Electric Railway Association PO Box 89068 San Diego, CA 92138 (619) 474-4400

October 2007

Check us out at our web site: TROLLEY LINES www.sdera.org Inside this issue: Excursion 2007 San Diego Trolley Ex- 1, 9 SDERA’s San Diego Trolley Excursion and Shop Tour was held Saturday, August cursion 2007 11. Participants gathered at the MTS Yard in downtown for a unique event—running the PCC Car Project 2 oldest of San Diego Trolley’s cars along the newest of the Update lines. An added bonus was a visit to the San Diego Vin- History Of The Vienna 3, 8 tage Trolley (SDVT) shop and an opportunity to step into N1 Class Cars - Part 2 history being (re)made. Visitors saw the three PCC cars San Diego Trolley Shop 4 that are being readied for service on the downtown loop - Tour to be designated the Green Dot Special in 4 Silver Line - in time the Bookstore for the APTA SDERA Election An- 5 (America Public Tran- nouncement sit Association) Con- vention next August. Sprinter Excursion 6 This also gave MTS Retired SDERy Car Operator Ed Passenger Trains That 7 Chairman Harry Herold is back at the controls of Work Mathis an opportunity SDVT’s PCC car #530 to speak to the group C. Higgins photos Speeder Progress 8 and make a pitch for volunteers and donations. Annual Dinner 9 After the Shop Tour (see article on Page 4), the Upcoming Events Back Harry Mathis gives an update on the group boarded a consist of three Siemens U2 cars. progress of the Vintage Trolley project Psst! Wanna Know a Secret? Originally brought into service in 1981 on the San Diego to San Ysidro route, these cars This newsletter is available in sported a fresh coat of paint and a “I color on our website! See Think I Can” attitude. After a brief de- www.sdera.org and look on our lay through downtown, the cars headed Newsletters page. Those red trolleys are really something! for Qualcomm Stadium where a run-by had been planned. What we didn’t ex- SDERA operates the historic pect was a triple-meet; a set of SD100s, National City Depot museum our U2 set, and the newest of the fleet, which is open every Saturday an S70 in a mixed consist passing at the and Sunday from 9 a.m. to Qualcomm parking track on the east 5 p.m. Phone 619-474-4400. side of the station. From there, we re-boarded and headed San Diego Electric Railway for the main reason why U2 cars aren’t Association Three generations of San Diego Trolley meet at the Qual- (Continued on page 11) • David Slater, President comm parking track. • Jim Papulas, Vice President • Chris Higgins, Secretary, Web- “The Number Has Been Changed…” master / Newsletter Editor San Diego Electric Railway Association has consolidated it’s phone • Tom Matson, Treasurer • Directors: Jim Price, Tom lines. We have discontinued the 619-699-8690 number that has been Carnes, Gary Sweetwood, used for voice mail. Effective immediately, please use the National City Mitch Beauchamp, Jeff Trimble Depot number—619-474-4400 for all calls for SDERA. • George Geyer, Bookstore Page 2 SDERA TROLLEY LINES

