Kansas City Car 715
Richard L. Allman
Kansas City Public Service air-electric PCC 715 has entered operation on Main Line Transit. The prototype was built by St. Louis Car Company in 1941. It was part of a 24-car order, cars 701-724. The series entered service on the 50 TROOST line, a line with heavy patronage and some steep grades for the cars to show what they had and could do. These would be the only PCC’s KCPS would acquire until the post-war years, when they purchased 160 distinctive all-electric cars without standee windows. The air cars were early victims of the abandonment of trolleys. Nonetheless, in their short time of operation, they sported 3 different paint schemes. I (typically!) chose the most c
Dave - thank you for sharing these pictures of a wonderful streetcar on an equally wonderful trolley layout! Reminds me of the late 1960s/early 1970s, when MR featured a traction layout now and then, not to forget the Motorman Mike column.
Beautifull work, both on the layout and that car. That shell would do nicely for a TTC 4000 series air electricas well. I’m blessed to be able to run the real thing. Our museum collection has TTC 4000 in functional service along with 2 of the later all electric 4600’s( 4600,4611&4618 )We also have two of the cleveland expats with the monitor roof which the TTC turned into their W30-31 grinding set.
Rob
The mossing photo has ben added, and below is his Detroit Dept. of Streeet Railways Peter Witt:
Years ago when I was a kid, I never really got into traction layouts. Of course, being born in the 70s, I never got to see them in real life. Back in 2018, after remembering the episode of Mister Rogers Neighborhood where he visited a trolley museum, I looked up the museum, which is now the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum south of Pittsburgh. I went there, and seeing those beautifully restored cars in action, I can definitely understand the appeal of modeling them now. In fact, I enjoyed visiting the museum so much that I’ve made it an annual trip, and at one point, I even contemplated the possibility of starting my HO scale layout over and going with a traction layout.
https://youtu.be/63fZPrG49SM
https://youtu.be/7o6MN6zRCWY
Kevin
From Richard Allman:
Here is my attempt of a Chicago Surface Lines/ CTA “Odd 17”. I chose the number because it is had the Brill 27GE1 trucks, did not the extra roof vents AND works with the Bowser 4’10” drive. I chose the CTA vs. CSL version for the wimpiest of reasons-I did not want to do all the 1” striping. Of course, using Rich Eaton poles!! They seem highly compatible with my overhead. Or I have made my overhead highly compatible with them . A full narrative is coming-with more detailed captions, this time for East Penn Newsletter will have first right of refusal. Everyone knows that I would have failed miserably but for help from Bob Dietrich.
Some of these cars were built by American, others in-house by CSL shop crews. They were replacement for some of the 1914 steel cars destroyed in a fire at the Archer Avenue car house-I think in 1917.
Thank you, Joseph Spinella and Greg King from Australia who midwifed the project and produced the 3-D printed shell, and George Huckaby who had the decals and furnished the Bowser drive. You are every bit as t
It is lovely to see some streetcars (trams in the UK). At one time I was a volunteer in a local tram preservation society. (Age has stopped me volunteering so much.)
My son now works at Beamish Museum, County Durham. He is seen here ‘at work’.
Christmas 2018
April 2020
David
From Richard Allman, and the Word document did not have spaces between lines, apologies.
Traction-a lifetime obsession
Richard L. Allman, MD
How I got interested in traction is an unanswerable question. I cannot recall when I was
not interested in trolleys and rail transit. Before I could remember, my father took me
riding on trolleys on the Red Arrow West Chester line and told me how much I enjoyed
it. This morphed into true love and fascination with looking at trolleys on the Red Arrow-
especially seeing cars on lines other than the stretch between 69 th Street Terminal and
Westgate Hills, where we lived. Westgate Hills was an early example of a trolley suburb.
