streetcar of Bachmann

Model Railroader Prototype information for the modeler
1

Hi,I´mChristian from Germany,

is the streetcar no.84603 Peter Witt NY Brooklyn&Queens Transit correct with a correct prototype? Can anyone show me a picture of the prototype?

Thanks!

2

Hi Christian,

It looks like a decent match to me, but judge for yourself…

http://www.brooklynrail.net/info_histphotos.html

http://www.tmny.org/tmny8361.html

It’s least a good starting point for superdetailing.

3

It is a decent model of the US built Witts. You do have to go to photo’s from the streetcar company you want to model though as each railroad and each real world company that made Witt type cars had subtle differences.The Witt’s built in Canada for Toronto came in two sizes and had some different designs. Brill of Canada made large Witt’s for teh TTC which had a very peaked centre to their arched roof. The ones made by Canadian Car and Foundry of Montreal and the Ottawa car company were closer to the US built ones but again had slight differences on the front dash.

This is a CC&F built Witt that we run daily at our museum in Ontario it is the typical small Witt 47 foot long.

This is an Ottawa car Co large Witt also running daily at our museum also an ex TTC car. The main difference between the smalls and larges besides the length 2424 is 53 feet long, was the truck gearing and brake piping. the alrges were built to haul trailers on the TTC on the heavier used lines. Queen St, King Street and Yonge Street, the smalls ran by themselves and were geared for faster speeds.

Rob

4

One other issue:

Sorry that I don’t have a picture for an example, but some other users of the Witt, such as Los Angeles Railway, had the sills shaped differently with lower skirting along the sides.

5

One last thing…

As far I can tell there is a door on the front right and the middle right. On the left I haven’t seen any with a door on the front, and the middle door appears to be optional. Some transit companies had them, and others didn’t. The Brooklyn & Queens Transit company appears to have gotten them.

6

The prototype for the Bachman car is a Brill Master Unit Peter Witt. The “Peter Witt” part of the name refers to the traffic pattern within the car. The “Brill Master Unit” part refers to the exterior styling, different from the photos of earlier cars in the previous replys.

Brill developed their Master Unit as a standard streetcar they wanted to market. When lines wanted the Peter Witt interior instead, Brill produced it but with the modernized Master Unit exterior.

The Baltimore Trolley Museum’s website shows Bachman’s prototype.

http://www.trolleymuseum.org/collection/national/6144.html

7

Now that’s very interesting, something I wasn’t at all aware of. I did wonder about the styling of the car, but I didn’t make the connection between these cars and the Master Units. Thanks for posting that information, Beowulf.

All the best,

Mark.

8

The latest Scale Rails (NMRA magazine) has a rather thorough review of the unit, with some background info and close up photos. As a matter of fact it fails to get a conformance warrant due to some deviations from NMRA standards for traction.

Dave Nelson