Meeting on Saturday, Nov. 13 at the National City Depot. As with last year, we’ll start at 5:30 p.m, enjoy a catered din-ner from the Barbeque Pit, and have a brief business meeting at 7 p.m. The ‘main attraction’ however will be a presentation on the re-opening of Carrizo Gorge, presented by Carrizo Gorge Railway, Inc (CZRy). As many of you know this is a project that has been on-again, off-again for many years since Hurricane Kathleen wiped out much of the line in 1976. CZRy has succeeded, and they have a fascinating tale to tell. Reservation form may be found on page 6.

We now have a Librar-ian, and a Caretaker. Dur-ing the past two Board meet-ings, we have taken action to make two

[Continued on back page]

Jose Limon, Teodoro Galvan, Sergio Lisboa, Janet Trump, Leslie Ravali, Deeann Coffey, Margaro Cardona, Jesus Lopez, Sandi Blair, Natasha Rappoport, William Harrison, Adrian Garcia, Ignacio Flores, and above on step, Michelle Aguilar pose in front of their grateful friend, “Herbie.”

THE PREZ SEZ by Jim Price

The old Chinese proverb, “may you live in interesting times” is certainly the mode in which we seem to find our-selves. Here’s a quick sum-mary of our current newswor-thy events.

South Bay Volkswagen’s employees come through. At the National City Chamber of Commerce monthly break-fast on Sept. 15, Jim Price pre-sented South Bay VW with a certificate of appreciation for the work they did on our VW “streetcar on wheels,” and especially that Rudy Erm, the owner, waived the repair bill! In a total surprise to SDERA, Sergio Lisboa, the Asst. Service Manager, presented us with

photographs of the entire South Bay VW crew posing with the VW “Streetcar.” It shows that small town random acts of kindness are still possible, even in the San Diego area.

New “Lease on Life” at the Depot. Well, it’s not everything we wanted, but we have a new lease with National City for the depot. The term is only 2 years (our previous lease was 5 years extended for 1 year), but it will have renewal clauses, based on our performance. Robert Paz, the Deputy Director of the National City Community Development Commission (CDC) will be meet-ing with the SDERA Board at our next meeting on Oct. 19 at the depot, at 7 p.m. Interested mem-bers are welcome to attend.

A Great Program for the Annual Dinner Meeting. Come one, come all, including family members, to the SDERA Annual

• Vienna Car Dream: get your tickets for Nov. 13 Annual Dinner/Election

Inside this issue:

National City’s plans: are they good for SDERA?

2

Marina Gateway Place: Can this rail-road be saved?

3

Stu Rudick and the “Mr. Rogers” Trolley to Make-Believe

4

Perris Museum has 4 San Diego trolleys including a Class 2

5

Upcoming meetings and special events

7

Salvaged Birney cars are climbing Angelino Heights

7

SD History Museum solves the mystery of Car 54

7

TROLLEY LINES

October 2004

Check us out at our web site:

www.sdera.org

San Diego Electric Railway Association • Jim Price, President • Mike Reading, Vice President • Tom Matson-Secretary • Richard Hamilton, Treasurer • Directors: Gene Calman,

Gary Johnson, Stuart Rudick • Chris Higgins, Webmaster • George Geyer, Bookstore • Chuck Bencik, Editor

(619) 699-8690

there for a show of hands.”

SDERA Reps Inspect ex-San Diego Car No. 1043 at WRM; Condition probably too far gone for restoration

Superintendent David Johnston.”

Page 2 SDERA TROLLEY LINES

BAY MARINA DR

National City’s Marina Gateway Place: Hotel, Restaurant, Office — Access Road to New Marina Overlaying Historic Tracks of NC&O Railroad

SDERA’s Mu-seum plans

include trolley displays, repair

shop, tracks and exhibit displays. Plans for track connecting to

Coronado Belt Line are much

in doubt.

Marina Drive Pro-vides access to new Pier 32 Marina and Pier 32 Public Park. South Bay Bikeway would cross channel to Sweetwater Marsh National Wildlife Refuge land, by way of bridge at the River. See page 3.

