.
Boston MTA Breda Light Rail Vehicle!
Boston-based Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority [MBTA] will hold an informational forum in November for prospective bidders on the west of Lechmere loop Green Line light rail network extension to Somerville and Medford, the "construction dive dot com" site reported Oct. 11. The project has been scaled down with various features deleted to bring the revised cost estimate to $2.3 billion. A design-build team is being sought.
Portland Siemens S70 Light Rail Vehicle!
The Oregonian newspaper reports that ridership on the $1.4 billion Portland TriMet light rail extension south from downtown to suburban Milwaukie is lower than planners had promised to the Federal Transit Administration [FTA]. The federal agency was told average weekday ridership would be 17,000 but the actual figure is 11,000. The newspaper reported Oct. 13 that the economic recession of 2009 put a damper on housing construction and other economic development on the line which crosses a bridge over the Willamette River that is dedicated only to light rail, streetcars, bicyclists and pedestrians. No motor vehicles are allowed. One reason for lower than predicted LRT ridership is the decrease in gasoline prices, making it more attractive for people to commute by automobile.
A new study by Norfolk-based Hampton Roads Transit [HRT] says it will cost $243.1 million to extend the "Tide" light rail line across city line into the seaside resort city of Virginia Beach, The Virginian-Pilot newspaper reported Oct. 3. Voters there will decide a non-binding referendum in the November election on whether to extend LRT by three miles from city line eastward to Town Center shopping plaza. The state will contribute $155 million toward the project. A prior estimate set the cost of the extension at $310 million.
San Diego MTS 3006, one of eleven full size Siemens S70 vehicles currently on the roster!
San Diego's 11-mile Mid-Coast light rail branch from Old Town north to La Jolla and the University of California-San Diego campus will be built by a consortium led by Stacy and Witbeck contractors. And the "construction dive" website reported Oct. 2 that Skanska USA will be part of the group that will build the $921.8 million extension for Metropolitan Transit System [MTS], which is branded for marketing at "San Diego Trolley." In September, the Federal Transit Administration [FTA] agree to provide $1.04 billion over 10 years for the project.
In North Carolina, the Durham County Commission has approved extending the proposed 17-mile Chapel Hill to Durham light rail line to North Carolina Central University, WNCN television reported Oct. 5. Concept shown above. Parking is an issue for off-campus students so the newly-approved university stop could help when the line opens, tentatively in 2028.
On the other side of the globe, one of the world's small tramways is located at Avdiivka in Donetsk Province of Ukraine and serves a coke plant which is the city's major industry. The "railway gazette international" site reported on October 6th, that tram operation has been resumed over the northern part of the 7.45-mile route after being suspended for two years because of warfare in the country. The tram fare is only three cents, one of the cheapest worldwide.
The "biz wire" site reported on October 7th that Watsonvillle, California-based Granite Construction Company has won a $39 million contract to build the Northgate Station on the next phase of the SEATTLE Sound Transit light rail line, which now extends from the city of SeaTac to downtown Seattle and the University of Washington campus. This will include a half-mile of elevated structure with work to be completed by December 2018. The route is shown to the right.
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The last steel wheeled streetcars at Montreal, Quebec's largest city, ran on August 30, 1959. Surface rail transit was replaced by a Paris, France-style rubber tired Metro which the Montreal Gazette reported on October 8th is marking its 50th anniversary this year.
By the end of service the city had a small fleet of PCCs built in 1942. Body shells were built by Saint Louis Car Company and completed by Canadian Car & Foundry. Electrical equipment was supplied by Canadian Westinghouse. These eighteen PCC cars were unusual in that they did not have headlights, relying on illumination from dash lights which ran the entire width of the front dasher. One of those cars is shown below:
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MODELING HINTS........ |
Upgrading Using the 1999 Bowser Traction Drive!