Atlantic City Brilliner 201
Richard L. Allman
Atlantic City Transportation Company Brilliner 201 has entered operation on Main Line Transit. The prototype was the first of a 25-car fleet acquired by the Atlantic City and Shore Railroad in 1940. It was originally numbered 6891, then 6901. The numbering system related to the company’s ownership by the Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines and in turn, the latter’s ownership by the Pennsylvania Railroad; the cars were numbered as part of the Pennsy passenger car roster. The Brilliner was Brill’s attempt to offer a competitive alternative to the PCC car. Other than the 25 Atlantic City cars, only 5 other single-end Brilliners would be built: 3 for Philadelphia, and one each for Baltimore and Cincinnati. They were built as demos for those systems but all three opted instead for major purchases of PCC cars. The failure to obtain a large order from Philadelphia sent a message to Brill, and after delivering 10 double-ended versions to Philadelphia Suburban Transportation Company in 1941, Brill abandoned the streetcar business and became a major manufacturer of buses and trackless trolleys in its final years in business. Car 6901 originally had a complex (and in my view, ugly!) two-tone green, gold, silver striped and cream livery, however the distinguished designer Raymond Loewy, of GG-1 fame, designed the striking black and cream scheme that would be applied to all the cars. The first version of the Loewy scheme was even more complex, with silver around the belt rail areas. The version
I love the pictures, but I am having a hard time with the text.
-Kevin
Yeah! Like too much of it. I grew up in Chicago in the 40’s riding Brill street cars…they were noisey as hell compared to the later Green Hornets, as they were called.
Take Care! [swg]
Frank
Regarding the autobiographical part of the posting: In the edit mode, the unfortunats hoge spacing between lines of text dissapears, and this suggests thst one has solved the problem. Which did not happen. I think Richard’s story is interesting enough for the moderator to help make the posting easier to read.
I’ll take a shot because I can’t read either version as is. The author was fond of run on sentences as well.
Atlantic City Transportation Company Brilliner 201 has entered operation on Main Line Transit.
The prototype was the first of a 25-car fleet acquired by the Atlantic City and Shore Railroad in 1940. It was originally numbered 6891, then 6901. The numbering system related to the company’s ownership by the Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines and in turn, the latter’s ownership by the Pennsylvania Railroad; the cars were numbered as part of the Pennsy passenger car roster.
The Brilliner was Brill’s attempt to offer a competitive alternative to the PCC car. Other than the 25 Atlantic City cars, only 5 other single-end Brilliners would be built: 3 for Philadelphia, and one each for Baltimore and Cincinnati.
They were built as demos for those systems but all three opted instead for major purchases of PCC cars. The failure to obtain a large order from Philadelphia sent a message to Brill, and after delivering 10 double-ended versions to Philadelphia Suburban Transportation Company in 1941, Brill abandoned the streetcar business and became a major manufacturer of buses and trackless trolleys in its final years in business.
Car 6901 originally had a complex (and in my view, ugly!) two-tone green, gold, silver striped and cream livery, however the distinguished designer Raymond Loewy, of GG-1 fame, designed the striking black and cream scheme that would be applied to all the cars.
The first version of the Loewy scheme was even more complex, with silver around the belt rail areas. The version that I chose was a later, slightly more simplified rendition which was all black and cream. The initial letterboard AT
Bob Dietrich is mentioned above, and a visit to his website is heartily recommended:
http://www.dietrichsfam.com/shj/.
Here are a few of the many, many, photos, and there is much more.
This is not prototype, but HO:
There are also an all-time Pittsburgh Rys. roster, prototype photos, a “cab ride,” and much more. You wn’t be dissapointed.
daveklepper, Thanks for the South Hills Junction link, lots of wonderful modeling.
regards, Peter
Brookly 6000-series Peter Witt and Brooklyn special Clark Equipment PCC 1000 vatious locations on Richard Allman’s Lsyout:
6046 & 1000 at Keystone Junction
At New England Village
Arriving at New England Village
Heading for Keystone JuncArriving, New England Village siding
Arriving, N. E. Village siding
Leaving N. E. Village
Passing row houses near Keystone Junction
For photos of the actual prototypes of these two models, see the Classic Trains Forum, “All the Brooklyn PCC photos one could want.” and “Peter Witts that are not PCCx.”
Hi Dave,
The photo is not showing, at least for me.
Dave
The descriptions of the photos (now edited for better reading) refer to the photos in the previous posting.