PCC Car Project Update - Dave Slater, Project Manager

Now on the web at www.sdera.org/sdvt

As usual, we begin at 10:00 am Tuesday and Thurs- car equipment prior to "powering up" for the first time, day mornings and work until 2:00 pm or later for those in a test mode. who are so enthused that they want to "Get 'er done!" Most of the re-glazed windows have been delivered, We have been making a lot of forward motion! As pre- and are in the process of being reinstalled. All the door viously reported, we painted two cars for our August 11 glasses, save two which fractured in the installation event, which went very well. It was well attended and process have, been replaced. we got two new members as well as some donations, Our friend and project member from Brooklyn, NY, which was a part of the plan in doing this event. Jan Lorenzen, donated builder's plates and we had more Since our event, we have returned to more mundane, cast from that one, courtesy of Gene Calman. Jan also but most important tasks, such as the completion of the donated two sets of wings for around the headlights! low voltage circuits in all three cars. We are also work- Gene had another made at the foundry, using one of ing on some of the high voltage systems. One of the pri- these as a pattern. He cleaned off all the slag at his home mary things that we discovered was that many of the shop. Gene has now taken the three to the plating com- fuses that had been installed were WAY to high a value. pany, where they will be triple chrome plated, as the IE: 60 volt, 600 amp, where the specs call for 10 amp, originals were! We will need the array of builder's 600 volt. All of these are now of the correct value. On plates not only for these cars, but for others that will be car #530, we discovered that two of the porcelain fuse acquired later. holders were missing. I bought two new ones from our Richard Vible of Philadelphia, PA has kindly do- friends at San Diego Electric Co., and they have been nated all THREE trolley pole retrievers that we need! installed by Art Aydelotte and Dennis Frazier. Many Many thanks, Richard! thanks! In our off days, I am always shopping for more Lee Summerlott has agreed to have all the scrap fuses, resistors, and other similar items that the project glass placed on a pallet in our bay so that Mark Delia of calls for. We still need resistor holding clips for the front Citywide Auto Glass can replace all of the standee win- resistor in the electrical cabinet. dows with the exception the green ones. We are using a Yesterday, I was looking for a couple different types #2 Gray like the U2 cars have as standee windows. This of replaceable element resistors. I got two and I am on a is a great savings of money for us. Lee has also agreed "quest" for the others. to provide three Shunk pantographs and installation for Dennis has been polishing and testing all the fuses these on the front of our cars. We are keeping the rear and resistors in #531 in preparation to chasing out the trolley poles, and they will be fully operational, as it is circuits in the system as we are also doing in the #530. not a good idea to attempt backing up with the panto- We need to get all the low voltage items operational, and graph on the front. This is a great thing because it main- we will. Ron Sutch has been painting the dash boards of tains the original style of these cars with the "Witch's all of our fleet. No small task. He is now working on Broomstick" All connectivity glitches are highly likely painting the "hood " doors of the Motor Generator sets to cause showers of sparks - including when going be- on each car. (This is where the mechanics mark with tween "joints" in the catenary. This is especially notice- chalk the date and what they did to the MG sets.) All of able at night.) the commutators are now bright and shiny, as well as the I really pleased at how many people from all over controller commutators. We took down all the inspec- the US and Canada have joined hands with us here in tion pans, so that we have perfect access to all the under San Diego to Restore The Magic! Many thanks to all!

Upcoming Work Party Dates: Work Sessions are now being held Tuesday and Thursday from 10am to 2pm. Saturday Work Parties will be on Oct 20, Nov 3 & 17, and Dec 1,15 & 29. Due to security requirements, please contact Dave Slater / 619-222-5442 for authorization to be on the Trolley grounds. OCTOBER 2007 Page 3