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by George Huckaby
Sometime in the mid-1990s, Bowser CEO Lee. K. English recognized that the four HO scale trolley cars his company was producing had limited future unless the drive was improved and the cars were available ready-to-run. He and his father, Lew, had made some changes to the original drives and the car body shells themselves, which were acquired from Felix Bass' Pennsylvania Scale Models in the late 1960s. In 1999, Bowser Manufacturing Company upgraded the drive used the four metal bodied trolley cars, the Brill Suburban, the Streamlined PCC, the IRR Lightweight Interurban and the Liberty Bell Interurban (LVT 800 series Jewett). The oval magnets used for the old truck mounted motor design had become unavailable available. After trying to fit a commercially available motor vertically into the old design, Bowser CEO, Lee English finally decided to go with a "ground up" new design.
Figure 1 - Bowser pre-1999 PCC powered Chassis!
(Note holes in shadow under floor where floor mounted to body shell.)
At that time, "traction (the name generically applied to the modeling of light electric railways) modeling" was not a ready-to-run hobby. Models were either Bowser, the Mantua four wheel, eight window car or brass models imported from Japan or Korea. A revolution had started in San Diego in 1981 with the first all-new "light rail" line but had not reached the model railroad manufacturers. Bowser brought the new drive to the NMRA Train Show in Saint Paul during the summer of 1999 and the movement was on. Custom Traxx took the new drive, tested it and found only one discrepancy.....no flywheel. But Joe Delia of A-Line/Proto Power West designed a flywheel retrofit kit which was available within weeks and the "race" was on.
Bowser immediately developed a series of conversion mechanisms with floors for its older shells and the Bowser Brill and PCC, part numbers 125141 through 125146. Mechanism without floors with 26", 28", 30", 33" and 34" wheels were also available. For the Bowser PCC car, the 125141 mechanisms came with the 1283 floor. There was a similar floor for the 125142 mechanism for the Bachmann PCC car.
Both Custom Traxx, the Southern California Traction club and others started using these new drives in all sorts of streetcars interurbans and subway-elevated cars. Bowser, Custom Traxx and Miniatures by Eric even developed floors designed for these Bowser mechanisms for HO scale models of the ill-fated AHM/Mehano/IHC Boeing Light Rail Vehicles, Boston ex-Dallas PCC Cars, Boston Air-Electric PCC cars, Illinois Terminal Double end PCC cars, Shaker Heights Pullman PCC cars series 71-75, San Francisco Class K/L "Iron Monster" streetcars, San Francisco ex-Milan Peter Witt streetcars and the Canadian Light Rail Vehicles (CLRV) now in the process of replacement in that city with Bombardier "Flexity" five-unit vehicles.
There were going to be problems with mounting the new mechanisms to the older shells. However, the major issue that existed with the older PCC shells was that the older floor mounted in the front and center of the shell and the height of the older motor forced the cars to sit too high on the trucks. The new drive solved that problem. Now the old center mount would no longer be used as the new drive mounted at the front and rear of the shell. But the old center mount would have be to removed so that it did not interfere with the new horizontally mounted motor. Additionally a new mount would have to be made for the rear.
To solve this problem, Bowser had cast pewter mount adapters made for both the Bowser and Bachmann PCC shells that were to be cemented to the underside of the roof. These adapters (#1307 for Old Bowser PCC rear; #1318 for Bachmann PCC Front and #1319 got Bachmann PCC Rear) once installed, simplified the task of mounting the replacement #125141 and #125142 mechanisms into the older shells.
The older Bowser drive had been a "staple" in the HO scale traction modeling for decades and there were other cast shells designed by Q-Car, E&H Traction and others designed to use the old pre-1999 Bowser traction drive. There had been PCC shells made by Q-Car Company for the Brooklyn 1936 PCC cars, series 1001-1099 and the Saint Louis 1940 all-electric PCC cars, series 1500-1599. Both of these cars had the standard PCC truck kingpin to kingpin 22' 9" wheelbase and could be converted to use the new Bowser drive.