Railcar Museum with NC&O Rail

Car Number 1

“Public Access/Drive” laid over Cleveland

Avenue track connec-tion to Coronado Beltway Railroad

tracks

Olsen Company plan-ning to build 40 live/work lofts in this property. Proposed closing of 23rd Street, cul de sac for Marina Way

Match arrows and boundary lines with those on page 3.)

access road right over the tracks next to the Railcar Museum. Olsen developers talk of making Harrison Avenue into a cul-de-sac! Does anyone else find this not okay? Looks like they want Cleveland Avenue and the Belt line to just evaporate. “The Olde Depot” Submarine Shop? Could be a real money-maker. Just keep those trolleys out. And who needs a heritage railroad, anyway? Let the good times roll!

There Goes the Neighborhood!

An Editorial, by Chuck Bencik

National City community development officials seem to have found the key to “getting things moving” along the Bay-front: it’s called “divide and

conquer.” They point the public’s attention to uplifting architec-tural developments elsewhere in town, while San Diego distracts everyone over the Bay Shore Bikeway brouhaha. Meanwhile the vultures and gophers are quietly tearing the heart out of the Coronado Belt Railway, right in our own back yard…

Yacht basin? Fishing Pier? Very fishy indeed. The Marina Gate-way Place site plan calls for an

Page 3

OCTOBER 2004

Gene Calman: “Well, at least it runs….

High priced labor: Gene, Jim and Gary put their backs into it. “Full Monty” audition?

Gene in the Driver’s Seat

Bob Recks and some of his handi-work: window frames and seats

Jim Price attends to the details

Marina Gateway Place Property

Development (match arrows

and boundary lines with those on

page 2.)

Normally 2nd Tuesdays, 7 p.m. at Richard Hamilton’s office. Call 858-836-0106 for direc-tions and any changes in dates. [Note important change:] October 19 at NC Depot, 6 pm (with Bob Paz, National City CDC.) Others currently November 9, December 14.

Board of Directors Meeting Schedule

Sweetwater River Channel City of National City Sweetwater River Channel City of National City

Development Isolates Coronado Belt Railroad between Sweetwater Marsh Wildlife Refuge and Pier 32 Marina/Park Access Road. Depot could be in a Harrison Street Cul de Sac — is Everybody Okay with

this?

Coronado Belt Rail Track isolated from Cleveland Avenue trolley line

Trolley to the Land of Make-Believe: How Mr. Rogers got there... flats that made up the studio set. She talked with the puppets Fred poked through slits cut around painted-on trees and buildings.

In 1952 the Ford Foundation set up a new educational network called National Educa-tional Television -- the forerunner of PBS -- it included KQED in San Francisco, WGBH in Boston, and WQED in my still trolley-ridden Pittsburgh. The Fund put up the money to buy a kinescope recorder so the members’ programs could be shared. Slowly and pain-fully we learned how to use the equipment. And the big news was that Fred Rogers was going on a network of three stations via 16mm kinescope recording!

This meant building a new set for Fred’s program. After all, this was the big time. A gal named Diane Lang and I were the scenic artists in charge of the effort. Diane was a drama major and I, well, I knew nothing. But I was still riding the Fifth Avenue trolley. Someone had the idea to have a trolley in the set, for Fred to transition from the everyday world to a place called the Village of Make Believe. Diane agreed to help me construct a cardboard trolley car for the new set. It “operated” by pushing it back and forth along its cardboard track with a stick running be-low the set. That was the start of “Trolley, Trolley” which remained with Fred Rogers throughout his career.

Well, a lot of time has passed. What re-mains of that era is in a small room behind the Tyrannosaurus Rex at the Carnegie Mu-seum in Pittsburgh. Pictures of the original members of the WQED crew are there, along with two ancient black and white cam-eras. And the old trolleys of Pittsburgh are gone, too. I guess we’re all relics now.

so with my mother's encouragement I hopped the Fifth Avenue trolley and rode down.

