Keith Haney (Curator and Fare Box Distribution) lived in Yakima, Washington and put his nickel in the Yakima Valley Transportation Company streetcars from 1944 to their demise in February, 1947. The three 1935 Brill-liners (#20-22) were the mainstay of the fleet then.
Early Years
As a first-grader, Keith could walk two blocks to the reversal point at 6th Street and Yakima Avenue. He made friends with most of the crews, who would let the scrawny little kid reverse the seats and change pole ends. The latter took some figuring out because the pole springs could pick him right off his feet. The crews always had a good laugh at that. There were other units on the premises at that time, with juice jacks #297 and 298 hauling all the local freight over 40-plus miles of trackage. Wire car A was a home-made wire and line car; several old interurbans rusted in the yards, and there were two work flatcars, one with a manual crane.
Joining the AVA
Attempts to build a model layout were literally crushed when he moved to Elkhart, Indiana and his model layout tables did not survive moving vans. A neighbor had the beginnings of a full-basement layout which provided lots of new opportunities to help build model buildings, do all the wiring, and crank the controller handle on what became an 8-table layout. He built several O-scale model cars with parts purchased in Dallas and Pennsylvania, and added a few old PA trolley tokens in his purchases. A letter to John Coffee asking how to find out what those tokens were was answered with an application to the AVA, a complete set of the old Yakima tokens, and information on how to buy the Catalog. Haney was hooked. Unfortunately, Texas had no basements and all layout plans were shelved.
Convention Years and Duties
After a couple years, he attended the Topeka Convention. Some extrovert lady member grabbed the new-comer and made him feel welcome, and soon some trading (mostly buying) started. He has now attended the last 27 consecutive Conventions.
He ended up with the Convention Auction management job, Curator, and Fare Box Distribution, and has a whole rack of club paraphernalia stored under his house. He got into the estate disposition function for deceased members, and produced the Members Personal Tokens catalog. He engraves the 10-year membership medals, and produces the 25- and 50-year certificates. He works closely with the Treasurer to keep the dues records current for the Roster. He mails 150 printed Fare Boxes monthly; was instrumental in getting the Fare Box also distributed by email, and sends out 240 email copies monthly. He is a permanent Board Member.
Keith’s Family
He is married to Sandra, who has logged the sales data for the Convention Auction for at least 20 years. Keith has four adult children and three grandkids, none of whom have any interest in their father’s token hobby.