A member of the Southern California Traction Club (SCTC) wanted to model the LAMTA Crying trolley, #3002, as seen on the last day of service in Los Angeles in March 1963. He did not like the improper rendition of the 1936 All-Electric PCC car released by Con-Cor. So I located an older Q-car shell for that PCC car and began to prepare it in this manner for the Bowser 1999 Traction Mechanism.
[This would be "old-time" fun. I must have done over a hundred of these conversions for both other modelers and myself in the eleven years from 1999 to 2010, that is, until the Bowser Ready-to-Run PCC cars appeared. The off-shore supplier Bowser employed for those cars made improvements of their own to the drives including dynamically balanced motor-flywheel combinations and cushioning of the motor mounts. Of course there was the introduction of the TCS "Keep Alive" DCC decoder and the clones produced by the other manufacturers. But this project sure did remind me of the "good ole days"! ]
The zamac Bowser floor used in the upgraded PCC mechanism was part #1283. Although the 1283 part is no longer available from Bowser, I was fortunate to still have a few of them. Another option would have been to use the the pewter #125167 floor from Custom Traxx designed for the Boston Air-Electric PCC. Both floors are shown in Figure 2 next:
Figure 2 - Bowser 1283 PCC Floor (top) and Custom Traxx 125167 Boston PCC Floor!
Regardless of what floor we used, a rear mount has to be attached to the rear of the Q-car shell. To do that, we had to make sure that the mounting holes on the shell would be in the correct locations. The front was already present in a fixed location in the shell so the creation and location of a rear mount would be the major issue. Measuring the 1283 floor revealed that the two mounting holes were 133mm apart, so I had made a jig for this purpose some time ago. The jig, shown in figure 6 below,was made from some styrene, Evergreen 362 (.060" by .438"), with the two holes drilled 133mm part with a #33 drill. This hole size would allow the 4-40 screws that came with the mechanisms to be used to attach the floor to the shell.
Figure 3 - Bowser 1283 Floor
 Figure 4 - Rear Chassis Mount on 1283 Floor
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 Figure 5 - Front Chassis Mount on 1283 Floor
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Figure 6 - Jig for measuring 133 mm mount separation.
The next step would be to fasten the jig to the 1307 mount using a small 4-40 screw, applied a generous amount of ACC adhesive to the bottom of the mount, attach the other end of the jig to the shell front mount using a similar short 440 screw and press the mount into place as shown in Figure 7 below. I did make use of an ACC accelerator to ensure a tight bond.
Figure 7 - 1307 mount with jig fastened to front mount!
When the adhesive cured , I removed the screw from the rear mount and then both the jig and screw from the front mount with the results shown in Figure 8 below:
Figure 8 - Bowser 1307 mount installed!
Next step was to remove the center mount with a Dremel cutting disk:
Figure 9 - Los Angeles #3002 ready for mounting to the powered floor and preparation for painting!
For mounting this shell to the 1283 floor, we go back to history again. The major complaint with the Bowser PCC cars prior to 1999 and the Bachmann PCC to date was that the shells sat to high on the frame and the car looked like you needed a ladder for model passengers to get into the car. Both of these problems were due to the size of the motor used at that time. Bowser initially hogged out the interior roof of the shell above the motor to allow the shell to be lowered somewhat but not down to the point where the first step was one scale foot over the rail head. In the process, Bowser used a screw/spacer/washer combination for mounting the chassis to the shell as shown in the Figure 10 below. The spacer could be trimmed for the modeler if desired and with the 1999 mechanism, the body could be placed at the prototypical height. The fiber washer was eventually replaced with a screw/spacer/nut combination as shown in Figure 11 below.
 Figure 10 - Rear PCC shell mount with fiber washer
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Figure 11 - Front PCC shell mount with 4-40 nut!