The desk in the lobby was abandoned. I looked around and located their control room, where a guy was running around like a chicken with its head cut off. I introduced myself and he replied, “Is there anything here that you know how to operate?” “Well, I belonged to the projection club at school.” So I became the film department. I worked with Fred Rogers, pointing one of the two black and white cameras while Fred ran back and forth between the pup-pets and his Hammond organ, supplying music.

Fred was an ordained minister and he was the shyest person I had ever met. He refused to appear on camera until they invented a character named Prince Charm-ing. He dressed in formal coat and tails and appeared in a puff of smoke. This was live television, no retakes. One time while running back and forth to the Hammond, he tripped over his coat tails and micro-phone cord and fell flat on his butt. That was how Fred's now famous sneakers came about: no more slippery leather soles for him.

After the holi-day, the college students returned and I continued working with Fred. A gal named Josy Carry stood in front of the canvas

By Stuart Rudick

[Editor’s Note: Stu Rudick, newest member of our Board of Directors, worked as a tele-vision producer for NBC. He started in pub-lic television, went on to soap operas. An experienced trolleyman, his claim to fame: he built Mr. Roger’s first trolley.]

I grew up in Pittsburgh, the “Smoky City.” Pittsburgh had one of the largest trolley sys-tems in North America. No one needed a car to get around. The trolleys were every-where. During World War II the steel mills worked overtime polluting the air, and the ash from burning coal coated everything. It was so bad that buses, trolleys and autos drove around with headlights on at high noon.

After the War, most of the worn out mills shut down, and the sun came out. Mayor David Lawrence started a program to steam clean the wartime grime from the buildings downtown. He also campaigned to rid the city of the dreaded, noisy trolleys. The oil and auto industries saw there was money to be made. The war was over and oil was cheap. Get the trolleys off the streets, every-body buy a car, and make room for Detroit's buses. After all, they burn cheap plentiful oil, too.

Television was in its infancy. In 1954 Pitts-burgh’s one station, WDTV, carried all the other networks’ programming interspersed with Capitan Video and Jackie Gleason's Cav-alcade of Stars. One day the FCC granted a license to WQED, the nation's first commu-nity television station. It operated in an old church across the street from the University of Pittsburgh’s Cathedral of Learning. The old church, never cleaned up after the war, was a dirty black monument to what had been war time Pittsburgh. The staff were all volunteers. They had two major programs: “Dr. Spock” and “Fred Roger's Children's Corner.” Their main labor force was students of the two major colleges, Carnegie Tech and The Uni-versity of Pittsburgh. Venturesome amateurs all, they ran it okay until that first Thanksgiv-ing vacation, when the work force fled the place.

I turned our television on one day, and there was a slide pleading for help from the community. They sorely needed volunteers, free help. I had taken some drama lessons,

Page 4 SDERA TROLLEY LINES

Children’s TV icon Fred Rogers, his “Trolley-trolley,” and his Neighborhood.

Mr. Rogers reminisces on the steps of an old Pittsburgh Railways Peter Witt car.

OCTOBER 2004 Page 5

By Chuck Bencik

If you’re looking for trolleys with a San Diego history , an excellent place to start is the Orange Empire Railway Museum in Per-ris, CA. Their collections include four San Diego Electric Railway cars: Nos. 167, 508, 528 and 1003. Back in April, when they were having their Rail Festival, I was curious if any of them would be operable, and what it would take to restore them to operating condition.

John Smatlak, Vice President in charge of Collections, told me a lot about them:

“[Car] 167 is a car body, sitting on trucks , and is on display in Carhouse Four. For a car that was converted to a home, it is in amaz-ing condition, retaining its truss rods and not having any new openings cut into it. It does have extensive wood decay at the buffers. It still has its roofing shingles on one side, left over from its days as a home.” Car 167 was one of 35 Class 2 cars built by McGuire in 1914 for the Panama Pacific Exposion. They were 48’ 7” long, and 43,850 lbs. They seated 52 passengers. The Exposition Cars were the type which were used on the “Potash Special” runs to the Hercules Gunpowder Co. factory, [near the present-day Chula Vista Nature Center]

from Third Avenue and Broadway in 1918.

