Voltamp Christmas

Carey,

  Merry Christmas to you also.

  Beautiful examples that you have there, especially for their ages and lack of paint loss. Also,nice touch with the wreaths if I can ask where you got them? 

Tom 

Merry Christmas Carey!

George

Hello all ......Interurban was acquired from a Maurer auction ...  I was very lucky the crowd let me have a bargain ( relatively).... the 2500 ( high cab) ...not very many of these out there  .... it is huge ... way to big for  kid ...first designed for the Pan Pacific  expo of 1915 used on the SP layout ....  the Pacific being the latest and greatest engine   at the time ..Voltamp was hired to build equipment for the SP layout ...  I was able to buy this from another collector ...when he purchased a slightly earlier model ... 

the drivers had come loose of the 2500 ...so I had to reset them  to get it to run ...the Interurban just needed a good cleaning to head down the tracks ...

Cheers Carey 

here is a view inside the 2500 

Very nice Carey, Thank you

Nice gear Carey...always great to see Baltimore product still out there.

PD

Nice views of a bit of history, Carey!

Hello all ..thank you for your kind words ....  most Voltamp lives on walls these days ....so I think it is important to give them a bit of exercise once in awhile .    Voltamp was a small regional manufacturer in Baltimore of electrical stuff  ...and seasonally  1908 -1922 ( ending is a bit vague due to many factors..parts and pieces were still available as the story goes in the 30's ..at least) .   Voltamp would guess how many trains they could sell for the Christmas holiday season ....build the trains in September- November... and fill the orders that came in   with hope to have empty shelves by December ( it's  the game   all seasonally manufacturers do ) .    When the calendar turns ( by the way Happy New Year everyone) ... time to blow out remaining stock to make room for new stuff ... 

Voltamp offered discount flyers  which are a great insight as to possible production numbers annually made ..  Voltamp pieces are basically hand made ..with lots of soldered bits ... very labor intensive construction ...the line had some changes over the years ..but the basic freight and passenger cars where made from 1908/10 -1930 -+  when Boucher was still trying to sell the line as standard gauge. 

Voltamp has a charm and mystic all to it's own .....but durable would not be a term used in any way to describe the line.

Cheers Carey