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Bowser listed the spacer as part #1328 and the fiber washer as part #1260. Later, the fiber washer was replaced by a 4-40 nut, which was much easier for the modeler to handle. Both the fibre washer and the nut had one purpose and one purpose only, that is to hold the spacer/screw combination together when the car was turned upside down to fasten the chassis to the shell. The 1328 was designed for the Bowser PCC shell so we might have to make some adjustments for the Q-car shell. We found that by just using the #1260 fiber washer instead of the 4-40 nut, we achieved the correct height for our former Q-car shell. Besides, I had lots of experience with these washers in the past. After adding a brass trolley pole hook and an older Car Works PCC trolley pole and some resilient wheel decals from the Custom Traxx CT-995 decal set, the car was photographed on my own home module built in 1975 while I was still in the United States Air Force.
LAMTA 3002 on my own home module built in 1975!
The 3002 shell is shown at the correct height as compared to the Bowser PCC behind it, which is at the correct height. The front pole on the 1056 is the black pole that appears to be on the 3002 in the previous photo.
LAMTA 3002 with SFMRy 1056 on the same module!
Next we will add a Bowser fender trip bar and prepare the shell for painting.
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Product Review & Evaluation!
- PECO Catenary -
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When we received our copy of the November 2016 issue of Model Railroader, we were pleasantly surprised to find the following advertisement on page 13:
So we contacted Peco and we got an immediate reply from Steve Haynes, who offered Trolleyville some product for evaluation. The product is packaged as the PECO Lineside OO Catenary System, intended for 4mm scale. He provided a starter package containing 12 L-110 catenary pole assemblies containing masts, registration arms, an installation jig and a fully illustrated "Shows You How" manual. PECO also provided packages of 5 pre-assembled catenary messenger-contact wire-vertical support assemblies in 200mm (LC-150), 260mm {LC-151), 340mm (LC-152), 380mm (LC-153), and 500m (LC-154). The next photo shows the LC-150 assembly.
Then there are the masts and the "Show You How" Guide:
The "Shows You How" manual, shown above right, is very nicely done. It begins with a detailed history of the 25kV AC electrification in Britain and then takes you step by step describing the LC-110 Single Mast and Registration Arm, the LC-115 Catenary Mast Installation jig and the LC-150, 151, 152, 153 and 154 catenary assemblies.Some of you will be concerned with the OO gauge, which is 4mm to the foot versus the normal U.S. 3.5 mm to the foot so expectations of 12% smaller sizes may be expected. So we are providing the mast measurements here:
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| PECO LC-115 Mast Measurements |
MM |
Inches |
HO scale |
| Mast Height From Bottom of Concrete Base. |
93 |
3 21/32 |
26 scale feet |
| Contact wire height from Bottom of Concrete Base |
70 |
2 3/4 |
19.5 scale feet |
| Arm Reach From Mast |
74 |
2 15/16 |
21 scale feet |
| Length of mounting screw |
30 |
1 9/64" |
N/A |
The 19.5 ft contact wire height might give the mainline electrification modelers heartburn but it is right in the "sweet spot" for most light rail installations. The whole purpose of this article is to see if this product can be adapted to US Light Rail modeling since we can not seem to interest any of the domestic manufacturers in this area.
So up to this point, there do not appear to be any insurmountable issues. The next three illustrations are from the "Shows You How" pamphlet:
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In short, this PECO system looks like a really fine upgrade to the systems we have seen from Sommerfeldt in the past. Many clubs operate vehicles ewuipped with trolley poles. Although not specifically designed for trolley pole use, we estimate that it can be done with strategically placed washers of a size yet to be deternined at the contact wire joints at the masts. The Southern California Traction Club will be attempting this during our evaluation of this product so we will tell you about this is later issues..
- N scale overhead wire items -
Custom Traxx rccently added N scale trolley poles in three different styles to their catalog. In discussions with Eric Courtney (Miniatures by Eric), we found that he has made other items for N scale traction lovers. We have asked him for some samples and are scheduled to install them on the N scale module of the Southern California Traction Club.
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EDITORIAL..... |
The Next Generation of Modelers!
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Trolleyville Editorial
Very shortly someone will have to prove to the Trolleyville staff that the current group of United States model railroad manufacturers do not have the heads up their "you know whats" when it comes to urban rail models. It seems that they should be thinking something like ...Making Model Railroading Great Again..
