Searching for American streetcarmodels H0

[trolleyboy]

It's a late post to your topic likely you've already discovered them by now but Labelle woodworking still makes quite a line of wood interurban models. These are a craftsman type kit and aren't for the faint of heart. TB

[Jetrock]

Probably the cheapest source for American trolley models is Bachmann's Brill and PCC models, although these need some pretty serious work to work on a traditional trolley layout--the fake plastic trolley poles must be replaced by working poles, and the power truck rewired. They are cheap, though, even after buying two trolley poles, and the power truck is not bad at all. They can be found on eBay or train shows for $5-10 each.

Traction has been dying for a long time, but as cities start to reintroduce "light rail" it seems that interest in traction is again on the rise--but I don't think manufacturers have yet picked up on this, except for small manufacturers like CustomTraxx and MRR Warehouse. It's definitely a field for folks who don't mind building things...

[dknelson]

Suydam was among the outfits that imported some in brass in the 1960s, and years ago Walthers had some interurban kits in their line. A shop with a collection of used material might have these things.
When searching the internet in addition to "trolley" and "streetcar" try "traction."

Dave Nelson

[aegis2]

You may want to check out MTS Imports. They import brass interurbans and trolleys. They are expensive, especially the painted ones. Their web site is www.mtsimports.com . I do not own any, they are out of my proce range.

If you can locate a copy of John Glaab's "The Brown Book of Brass Locomotives" you can find a listing of brass interurbans and streetcars that have been manufacturered. The book is somewhat out of date, last published in 1994, but this would give you an idea of what has been manufactured in the past.

[StillGrande]

Try looking for trolleys, not just street cars. I know ebay has lots of them at various quality from the old bachmanns to brass.

They are starting to make a comeback in some cities. I know Dallas revived the McKinney Avenue Trolleys, Boston still has them (run near my Mother-In-Law's house) and there are other cities looking at bringing them back.

[Big_Boy_4005]

Nice link, I forgot about Bowser, then I followed the trail and saw all kinds of stuff. Is it my imagination or are there fewer traction related articles in MR than there used to be?

[jrbarney]

Danny,
You might try Bowser's trolley kits, their URL is:
http://www.bowser-trains.com/hoother/trolleys/trolleys.htm
Also, there are a few companies that offer subway cars in brass and possibly
other companies that offer them as limited production resin kits. Hope this helps keep you interested until the trolley and traction modellers respond.
Bob

[Big_Boy_4005]

There have been street car models made over the years, but the numbers have gotten smaller over time. Most US cities tore out their streetcar systems in the 50's, under heavy influence from bus manufacturers like General Motors.

Minneapolis and St Paul, saw their last streetcars run in 1954 (I just noticed that this will be the 50th anniversary) though a local historical group has restored a few cars, and has a short section of non street right of way that they operate on during the summer months. Its ironic that in the next year we will be opening a new "light rail" line here, and only goes to show that the old system should have never been scrapped in the first place.

There were a few companies that produced cars nationally for sale to cities, but many of the large cities built their own cars, so there is a wide variety of styles to model. The Twin City Lines was one such company, and actually produced and sold cars to smaller systems around the region.

There was a local hobby store many years ago, whose owner collected HO brass streetcars, and kept them on display in the store. He had quite a few, so I'm sure they are out there, but they may be very hard to find, since they were produced in such limited quantities.

There have been some plastic models made over the years, but the popularity of modeling street cars just isn't enough for there to be many models to choose from. Your best bet may be to look for plans and build them yourself.

Good luck.

P.S. this is my 300th post.[:D]

[digidanny]

I'm a Dutch modelcollector searching for sites/shops with US/Canadian streetcarmodels H0. Do they exist overthere? I surfed around, but only found size "0". Trains enough but no trammodels like a classical interurban for example. Maybe I did not try enough, eather way I was not succesfull.
[?]Can some one in this forum help me?
I'm very gratefull to any answer[tup].

My European models( Poland, Russia, Germany, Belgium, UK, Austria and Holland ofcourse) you can find under "modeltrams" at www.amsterdamsetram.com

Hearing of you ?
Danny/Amsterdam