History Of The Vienna N1 Class Cars—Part 2 - Chuck Bencik

Editors Note: This is a continuation of Chuck’s article from the July newsletter. Part 1 can also be found on our web- site at www.sdera.org. Equipment on most of the N1s was standardized in 1966. Cars 2879 and 2880 re- ceived permanent roof resistors, for low speed operation and snow plowing – the roof being the only place where they could be installed. A third N1, No. 2878, was modified for operation with two herbicide tank cars with a chemical agitator. Car 2880 received the ELIN 10-pole receptacle with a pre-resistor. This receptacle allowed electrical control of the special track maintenance cars. The City Railway modernized its usable hopper cars with the ELIN receptacle. In 1977, car No. 2880 was desig- nated an “NH” or service car, and became the first of sixteen N1 cars reassigned the NH number. On October 30, 1981, San Diego's three N1 cars were redesig- nated NH 6888, NH 6890, and NH 6891. One of them, NH 6891, has the ELIN receptacle, a feature not found on all the NH service cars. Some cars, like NH 6888, were painted yel- The ELIN Connector low, the remainder stayed red. The red cars with a fast-acting brake valve, for service with trailer cars, rendered those cars not suitable for pas- senger service. These special brake-quipped cars received a yellow stripe painted under their number – San Diego's NH 6888 and NH 6890 being among them. SDERA's three NH cars were retired Sep- tember 13, 1981. The remainder of Vienna's N1 passenger cars were retired by July 1, 1983. In 1992, Senator Jim Mills, who was then chairman of MTDB, had the idea for some pleasant, interesting European cars to run in downtown San Diego. He contacted Ge- hrhardt Schroeder, one of the officials of Siemens. After checking around, Schroeder found three cars at the Mariazell Museum in Austria. They were willing to give San Diego's MTDB three N1 cars, provided that (1) they would be operated, and (2) Mari- azell Museum would be credited as the do- nating institution. Brad Saunders of Starboard Properties took care of the costs of shipping, and in Fall of 1992, the cars were transported on rail cars to Bremerhaven, loaded aboard the ship Canada Express, and delivered to San Diego. The intent had been to have two cars run in tandem in the downtown trian- gle, with Austrian markings and advertisements. The third car was be used for spare parts. However, when the cars were landed, and placed on the tracks, they derailed on their way to the depot. All ideas for solving this problem of “railability” were exhausted: the modifications needed were far more extensive and costly than originally planned, and, besides, there was the matter of boarding features for the handicapped. As the discretionary funds assigned evaporated – MTDB needed all it could for the expansion of the San Diego Trolley system – the euphoria also evaporated. The

(Continued on page 10) Page 4 SDERA TROLLEY LINES

San Diego Trolley Shop Tour - Robert W. “Skip” Carlisle On Saturday, August 11, I went on a tour of the San Diego Trolley Shops as part of the SDERA Excursion. It started with two excellent introductions, then we started the tour of the Trolley Repair Shops. On one of the stops was a machine that trims the trolley wheels. From a safe distance, we observed the intricate machine as our guide explained that the wheel is of a softer metal than the rail it rides on. Because at times, someone steps in front of a Trolley and the operator has to go to an Emergency Brake to stop. Then it goes to full braking and the wheel stops turning and starts sliding. This can flatten this wheel. If the wheel were of a harder steel than the track, the rail would be damaged and it is much more difficult to replace The Hegenscheidt Wheel Turning Machine in the A Building. Photos by Chris Higgins the rail. San Diego Trolley Operators are always on the lookout for anyone who might come too close and they sound the horn as needed to alert pedestrians that the Trolley is coming. San Diego Trolley has very few flat wheels and has the best record in the country thanks to their training pro- gram and Trolley Operators who take pride in smooth Trolley operations. The concern for our safety by our Guide, John Tarantino, was appreciated. At the end of the tour, we were given informational Car 1027 sits over the pit in the handouts about the San Diego Trolley. Langley C. Powell shop. (Editor’s note: Extra handouts are still available at the Depot.) In reviewing the handouts, I observed that the San Diego Trolley sets high standards for A Trolley truck is serviced on a special jig. their Trolley Operation.

Green Dot Special in the Bookstore

Just in time for the Holidays, George Geyer, our Bookstore Manager, announces a 15% discount on all DVDs, calendars, and on certain books and framed photos - just look for the Green Dots. These specials only last though the end of the year so stock up with gifts for the railfan in your life (maybe you?). Calendars are also still available including “Red and Yellow Cars,” “Santa Fe,” “American Streetcars,” “Colorado Narrow Gauge”, and “Rio Grande Southern.” We even have one Commercial Aviation calendar! ($11.86 with the Green Dot Special). DVDs available include San Francisco Municipal Railway Volumes 1 and 2 (Valhalla Video) and the San Diego Trolley (Valhalla). Volume 2 includes the 2006 SDERA Trolley Excursion as we rode the Green Line prior to opening. OCTOBER 2007 Page 5

