Los Angeles Metro metro (1)

Definition 1 : Los Angeles

The USA is, to use a technocal geographical term, BIG! Above we see just a bit of its west coast bordering on Mexico with Chihuahua (as in the breed of dog), lower right. The tiny smudge, surrounded by dotted lines and about half way up on the coast is Los Angeles County.

Los Angeles City is just a tiny part of a huge county.

There are sixty cities in LA County, of which Los Angeles is th biggest. The American "city" is a less well-defined concept than it once was in the UK.

But what we might call "greater" Los Angeles splurges even further.

Definition 2 : Street Car, Tram, Railway

LA began with horse trams in 1874 lasting until 1897.

In 1885 the new fangled cable cars appeared, pulled by ropes hidden in a track in the road.

But the wonder of electricity was on its way and trams appeared just two years later; and, by 1902, they had supplanted cable power.

Numerous private companies joined the fray ...

... but two emerged to become dominant.

In 1901 various bits and pieces became The Los Angeles Railway Company. And yes, the company ran trams (street cars in USA-speak).

Effectively this became the "local" tram operator.

The same transport big cheese (one Henry Huntingdon) ...

... started filling his shopping basket with a few more companies to form The Pacific Electric Railway (trams again) to operate what we would now all an inter urban network.

The LA brand was yellow ...

...and the other lot, red.

Track was narrow gauge making for some interesting interior layouts ...

... but surprisingly luxurious.

The trams were still privately run with their own tram depots ...

... and power supply.

In reality, the two companies ran a fully coordinated and integrated network.

But the reign of the cheap motor car became something of an onslaught ...

... and trams simply got in the way of the more manoeuverable rubber tyred road vehicles. The decline was accelerated by WW2 and in 1955 the remnants of the two companies were merged and came under LA City ownership.

They all became silver grey as in this promotional trailer for a more in-depth video.

The last trams ran in 1963. There had previously been a "by by" (sic!) to the Big Reds in 1961.

But, just over 30 years later, this happened.

The modern tramway age had begun.

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Peterville Power Problems

Using the skills learned from expert modellers Bill Bodge and Fred Fudge, fbb has recently wired his Peterville layout into five electrical sections. A skilled modeller will be careful to keep his wiring tidy and clearly labelled.

fbb doesn't seem to be able to manage that; spaghetti wiring being more usual.

But recently there was a "short" somewhere and nothing would work. So the old man disconnected each track section it turn to identify the soutce of the failure. It was none of them! 

But the "short" remained. 

Perhaps the contoller was busted? 

So your frustrated blogger disconnected the controller from all the track and the problem disappeared. 

So it wasn't the controller itself but fbb thinks he has identified the problem.

The connections for the feed to the tracks (white wires) are very close together. It is possible that one of the strands of the twisted copper wire escaped from its socket and touched a bit of the other wire, an equal escapee.

Whatever; both ends are now tucked in carefully, screwed down tight and everything seems to be working.

Or is it?

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 Next Metro metro blog : Thu 13 Feb