Aristo-Craft PCC Streetcar (Capital Transit car 1324)

A few boxes arrived while I was on vacation including this beautiful PCC Streetcar made by Aristo-Craft. This doesn't fit into the theme of the PE&A at all—I just thought it was cool and really wanted a streetcar. Perhaps I'll set up an independent loop of track just for it to run on.

Capital Transit car 1324

PCC Streetcars were manufactured in the U.S. between 1936 and 1952. Over 5,000 were manufactured and they could be found in cities all over the world. While most have been scrapped, many PCC cars can still be found in revenue service today, including the F Market Line in San Francisco, the M line in Boston, and the Silver Line in San Diego.

Capital Transit logo appears on each side of the streetcar.

This example is car 1324 from Capital Transit, the transit authority in Washington, D.C. that was formed in 1933 by the merger of several independent streetcar lines at a time when streetcar use was already in decline. Capital Transit started running PCC Streetcars like this one in 1937 and continued to operate them up until 1962. Based on the window arrangement car 1324 is a pre-war style streetcar.

Route 69 headed toward the Navy Yard. Searching what is available on the Internet, I was not able to confirm whether this was a valid streetcar line number at the time, although there was a line running to the Navy Yard.

Both sets of doors are on the right and they fold inward.

For comparison here a couple pictures of PCC streetcars I rode on last time I was in San Francisco. Both of these are post-war style -- note the windows are narrower and there is an extra row of small windows running the length of the car near the roof line. Most PCC streetcars still in use today were built in the late 1940s or early 1950s. I wasn't able to find an example of an operational pre-war car, but there may be one out there somewhere.

Car 1055 was built in 1948 by the St. Louis Car Company for the Philadelphia Transportation Company, which later became part of SEPTA. The livery has been restored to reflect what it looked like at the time it was delivered in 1948.

Car 1057 was also built in 1948 for the Philadelphia Transportation Company, but today sports a bright canary yellow livery honoring Cincinnati, which ran PCC streetcars from 1939 to 1951.

For more information:

• Wikipedia has a nice overview of the PCC streetcar and its history.
• I haven't been yet, but someday would like to visit the National Capital Trolley Museum outside of Washington, D.C.
• This map of Capital Transit streetcar lines at the end of 1948 shows the route to the Navy Yard but does not include route numbers.
• The Market Street Railway in San Francisco has the largest collection of PCC streetcars in North America, as well as many pre-PCC cars. The cars liveries are tributes to the many cities that ran PCC cars, and the website provides details about every car's history and the transit system it represents.

First day of operations in 2017

On Sunday I finished the clean-up work around the track so I could get trains running again. The main task was adding ballast where it had settled or eroded away, working it in place and watering it down, followed by some track cleaning. I went through almost two bags of quarter-minus, more than I was expecting based on my earlier estimate.

After about two hours of work I had a train up and running. First I tested my new Alco FA-1 to make sure it was performing well. Then I put together a UP train for some pictures. I continued to let the train run while I moved on to other yard work nearby. That was a mistake as I ended up with my first derailment of the year!

A UP special crosses over the tunnel.

Track is ready for service after getting a new layer of ballast. The daffodils along the track are nearly in bloom and the irises are coming up fast.

The strawberry field is bright green and even sports a few early blooms as the UP special zooms by.

The spurge is in full bloom. It looks great nestled among the rocks over the tunnel.

A purple helleborus along the garage wall.

Peony shoots in front of a bed of muscari.

Oh no! The first day of operations also saw my first derailment, sending two cars into the dry river bed. The locomotive lost its train then rear-ended it on the next loop around. Fortunately no one was injured, but the engineer has been written up!

Disney World and Universal Studios

Sometimes when I'm on vacation I will seek out railroads. Other times the railroads tend to find me without any effort on my part. This week I rode behind two steam locomotives, used three monorails, two people mover systems and a cable car, and I came across a beautiful garden railroad as well. Where else could I be other than Orlando?

The Walt Disney World Railroad circles the Magic Kingdom on a three-foot narrow-gauge track. The railroad owns four restored steam locomotives and most days two of those will be in operation, hauling over 3.7 million passenger a year!

WDWRR #3, the Roger E. Broggie, is a 4-6-0 "ten-wheeler" originally built by Baldwin in 1925.

WDWRR #4, the Roy O. Disney, is a 4-4-0 "American" originally built by Baldwin in 1916. 

Turn out for the siding to the train barn.

Main Street Station

One of my favorite rides at Disney World is the Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover. This ride uses open-air cars; enclosed cars aren't necessary as the entire track is covered. Car sets ride on steel rails, and are propelled using linear synchronous motors centered between the two tracks.

View of the tracks from a lead car showing the embedded linear synchronous motors space about 8–10 feet apart.

Approaching the station.

Covered track headed toward Space Mountain.

Getting to, from and between the Magic Kingdom and Epcot is best done using the Walt Disney World Monorail System, which I used three times while I was there.

Of the 12 trains in service, the green was my favorite.

The red train.

A complete surprise for me was the Epcot Garden Railway, a 50 x 130 foot LGB layout depicting a Bavarian mountainside and village. It includes a stream and multiple bridges, but the most impressive feature was the extensive forest of very well maintained and pruned trees. The garden train is appropriately located in the Germany area of Epcot.

A passenger train passes by the village.

A freight train passing a gap between two tunnels in the mountainside.

And over at Universal Studios a featured attraction is the Hogwarts Express Train that connects the two parks. I wasn't aware beforehand that it's actually a cable car, which was a delightful surprise. There are two trains in operation and a replica of a steam locomotive leads (or trails, depending on your direction) each set of cars. The replica locomotives are modeled after a preserved Great Western Railway locomotive, 5972 Olton Hall, which was used in the Harry Potter movies. Only one side of the train faces visitors, which has been decorated to recreate the original 5972 as closely as possible.

The two trains operate on a single track with a passing track halfway between the two stations, allowing two trains to operate in the style of a funicular. I'm not sure if the rope reverses direction for each trip like a funicular does, or if it runs continuously in one direction like a cable car with the grips switching ropes for each trip. Given the smoothness of the start up I think it's probably the former case, but I should have been paying more attention!

The locomotive has drivers only on the side facing visitors. The weight of the train is supported not on the drivers but on two smaller trucks mostly hidden from view. The drivers move when the train is in motion and appear to be propelling the train, but they are actually gliding above a decorative outer track—they don't make contact in order to reduce friction.

View from in front of the locomotive showing the haul rope and counter rope, and the decorative outer track facing the viewer.

A close up view of one of the trucks underneath the tender. If you enlarge this picture you will see the outer false wheels are floating above the track, which is very rusty as none of the wheels are making contact to wear off the rust. Behind the false outer wheels is a smaller truck supporting the weight of the vehicle on the inner tracks, which are smooth and shiny from use.

Finally, a visit to Orlando wouldn't be complete without a trip on the Automated People Movers at the Orlando International Airport. The current trains are near end-of-life and about to be replaced during a makeover costing nearly a billion dollars. I've read that some of the trains have already been replaced, but the ones I saw were the old ones.

The APM uses rubber tires that run along two parallel concrete tracks. A center steel rail provides guidance and power.

This APM train likely has only a few more months of service before retirement.