“[Car] 1003 is a car body only, sitting on some trucks that are actually designated for use under our Pacific Electric Cars,” Smatlak wrote. “It is one of the Salt Lake City cars that came to San Diego during World War II. It is in poor condition, and is stored in-doors.” There were 14 of these cars, built in 1927 for Salt Lake City by American Car Company, with trucks from other older Salt Lake City cars. They are called Class 8, weighed 46,000 lbs, and seated 56.

Two of the cars were St. Louis-built PCCs,

the Class 6 single-ended streamline cars brought to San Diego in 1937 and ‘38. Smatlak called 508 “an operable PCC car, although we have not operated it in recent years. With construction of our new car-house beginning later this year, it will re-ceive an indoor home. It presently is stored outside and is in reasonably good condition. “ Smatlak said he expected that, after it is put indoors, 508 would be re-stored for operation.

The other PCC, car 528, is a complete PCC that has never operated at OERM. This car was on display at the Del Mar fairgrounds for many years. The previous custodians were the Railway Historical Society. For the past ten years, PCC 528 was outdoors, covered with a tarpaulin. Smatlak says that despite having “suffered from years of outdoor storage, it is totally complete, and as such is probably the most complete unrestored pre-war PCC car preserved anywhere.” This car will also be given indoor housing next year, in the new car house.

I asked John what kinds of compromises might be necessary when choosing materi-als for restoration of an incomplete car body. “Substitution of components is often necessary when restoring carbodies with so many missing components. We try to use the same type of parts whenever possible, but as a practical matter compro-mise is inevitable. Certainly each restora-tion is begun with a clear understanding of what the original equipment was. Any car can be restored; it only takes time and money.”

Shades of the “Potash Express:” San Diego Exposition Car 167, of Type that traveled Cleveland Ave., with 3 more SDERy Cars in Perris

San Diego Exposition Car 167, once a dwelling place, as it looks today: still covered with shingles. It is on display at Orange Empire Railway Museum, in Carhouse Four.

Exposition Car 211 in July 1925. The site is now named Bay Marina and Cleveland.

From the Eric Sanders Collection

SDERA TROLLEY LINES Page 6

“Impossible Railroad” is Program for Nov. 13 Annual Dinner, Election

By Tom Matson

It’s time to send in your reservation for our November 13 Annual Dinner, Election and Meeting, at the Na-tional City Depot. Program coordinator Mike Reading will have a speaker from the Carrizo Gorge Railway (the freight operator from East County). This pro-gram will help celebrate the 85th anniver-sary of the San Diego and Arizona East-ern. Tickets are $10.00 per person.

SD&AE is now owned by the Metropoli-tan Transportation System. The original desert rail line, built by John D. Spreckels, has been called "the Impossible Railroad."

Note this meeting may be held off site

near the NC Depot if the attendance is big-ger than our NC Depot can accommodate. You will be notified if this is the case.

Director Gene Calman's term expires and he is up for reelection. The SDERA Board

recommends to the membership that Gene be reelected to another two year term. Nominations will be open from the floor. Only members in good standing (with paid up dues) are allowed to vote at this meeting.

RESERVATION FORM—ANNUAL SDERA DINNER, ELECTION & MEETING

Dear Tom: Please reserve seats at the Annual SDERA Dinner. I enclose my check for $

Name Dinner preference (how many):

Address Chicken Beef

City State Zip

Phone E-mail address

Cost per person is $10.00 each. Please make Checks Payable to SDERA, and mail to:

San Diego Electric Railway Ass’n, PO Box 89068, San Diego, CA 92138

Proposed Angelino Heights Birney Line Gains LA Council Support, Positive Community Response

Whas’up at the De-po’ ? Train and Trolley Holiday Events Comin’ Up

“Car 54, Where are you?” Well, Now We Know, and, Thankfully, It’s Not a Burning Question ...

dations the trolley line must make with today’s traffic.