A few years ago, we were talking about hobby shops having their heads in a similar place. They were complaining about the Internet and the Great American Train Show (GATS). Some of them screamed that both were terrible for the hobby. One NMRA chapter told model railroad clubs that if they participated in the GATS, they would not be welcome at their events. We took the position that these shops should find out how these two items could help them instead of "crying with a mouthful of bread". Guess what, the internet and the Great Train Show are still here and doing well and many formerly well known dealers like Allied Model Trains (Los Angeles), Caboose Hobbies (Denver) and Franciscan Hobbies (San Francisco) are now gone.
Here we are in the middle of the light rail / modern streetcar revolution, a revolution that started in 1981 (thirty-five years ago). Some cities are developing or installing their third generation of vehicles (Boston, San Diego, San Francisco, etc) and other cities have returned streetcars to the same streets they hurriedly removed them in the 1950s (e.g. Dallas, Cincinnati, Kansas City, etc.)
We mentioned earlier in this issue that one million boardings have occurred on the Kansas City streetcar in 154 days. With similar numbers of new riders in other cities like Seattle, Tacoma and Washington D.C. including the thousands of people riding the Los Angeles Expo Line on Sundays and Holidays to Santa Monica and the beach. From these people will come the next generation of model railroaders.
Model railroading started with people who used to love to ride trains. Now we have people who love to ride the new modern, quiet air-conditioned, sometimes WiFi equipped urban rail transit so why hasn't the current crop of manufacturers at least tried to seduce these people?
Why aren't there commercially available models of any of these cars? Is every manufacturer dead above the neck out there? Urban rail is THE growing area of railroading in the U.S. today. Meanwhile Peco is introducing a new HO scale catenary erection kit and Atlas is bringing out a 1/87 scale model of a NJ Transit commuter train with a dual-mode (diesel-electric/electric) locomotive and Kato is releasing a Metra Christmas commuter train in N scale but there is still not one modern streetcar model available or even projected although prototypes built by Brookville, C.A.F, Inekon, Siemens, Skoda and United Streetcar are on the streets today. There are also no Light Rail Vehicle models although there are thousands operating in the United States built by Breda, Kawasaki, KinkiSharyo, NipponSharyo, and Siemens carrying millions to work and play every day.
Many of you have either seen or heard about the HO scale models of the Siemens S70 Ultrashort that have been fabricated through the efforts of Custom Traxx (Los Angeles) and Volkmar Meier (Paris, France). These 3D printed models were made from a 3D program used by Volkmar and Shapeways who printed them. The printed bodies are in the $300.00 area before the pantograph, power, painting and decals were added. If these models were made available commercially, they would cost over $600.00. Injection molding is the only way that these models will be available at a reasonable price. But there will be some tooling costs in the $50,000-$80,000 range. Manufacturers need to feel that there is a market that will support that type of outlay.
When I started in HO scale in 1953, most model trains were S scale (American Flyer) or O scale (Lionel). HO scale was just started and they had problems getting motors small enough. The motor for the American Flyer PRR B-6sb model actually hung outside of the cab. N scale seems to be in the same position now relative to HO. Some of the technological improvements brought on by cell phones are now making things possible that we would not have believed just a few years ago. Whether some of us are ready or not, N scale seems to be a large part of the model railroading future. Recently one of my suppliers told me that he was selling more N scale trolley poles than HO scale trolley poles. I take this to mean that there may be a lot more modelers operating N scale models on live overhead wire than originally estimated. We would like to see some of their work and hear more from them. We do know that one major model railroad manufacturer is considering producing an N scale U.S.-prototype light rail vehicle.
Those of you who are writing, emailing and calling Custom Traxx and Trolleyville about new urban rail models would be better served by directly writing, calling and emailing manufacturers like Athearn, Atlas, Bowser and Walthers. It is the only way to prove that this potential market exists.
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