SDERA ELECTION ANNOUNCEMENT for November 17, 2007

This is your official notification of the election of officers and board members at our annual meeting. It will be held on Saturday, November 17, 2007 at approximately 7:15 PM. at the National City Depot located at 922 West 23rd St, National City, CA 91950. The depot is three blocks west of the Highway 5 and Bay Marina Drive at 23rd and Harrison Streets. The nominating committee consisting of Missy Cheeseman, Mike Quigg, and Gene Calman - has developed the following slate of nominees for the officers and directors up for election this time with their terms commencing January 2008: President: David Slater Board of Directors: Jeffrey Trimble (1 Year term) Vice President: George Geyer Thomas Carnes (2 Year term) Secretary: Christopher Higgins Gary Sweetwood (1 Year term) Treasurer: Thomas Matson Jim Price and Mitch Beauchamp were elected for a two-year term last year and still have another year to go. Officers are elected for two-year terms. We will need a vote to allow Higgins and Matson to be able to ex- ceed the two-term limit per the By-Laws. All board members at large must be current active members and anyone running for the office of President must be an active member for at least one year. All active (paid up to date) members are entitled to vote. Family members may only cast one vote. (Junior members are not eligible to vote.) Please look at your mail- ing label and if you membership expires prior to November 2007, you need to renew prior to the election to vote. If you feel you have renewed and we have not given you credit for same please email Tom Matson at [email protected] or call Tom at 619 275-0216. You may renew your membership or join with the form in- cluded in this newsletter. You may also renew or join prior to the election on November 17, 2007 scheduled to start at about 7:15 PM. Additional nominations from the floor may be made at this meeting, but if you do want to nominate someone please make sure he/she will accept the office and meets the requirements as noted above before making a nomination. Please contact Chris Higgins - 858-538-9743 if you need to contact the Nominating Committee members. TRAC Convention Comes to San Diego

Please join Train Riders Association of California (TRAC) Amtrak Vice-President of Transportation. Richard was sta- for their annual "Rail California 2020" conference on No- tioned in Los Angeles until his recent promotion and move to vember 2nd and 3rd, 2007, in Old Town San Diego, Califor- DC. He will travel back to California to speak to the confer- nia. This year’s conference will host a number of national, ence! state and regional transportation leaders to discuss issues im- • SoCal Rail Links - Surfliner, METROLINK, the , portant to all California rail users. the Sprinter, and the SD Trolley. Friday, November 2nd - 6 PM to ? • California HSR - an update and roadmap to the 2008 elec- No host reception on the patio at El Fandango, one of Old tion. Town San Diego¹s oldest restaurants. Come and get to know TRAC members in a social atmosphere and enjoy El Fan- • Multi mode fare collection and smart card technologies - dango's famous Margaritas and fine Mexican food. Cubic Corporation. Saturday, November 3rd - 8:30 AM (registration) • The Desert Line (SD&AE) - the history and future of San Conference 10am to 6pm Join TRAC at the new CAL- Diego's link to the east. TRANS District 11 Campus for a full day of interesting Lunch will be provided at Casa Guadalajara, where attendees speakers. Seeing this beautiful new CALTRANS facility is will enjoy a beautiful garden buffet lunch under the pepper worth the trip to San Diego alone and thanks go out to Will trees in the popular Casa Guadalajara main dining patio. Kempton and the District 11 staff for providing this opportu- SDERA members are offered a special reduced package for nity to showcase the new campus. Presentations are expected the Nov. 3, 2007 TRAC convention and a regular one year to include: TRAC membership if you register by Oct. 15 for $55. •AMTRAK with a focus on service, operations and growth. To register on-line for this event, see calrailnews.com and go This just in: The keynote speaker will be Richard Phelps, to their Future Events page. Page 6 SDERA TROLLEY LINES