Car restoration will cost about $600,000. While the cost of the project may run as high as $15 million, govern-ment support could help pro-vide historic preservation, urban renewal and transporta-tion funds. Two more Birneys are needed.

The line is expected to serve Olvera St., other rail services through Union Station, China-town, the Civic Center, the Cathe-dral of Our Lady of the Angels, and the Music Center, including Walt Disney Concert Hall.

Prospects are bright for the restoration of an 84-year old St. Louis Birney car, No. 1030, and a 5.5 mile narrow gauge route in Los Angeles’ Angelino Heights. The car operated there until 1946 when LA Railway retired it.

The wood-sided car, sold for scrap, was saved from the wrecker by Ray Younghans and a friend. They salvaged both the body and the undercarriage, and stored it in Pasadena and Cy-press Park. When Younghans died in 2001, the Electric Rail-way Historical Association of Southern California received the car and his extensive Pacific

Electric and Los Angeles Railway collection.

Having gained the moral sup-port of the MTA, LA council backing must be obtained. The project is already backed by $6000 in seed money. Three city council members have writ-ten letters of support, with Sen. Diane Feinstein’s office promis-ing another. Newspaper and television coverage has brought very positive government and civic response. A feasibility study will determine how much of the old route can be uncov-ered below asphalt, estimate how much new rail construction is required, and what accommo-

brought into service in late 1902 and gave continuous and de-pendable service until 1914 when it was retired in favor of larger, more modern equip-ment. Once retired, it had sev-eral homes. It went from Logan Heights to Old Town and then to the Historical Society on permanent loan for exhibit.”

San Diego Cable Railway, or-ganized in 1889, operated 12 cable cars for 13 months before facing bankruptcy. It was con-

The mystery’s been solved. [No, not the one about the goofy New York policemen in the 1960s sitcom, featuring Joe Ross and Fred Gwynn.]

Historic San Diego Electric Railway Car 54 wasn’t put to the torch. It’s hidden behind another exhibit at the Museum of San Diego History. The Historical Society, which has had the car on loan from the Railway Historical Society of San Diego, Inc., since the early

1980s, currently has plans to put it on public display.

At the 75th anniversary cele-bration of Serra Museum, Cu-rator of Collections Laurie Egan told SDERA President Jim Price: “Our streetcar, #54 was built in 1902, is 33 feet long, and weighs 24,000 lbs. It was built in 1902 at the San Diego Electric Railway shops. The center of the body had origi-nally been that of two different cable cars … Car 54 was

New San Diego light rail trolley car construction at the Siemens plant in Sacramento, CA.

Special Events October 9 [Sat.] Train Song Festival. San Diego Folk Heritage presents work songs and ballads of America’s railway heritage. Ken Graydon & Phee Sherline, Steve White, Mark Jackson Band, Connie Allen & Bill Dempsey, Judy Taylor, Bill Sherman. Tem-plar’s Hall, Old Poway Park, starts 10:00 am. Free.

October 13 thru 17 – Asso-ciation of Railway Museums Con-vention, Ogden Union Station,

Membership Meetings are usually held on Second Satur-days, National City Depot, [2 blocks west of Interstate 5 and Bay Marina Drive] 7:30 P.M. Optional: dinner at Keith’s Restaurant, 3rd & National City Blvd., National City, at 5:00 P.M. [Exception: dinner meeting November 13.]

October 9 -- Andy Goddard, MTS trolley safety director: “San Diego Trolley Opera-tions: Past, Present and Fu-ture.” Past member of SDERA and antique bus collector, Andy has been with SD Trolley since the beginning as an oper-ating supervisor, lead dis-

patcher. He helped plan and conduct several past San Diego Trolley excursions.

November 13 – Annual Mem-bership Meeting, Dinner, and Director Election. Carrizo Gorge Railway: how the Gorge was reopened, features VP Mike Reading . Short meeting, family dinner. 85th anniversary of “the impossible railroad.” Reserve early. $10 per person. [See form on page 6.]

