Trolley Cars Shunned

I assume it has to do with how well they sell, but MTH and Lionel seem to be content in reissuing existing molds. I would add to your list Cincinnati Car Co Curved side interurban and a Box Motor/Freight Trolley. But any NEW trolley would be most welcome

Open-bench trolleys bring up the issue of where to put the motors. I think only the old K-Line trolleys had low-profile under-floor motors that would have worked in 3-rail. I imagine even the WBB drivetrain may not be able to hide under an open-bench design.

So far as enclosed models go, I'd imagine the economy and its resultant slump in consumer spending may have put the brakes on adventuresome new tooling, even for light-rail vehicles one can see and ride in-person today.

---PCJ

MTH did make an electroliner recently and that's like an. Inter urban.

Be nice to see a pacific electric car for an inter urban. I would like to see a NYCTA steeplecab lettered for South Brooklyn Railway. Also a gate car el car would be nice.u

What's the point?  Even if the big names did return to trolleys, their execution is consistently horrible.  Atlas makes beautiful commuter cars, but its trolleys look nothing like the systems they supposedly ran on.  Lionel's subway cars are very prototypical, but its only trolley model is the toylike Birney it has pumped out for fifty years.  MTH makes terrific subways and commuter trains, but its PCCs are shockingly schlocky.  Williams actually made one good Peter Witt car (obviously Baltimore was the prototype), then came out with the same car in liveries that are ridiculously inaccurate.  If you want running trolleys that look anything like the real thing, your only options are to motorize Corgi, Island Modelworks, and St. Petersburg models or try to pick up any motorized Car Works trolleys still available.

Steamer-

I must concede that MTH's Electroliner was well executed.

My expectation for O-Gauge trains is their overall impression, so scale details are not important to me. MTH Rail King Rail King semi-scale (not bantam & not 027) in my opinion give the best impressions on my 12' x 24' layout with 042 minimum mainline curves.

As for trolley cars, Western Hobbycraft and MTH Rail King are my favorites. Here again I don't need to have scale details. I just want a good overall impression of an Osgood Bradley open 14 or 16 bench trolley car in Connecticut livery! 

I think trolley / street car power trucks are doable with the can motors used in N- Gauge trains. It would not bother me to have an open car with a can motor sticking up in it if that's the way it has to be. Above all, I want an open trolley car preferably made by MTH in their affordable Rail King line in Connecticut livery.

I would love to see a steeple-cab, or similar freight motor. Baldwin, and other manufacturers had stock models that several lines bought. Even an all wooden baggage car like freight motor would be cool.

Heavier Interurbans... not just "trolley cars".. 

I'd like to echo that...Some proper Interurban cars from Lionel or MTH (not just repaints of PRR MP54's), and some Boxmotors and/or Steeplecabs.

In short, Chicagoland traction please! (A little Illinois Terminal also wouldn't go amiss either.)

Zach

I remember the steeple cabs in Canada seen during a family trip to Quebec in the summer of  1954 in a 51 Plymouth.

And catenary?  How many on here are running GG-1's under catenary?  Tis the

reason I don't plan to model the Denver and Interurban on layout....more poles and wires (just for appearance) for me to stick my paw through reaching for something.  Is that Iowa interurban freight hauler still running under wire?  Seems like there was a famous one also in Oklahoma....Any freight motors still in operation? What were pictured above and when?

The first steeplecab is in Mason City Iowa and is still pulling freight. The second is the CNS&M nicknamed "Alligator" a former Oregon Electric Motor. Her sister engine was a boxcab arrangement with the same four truck articulated arrangement, that another interurban, the Piedmont and Northern pioneered. ( see below) The engine was scrapped in 1963 after the demise of the North Shore. As a boy I lived a block from the Mundelein yard, and saw her often. More often, the NSL would run four steeplecabs in tandem. A lot of flying switches...fun to watch. 