Sprinter Excursion - November 4, 2007 On Sunday Nov 4, 2007, the San Diego Electric Railway Association is offering a pre-opening ex- cursion on the Sprinter line that will operate from the Oceanside Transit Center to the Escondido Tran- sit Center over the BNSF / North County Transit District (NCTD) rail line. This excursion is jointly sponsored with TRAC (Train Riders Association of California). The excursion is being offered as a special attraction for the TRAC convention being held on Nov 3rd at the new CALTRANS Bldg in Old Town. For more information please see the TRAC website at www.CalRailNews.com and go to the Future Events section. Rail connections from San Diego to Oceanside and back will be possible as well. The Sprinter service is scheduled to start in December 2007 and will feature half-hour weekday service using one or two self powered rail units. The weekends and holidays will be covered with hourly service. The original single track freight line has been recently rebuilt with three turnouts equally spaced. BNSF oper- ates freight service to approximately three Escondido customers using this line. There is a special new passenger only bypass section built at Cal State San Marcos. The shop for the Sprinter is located near the eastern terminus in Escondido. Each semi- Sprinter on a test run at Cal State San Marcos articulated Sprinter unit seats 130 people with the capability of station on September 8, 2007.– Tim Higgins photo having an additional 45 standees. Our special excursion train will have two units. For more information about the Sprinter line please see the North County Transit Dis- trict website at www.GoNCTD.com At this writing in early October, the Sprinter line is still under construction and checkout. Due to this, the running time each way is a minimum of two hours at a speed of about 10 mph. The primary reason for these restrictions is due to non-operating grade crossing signals and non-functioning block signals. Engineers working on the project explained that this is caused by “mill scale” - a by-product of the rail manufacturing process that interferes with electrical contact necessary for the signaling and train location sensors. A special grinding vehi- cle has completed a pass of the entire line and should have removed the remaining scale. Also, at this time, all the gangways to move people from the high level station platforms to the high level doors on the Sprinter are also non-functional. (The gangways are moved up out of the way at all stations for freight service. They need to be stored this way until they are fully functional.) If there is sufficient time there might a chance to do a photo stop at the Cal State San Marcos station. There are three places on the Sprinter line where gangways are not necessary because they are for pas- Sprinter car 4001 waits at the Escondido yard in September, 2006. senger service only: The Oceanside Terminal, Chris Higgins photo the Cal State San Marcos Station and the Es- condido terminal. These are the three places were photography is possible and the Cal State San Marcos stop can only be made if time permits . There is a chance that some or all of these conditions may be improved by the time of the excursion. Keep an eye on our website for any changes to this event. After all, this is an active construction zone and we will need to work with what works! SDERA Annual Dinner Meeting to Feature Local Rail Historian Bruce Semelsberger Presenting History of the Oceanside to Escondido Line

Make your reservations now for SDERA’s Annual Dinner Meeting on Saturday, November 17. We’ll start about 6 p.m. with a dinner from by the Andres’ Cuban Restaurant on Morena in San Diego. The meal will be chicken or beef mildly seasoned with some cooked onions and garlic with rice, black beans and salad. We will hold our election of Officers and Board of Directors at 7:15 p.m. and then Dave Slater will discuss the past year’s activities and will present awards. Then about 7:45 PM, Bruce Semelsberger will discuss the history of the rail line from Oceanside to Escondido from it’s early days of the California Southern to the current Sprinter. . Space Limitations. The National City Fire Department has limited our meeting room (the depot baggage room) to 60 people so we are asking that you reserve your spot for the meeting inside whether you are getting a dinner or not. When the election is conducted if there are more than 60 people present we will ask all non members to leave the room temporarily while we conduct this brief election with active members only. In the rare case that more than 60 active members are present we will conduct the election outside so all active members can be a part of it. We likely can accommodate 85 people for dinner between all the spaces in the depot and about 20 in the Birney Car. If the rare instance that there are more than 85 people for dinner we will set up tables around the depot. For questions about this event, please contact Tom Matson—[email protected], 619-275-0216 (home) or 619-846- 9662 (cell).

Mail to SDERA, P.O. Box 89068, San Diego, CA 92138 no later than Nov 10, 2007.