December 11 – Ken Acord’s “Videos on Light Rail Transit Activities of the U.S.” Includes-the San Jose Light Rail system.

LARy Car 1030 has fresh paint, a shiny windshield, and new hopes of serving Angelino Heights

Page 7 OCTOBER 2004

verted to electric traction as Citizens Traction Co. Spreckels interests purchased the Com-pany in 1898. The car body was rebuilt from two smaller cars, and given double trucks by San Diego Electric Railway in 1902. It operated until 1914, when it was retired. In 1969, RHSSD rescued Car 54 from a vacant lot in Lake-side, bringing it to the lot next to the Whaley House in Old Town, where Railway Historical Society volunteers restored and re-painted it.

Ogden, Utah

October 16 [Sat.] – Model Railroad Swap Meet 7:00 – 11:00 A.M., San Diego Model Railway Museum, 1649 El Prado, Balboa P a r k . F o r d e t a i l s s e e http://www.sdmodelrailroadm.com/ and click on “Events” and “October.”

November 13-14, and 19, 20 & 21 – Thomas the Tank Engine visits children at Orange Empire Railway Museum, Perris.

December 4 & 5 [Sat. & Sun.] Great American Train & Hobby S h o w , D e l M a r F a i r -grounds

“...Car restoration will cost about $600,000… the project may run as high as $15 million…”

PREZ SEZ (continued from page 1)

designations. The first of these is SDERA Librarian – Paul Allen Copeland, the au-thor of numerous trolley-related publica-tions. He’s agreed to help get our house in order. Any of you who have books, newslet-ters, magazines, etc. that you’ve wanted to

donate to SDERA: now is the time! Mean-while Jim Anderson, who has just done a superb job of cleaning house at the depot during the past few months, has been ap-pointed Caretaker of the depot. Please bring any maintenance / improvement issues to his attention.

Board Member Nominations / Elec-tions Time. For a variety of reasons, we have only one seat on the Board of Directors com-ing up for election this year – that is the member-at-large posi-tion now occupied by Gene Calman. Gene is willing to run again but I would very much welcome expression of interest by other members in serving on the Board. If you’re willing. please contact me at jprice@sdera.org

Status of Vienna Cars. Now that we have a new lease agreement with National City, we are going ahead with our

efforts to acquire the 3 historic street-cars, originally from Vienna, Austria,

that are in the San Diego Trolley yard. I can’t at this point in time guarantee that the transfer will take place [see graphic on page 6.] But if it does, this will be a huge commitment, project, and opportu-nity for SDERA. If you liked working on a VW “Streetcar on Wheels,” wait until we roll up our sleeves on a real streetcar!

Coronado Belt Line (CBL). As many of you have heard, the San Diego City Council overturned the SD Histori-cal Resources Board’s historical designa-tion of the San Diego portion of the CBL on September 7. The Save Our Heritage Organization (SOHO) will be filing a law-suit against the City, and we (the Board of SDERA) have agreed to join the law-suit. We’re not sure what the correct term is, but we will essentially be an ‘interested party with no financial com-mitment. We have agreed, however, to donate $100 to SOHO, admittedly a token amount, toward legal costs. We all really need for the CBL to remain intact from National City to Imperial Beach as there are many potential opportunities for the line that will be lost once any significant section of it is paved over.

We’re on the Web:

www.sdera.org

San Diego Electric Railway Ass’n

PO Box 89068

San Diego, CA 92138

(619) 699-8690

Non Profit Org.

U.S. Postage

PAID

San Diego, CA

Permit No. 2606

Return Service Requested

Attention Members: Please look carefully at the mailing label above. 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.

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., 12 noon — 4 PM. Depot phone: call 619 474-4400

VW FIX-UP HEROES: [L to R} Jose Limon, Jose Olmos, Jose de La Torre, Walter Pesqueira, Rich-ard Victorio, Adrian Garcia; [kneeling:] Margaro Cardona , Joe Teodoro Galvan.