#426 Project ~ Floored

 Hollywood. It'll chew you up and spit you out like a piece of 5 and Dime store gum. But if your lucky, every once in a while, you might catch a break.

I'm glad to be working again but man the studios work you hard. Late one night I was dragging like the brain crazed Undead after a particularly long day of production. But I had to hustle if I was to catch the last Metrolink out of the Glendale station and make my journey home. I was making good time too, until...

 A figure steps out of the shadows. I keep walking. Whatever he's selling, I'm not buying. But he walks right up to me. And even though the night seems strangely darker than usual, I can see him pull something out of his jacket and point it at me, the light of the arriving train flashing off the metal! Acting fast, I wrestle it from him. But wait. It doesn't feel right. I examine it the best I can in the little available light. Is this?.... It can't be... It is! Its a brass replacement floor for Pacific Traction's H.O. scale San Diego 400 series class 5 cars etched to accept Hollywood Foundry's new Diablo mechanism and even drilled with holes threaded for the underbody details! But how... why...  Bewildered, I look up...  but he's gone. Disappeared into the the flurry of activity of the detraining and boarding passengers.

In the cheery, brightly lit interior of the train, I examine the floor. Its exactly what I need:

Exhibit A. Top

Exhibit A. Bottom

With the under body details transferred from the original floor.

Finely crafted, accurate dimensions, and that tell-tale logo. There is only one man I know who could be behind this...

Fred Gurzeler! Front man for that Australian mob. Somehow he knew. Somehow he always knows. In this town of a thousand crushed dreams its good to know that Fred is out there, somewhere, watching out for us. Yes sir! Fred's watching out for us! 

Thanks Fred! Wherever you are!

Dandy

Birney's In The Movies!

It's Birney mania I tells ya! Birney trolleys are now showing up in a theater near you!

Changeling, Directed by Clint Eastwood, with Angelina Jolie and John Malkovich, out in theaters now, features Birney trolleys throughout the movie!

I hope I don't spoil it for you but, the trolley is actually a replica riding on rubber tires! The same technique was used on “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” that also featured Pacific Electric streetcars. in early Los Angeles.

Here is a rubber tired Roger Rabbit trolley parked on the side of the road waiting for its close-up.

Rubber tires because tracks are long gone from the streets of LA. Todays trolleys run on separate right-of-ways. So production crews have to lay "track" for the movies. Bill Volkmer photos.

The Changeling production crew built their Birney based on the design of an authentic surviving Pacific Electric birney car #331 and sister car #332, now residing at the Orange Empire Trolley Museum in Perris, California.   I'm afraid I didn't have my facts straight dear followers. My sincerest apologies. The car used in the shoot is in fact an actual Birney! According to John Smatlak's report at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TrolleysCA/message/8362:

The Birney car wasn't from OERM, but rather "Omaha Lincoln & Beatrice #4, (Brill 1926, order #21021, info from Frank Hicks). It's on rubber tires for filming of The Changeling at the San Bernardino depot (seen in the background) and at other locales. OERM loaned seats and other interior furnishings for the car, along with the complete mainline steam train mentioned previously."

During location shooting in Pasadena, local resident David Johnson was on hand to take these videos of the “trolley” providing “background” for a shot.

With the movies fantastic period costumes and authentic automobiles, and with a little Hollywood movie magic, one could escape reality for a couple hours and enjoy a nostalgic trolley ride through 1920s Los Angeles on a Birney car. Yessir! A nostalgic ride on a Birney car!

Dandy