SDERA ANNUAL DINNER, ELECTION, & MEETING, NOVEMBER 17, 2007 Reservation Form

Name(s) ______

______

Address ______

City, State, Zip ______Phone ______

E-mail address______

Dinner preference # of Chicken ____ # of Beef _____

Number attending _____ x $10 per person (Members) ------$ ______

Number attending _____x $12 per person (Guests/non-members) ------______

I am planning on attending the election section of this meeting (active members only) Yes____ No____

I/we are planning on attending the program portion of this meeting with Bruce Semelsberger

Yes____ No____

Membership renewal (or join) Regular $25, Family $35, Sr (60+) $15, Jr (17-) $15, Life $400 - - - - - ______

Donation (Federal Tax ID 33-0202834------______

TOTAL ENCLOSED ------______

Please pay by Check or Credit Card

Credit card info (check one) Visa__, MC__, AE__, Discover__ Credit Card # ______

Expiration (month & year)______Signature ______OCTOBER 2007 Page 7

Passenger Trains That Work - Opinion by Stu Rudick Some ranting... Today, I want to talk about passenger railroads that work. I want to talk about what works and what does not work. Lip service has been paid to what might be a partial cure. It could lower the blood pressure of the poor slobs trapped on our ever growing lanes of overheated cement highways. So far, any effort to build infrastructure for the railroads has been stopped by the lobbying efforts of the NIMBYs (Not In My Back Yard), and the oil, air travel, and trucking companies. We, residents of Earth, are running out of fuel to power our cars while the people of the United States are deluded into thinking that it's OK. Big brother will clean the air and solve the fuel crisis. Hybrid SUVs are the latest and greatest thing to pedal and delude our people. Would you be happier behind the wheel cursing out the bumper to bumper traffic or relaxing with a cup of coffee, reading your newspaper while being whisked to work? OK, let’s start with North America’s largest passenger hauler. A railroad that hauled 32.6 million passengers in January, 2006. That’s right; 32.6 million paying passengers in just one month. Their on-time average in that month was 93.5% of the time. Their definition of on-time performance is the percentage of trains that arrive at their destination within 5 minutes and 59 seconds of the scheduled time. No, it's not Amtrak. It's the MTA's Long Island Railroad. It runs 728 trains each weekday. The Long Island Railroad is comprised of over 700 miles of track on 11 different branches stretching from Montauk - on the Eastern tip of Long Island to the refurbished Penn Station in the heart of Manhattan 120 miles or so away. There are 124 stations in Nassau County, Suffolk County, Queens and Brooklyn. 1 Million people live in Nassau County. 1.4 Million live in Suffolk. That means The Long Island Railroad sells 32.6 million tickets to 2.7 million people per month. Yes, that means commuters traveling 5 round trips each week. One major city, three counties and a railroad 120 miles long. Where else might this formula be applied? One glaring example is San Diego to Los Angeles. L.A. has 10 million people while San Diego has a popu- lation of 1.2 million souls. California's government has always solved the congestion problems by adding more ribbons of cement to almost every highway in the state. They persuaded an outfit to build a toll road through a very small part of Orange County. Guess who ended up paying for that? We are just a couple of lanes from covering the whole city of Los Angeles with cement from sea to where ever. Dear Governor Arnie: You’re fighting a losing battle. It's time to take those four Hummers that General Motors made you such a deal on and convert them into flower boxes. We need a solid, well design alternate form of transportation to get us to work. Forget the handouts from the lobbies and pay attention to the folks who voted for you. Yes, we’re the ones sitting in our hot cars on the cement listing to traffic reports, wondering if we will get to work in time for the first coffee break. We are tired of hearing excuses like “there’s no room left for railroad tracks”. If it were a highway, you sure would find room for more cement. If you can build the “Sprinter” with oil (a limited, polluting resource) burning engines going to relatively small cities with far less than a million combined, think how much of a hero you could be to California if you build an electric line that would be there 100 years from now. We need a high speed, running on it's own track, not freight rails owned by UP or BNSF. We need and want a high speed, electric train to take commuters in and out of San Diego and Los Angeles. Ed. Note: You can also find Stu on the Let’s Talk Trains internet radio show at http://www.letstalktrains.us live Saturdays at 10am (Pacific) and past shows any time. This article reflects the opinion of the author and not necessarily that of SDERA or “Trolley Lines” staff. Page 8 SDERA TROLLEY LINES