The last is one of the Illinois Terminal streamliners, that ran between Peoria, Springfield and St Louis. That road de-electrified in 1956 and was ran with diesel power until it was absorbed by N.S, hence the I.T Heritage Diesel paint scheme was incorporated recently in their homage to the roads it absorbed.

pEOPLE WHO WANT OPEN CARS SHOULD REMEMBER THAT ONE OF THE OBSTACLES TO TRUCK SWING ON AN OPEN CAR IS THE RUNNING BOARDSIN THE WAY OF TRUCKS ON A CURVE.YOU ARE NOT GOING TO RUN ONE ON A 9" RADIUS CURVE.I HAVE A KIDDER OPEN CAR WITH  WAGNER MAXIMUM TRACTION TRUCKS TO GIVE THR CAR THE ABILITY TO CLEAR TIGHTER RADIUS CURVES.THE OTHER ALTERNATIVE IS TO JUST HAVE A SINGLE TRUCK OPEN CAR

 THE BEST OPEN CAR IN MY OPINION WAS BROUGHT OUT BY MODEL TRAMWAYS SYSTEM  (JOEL LOVITCH) THE MOTOR WAS IN THE BODY AND THE TRUCKS DRIVEN BY SHAFTS.

THE WIND WILL BLOW YOUR HAIR MY DEAR

SO GO AND FETCH YOUR TURBAN

THE HIGHWAYS HOT AND SLOW I FEAR

WE'LL TAKE THE INTERURBAN

 IN HONOR OF THE RANCOCAS VALLEY ROUTE

AND BILL SCHOPP FOR HIS INSPIRATION IN 1940 ISSUES OF MODEL CRAFTSMEN MAGAZINE WHICH PIQUED MY INTEREST IN TROLLEYS 

K-Line made a two car Pacific Electric set for 200.  Check eBay.

The K Line Pacific Electric car is a decorated generic heavyweight, much the same as K Line, Lionel and MTH have done with other road names on a generic model to create an interurban or commuter car. Lionels original model was based on the Lackawanna electrics and is a pretty good rendition of that car but not some of the other road names it has released .

In their subway series, both MTH and Lionel have created accurate models of the cras they have offerred. The K line PE car roof ,door and window arrangements are not accurate for an PE interurban . The paint scheme is very colorful and could be a good seller but we need to have someone make a car that is close to a Pacific Electric car prototype. The PE also had box motors and steeple cabs so that would be an additional opportunity .

I bought the PST Electroliner (Renamed Liberty Liner by PST) and it is gorgeous. The only mistake was not adding the doors to the center coach for the shorter stations in the P&W.

We need S-70 modern cars!

3rd Rail has done both the Electroliner (and LibertyLiner) as well as two versions of the standard CNS&M (North Shore) interurban cars.  All three are very nice reproductions of the originals, the standard cars come in 3 car sets with the center car being the diner-club car.  The Electroliner is closer to the original than the MTH sets, and also runs well.  3rd Rail still has some of the 3 car NS sets in stock and if any of you are interested, it would be well worth your while to contact the folks at 3rd Rail/Sunset Models.  I own all three examples (the standard cars were done in either the "Silverline" paint scheme or in the pre-war "Greenliner" colors.) 

Love to see those trains running smoothly around my layout.

Paul Fischer

I have the powered trucks that replaced the dummy ones on some Corgi 1:50 PCC trolleys and they are stunning.  Great detail, nice scale and trucks that are powered in the truck just like the real thing.  Yes, they are two rail though.

Just some photos showing my Corgi powered PCC next to the Railking version.  There really is no comparison other than I like anything painted in New Jersey Transit.  Trying to work a traction loop into my layout somewhere and the Corgis will be nice even if they are labeled for Chicago.

Jonathan-

Get a Corgi NJ Transit PCC.  Much more prototypical than MTH and there's one on ebay right now.

Corgi also made a PCC in New Jersey Public Service and Atlas made a Brill pay within car in NJ Public Service also and they did have cars like it as well in Newark.