Stan’s Obligatory Blog

A few days ago, I got a reminder email from the Academy Museum that the “Cyberpunk” exhibit was closing Sunday. I hadn’t even heard about this, so I decided I needed to go see this. So I made arrangements with my friend John to go see it on Friday.

The “Cyberpunk” exhibit was smaller than I’d hoped, but still very good. There was a video presentation with clips from films from “Tron” to “Ex Machina” to the present day. Then, in the second floor gallery, they had some artifacts, with a phone booth from “Blade Runner”, a costume from “Tron”, concept art drawings and props from several movies. All in all, it was entertaining.

And when we came out of the second floor gallery, we saw that the big 50th anniversary exhibit about “Jaws” was next door. So we went to see that. There were a lot of original props from the movie, and video presentations about topics from making the film, including some Super-8 film clips taken on the set. One piece was about John Williams and the music. They had a little keyboard with keys that lit up as cues so you could play the shark music right there. There was also a montage of clips from many, many films and TV shows with a “…gonna need a bigger…” scenes. Which gives an idea of the cultural impact of the movie.

Overall, it was a fun afternoon.

On Friday, I went to the Southern California Railway Museum in Perris. I’d been there once before, back in 1995, and I’d been thinking of going back again. When I looked at their web site, I saw the Run One Program, and I immediately thought of Sandi, who I met some years ago through Atlas Obscura. She likes to do unusual and obscure things. At first I guessed she’d already done this, since she finds ways to see and do lots of things. But when I asked her, she said she hadn’t done this yet. So I told her I thought we should go do it.

They have two operational examples of the Pacific Electric Red Cars, so I made arrangements for us to have a one-hour session in each of them. That way, we could both drive and ride in each of the two cars.

First up was the 717 “Hollywood” car. They had set it up on the loop track around the museum grounds. We were met by Carson, who is in charge of maintaining the Red Cars. He gave us a short tutorial about how to operate the car, and took us once around the loop. After that, it was my turn to drive. I ran the car a few times around the loop, which was a fun little experience. Then Sandi had a turn to drive it. And before long, our first hour was up, and it was time to move on.

The second Red Car was the 418 “Blimp” car, so-called because it was much larger than the 717. It was set up for us on the “main line” track, which is about a half-mile of straight track. We got the tutorial on how to operate it, and Sandi took the first turn. At the end, we had to turn around, which involved setting the car up to run in the opposite direction. We had to put the pole on the back end of the car up on the wire, and bring the front pole down. I was able to put the pole on the wire, but I couldn’t see the hook on the roof to stow the pole we took down, so Carson had to help us out there. Turning the car around also involved closing and opening valves for the air brakes, and moving the brake handle and operator’s key to the other end of the car. We drove it back and forth several times, and it was an interesting experience.

Each car had a “dead man” switch that had to be held down all the time the car was in motion. The throttles and brakes felt very different on the two cars, so driving each one was a distinctly different experience.

Overall, this was a fun little adventure, and I’m glad to have done it. Also glad to have found something that Sandi hadn’t already done, and to help her to have the chance to do it.