History Of The Vienna N1 Class Cars - Part 2

(Continued from page 3) cars were relegated to a siding at the 12th and Imperial trolley yard, and covered in green tarpaulins and became known as “The Green Mummies.” This state continued until about 2003 when the prospect of additional MTDB/MTS rolling stock for the projected Green Line raised its head. All track space in the trolley yard was at a premium. Was SDERA able, and willing, to take over the three orphaned Vienna cars? The legal issue centered on whether SDERA could take custody, given the assumed original terms of transfer and title. Finally, the issues Car 6888 as it waited for pickup on August 6, 2005. This car is marked in the window as a Sonderzug (Special Train). - Photo by Chris Higgins were resolved, and on August 6, 2005, C & D Towing moved the cars to the north end of the

National City Historic Depot property, together with a collection of parts removed, principally pantograph parts. The badly corroded roofs were later scraped, sanded, cleaned and repainted. Prospects for their future restoration to operating condition are bright, with the many initiatives of our President, Dave Slater. If SDERA can assemble the funds for their restoration, obtain missing parts from Austria, locate the SGP plans, manuals, and documentation, and – who knows – obtain the support of certain prominent Californians of Austrian ex- traction, the future looks bright: bright RED, WHITE and YELLOW! Speeder Progress

After a long stay in off-site storage, our Speeder and Gang/Excursion Car joined us down at the Depot along with our other rolling stock. The speeder needed some much overdue maintenance and repair. The windshield was repaired and the glass The Speeder sits on its trailer in the Depot yard with the replaced over the summer Excursion car to the right. - Chris Higgins photo while the metal parts were Scotty Lewis adds gas to the carburetor for a test crank. - Jeff Trimble photo painted by Dave Slater and Art Aydelotte. Thanks to Bob Recks for creating some new brackets needed, Sean McColgan for the carb work, and to Scotty Lewis for replacing the fuel line and testing the bat- tery. On September 22, Scotty even got the engine to turn over a few times with Jim Anderson turning the crank (until the lack of fuel caused the engine to stall—see photo to make a guess why!). The radiator and gas tanks still need work before we can try any longer tests. While the excursion car just looks like a bench on wheels, it is actually based on an A-4 chassis and may be worth restoring to a Speeder in the future. If you are interested in helping, please let us know! A fresh coat of paint and new glass and it looks good as new! - Dave Slater photo OCTOBER 2007 Page 9

San Diego Trolley Excursion 2007

(Continued from page 1) normally used on the Green Line—the hill between Grantville station and San Diego State University along Interstate 8. Our LRV operator gave the car the full throttle while the passengers were holding their collective breath. We achieved an incredible 29 MPH at it’s slowest point. Given the age of these cars and the fact that they were never expect to handle that grade, most of us where quite impressed! After a nice lunch break in Santee, our train made its way back down- town via the Or- ange Line and on to the Santa Fe Depot to allow George Geyer and Jim Anderson (not in the photo) some of our visi- manned the “Mobile Bookstore” on the center car. tors from the Los Thanks Guys! Angeles area to catch Amtrak home. An unexpected surprise was waiting at the station as a Metrolink train was preparing to make a re- turn trip to pick up Del Mar Racetrack fans. SDERA and all of our guests want to thank San Diego Trol- ley and especially John Tarantino, our guide and coordinator, A Metrolink train waits at Santa Fe Depot before completing its Del mar Racetrack Special. Also in for a visit was the Scottish Thistle and Larry Granville, our Train Operator, for this unique op- coach. Photos—C. Higgins portunity and a enjoyable ride!

Get Your Raffle Tickets! Annual Dinner - November 17

Starting in October, we will Come join us for our Annual Dinner / Meeting / Election be offering different items for on November 17 starting at 6pm with food provided by raffle at our General Meet- Andres' Cuban Restaurant. The meal will be chicken or ings. Make sure you remem- beef mildly seasoned with some cooked onions and garlic ber to pick up your tickets with rice, black beans and etc. when you arrive! See the inserted flyer to make reservations for dinner.

Two switch stands were Bruce Semelsberger will be our guest at the Meeting. recently delivered with Bruce, a noted local rail historian, will present the history more possibly on the way of the Oceanside to Escondido rail line with photos from thanks to some generous benefactors. We hope to past to Sprinter. The Meeting will start at 7:30pm after the use these in the future as Dinner and Elections. we grow our displays. - Dave Slater photo If you need additional flyers, visit www.sdera.org.

High Speed Internet Now At NC Depot Where’d They Go?

The 1880’s meets 2007 as high speed internet becomes part National City completed arrangements to move the cars of our Historic Depot. After some recent changes to our from the South Lot at the Depot in September. The fences phone system, completed October 8, the National City De- have been moved and we can be seen from the street once pot can now boast of Wireless Internet avail- again. able to SDERA Members! Please check with We continue to work with National City to make sure that the Docent staffing that day or with Chris we have access to this lot and hope to have more news in Higgins ([email protected]) for details coming months. on how to access this new service. Non Profit Org. U.S. Postage PAID San Diego, CA Permit No. 2606

RETURN SERVICE REQUESTED San Diego Electric Railway Association PO Box 89068 San Diego, CA 92138 (619) 474-4400

SDERA is at the historic National City Depot, off I-5 at Mile of Cars Way — take Bay Marina Drive West to Marina Way, then right. Open every Sat. and Sun., 9 AM — 5 PM. Depot phone: call (619) 474-4400

Visit us on the Web! www.sdera.org

To submit items to the Newsletter, contact Chris Higgins via e-mail ([email protected]) or phone (858-538- 9743). Items need to be submitted by the 18th of the month prior to publication.

Attention Members: Please look carefully at the mailing label. If your membership has expired, or will expire soon, please send your dues, and your tax deductible contribution, to SDERA, PO Box 89068, San Diego, CA 92138-9068. Thank you. Life: $400, Regular $25, Family $35 (please include names), Regular $25, Senior (60 +) $15, and Juniors 17 and below $15.

Upcoming Events

Monthly Meetings are (normally) held at 7:30pm CS/AT&SF/BNSF/NCTD line from its origin to on the 2nd Saturday of the Month at the National now with likely some Sprinter photos on our City Depot. Join us at 5:30 for an optional no-host November 4 excursion. dinner at Keith’s Restaurant—3rd and National Saturday / Sunday, December 1 & 2 - Great City Blvd. Plan to arrive by 7 p.m. to chat, and Train Expo, San Diego County Fairgrounds, Del peruse the bookstore. Refreshments will be Mar. served. Next Board Meeting - November 12 at 7:00pm Saturday, October 13 (3rd Sat) - George Geyer at the National City Depot will do a video presentation on Toronto streetcars. Saturday, November 3 - TRAC Convention in Docents and Cashiers Wanted San Diego (see article on Page 5). Sunday, November 4 - Sprinter Excursion - We continue to have difficulty staffing several times Oceanside to Escondido and back (see article on a month. If you can help, even if for just a few hours, Page 6). please contact Tom Matson ([email protected]) or 619-275-0216. Training is available. Saturday, November 17—Annual Dinner and Thanks to our 3-Railer friends for helping when no Election of Officers and Directors. Bruce formal docent is available and to docent power- Semelsberger, local rail historian, presents a houses George Geyer and Jim Anderson for covering history of the Oceanside to Escondido branch of as many shifts as you do!