WHY A TROLLEY AND TRANSIT LAYOUT ?

Why don’t we build more trolleys and other electric transit models in very large scales, such as 2” = 1’ (1:6), and one inch = one foot (1:12) ?

Jimmy Sparkman, an active, build-from-scratch modeler of Philadelphia transit lines ---elevated rail --- has provided us with an excellent standard in his Fallon Street El, running at just below chest level on metal framework resembling girder bridges, and therefore providing an impressive front-car-window view to visitors. It has proven a hit at every East Penn Traction Club and other transit & trolley exhibition at which it has ever been displayed. Sparkman has chosen for his models a scale of ¾ inch to the foot (1:16), in this regard following the common practice of many tram modelers in the UK, where this is a popular choice.

Why ? We could give many reasons … so we will :

1. Small radius curves make gigantic scale much more feasible.
2. As the operator is not sitting on the car, but is operating it by remote control, trolleys --- with their fragile rooftop details --- are a new and welcome addition to possible rolling stock
3. As trolleys operate primarily in urban areas, the use of forced perspective and smaller scale backdrops --- say, in O Scale --- makes sense and is quick and easy to install
4. It would be unique, distinguishable from the live steam hobby
5. Trolleys cater to the trend in nostalgia
6. We maintain the realistic scale effect for which we strive: the motive power of the model reflects the motive power of the prototype.
7. Single unit trains are easy to run and require relatively little power.
8. Especially with passenger railcars, like urban transit, it is possible to stock the car with realistic --- even removable and therefore changeable --- figures reflecting the historic period we're trying to represent.
9. It epitomizes my feelings about sitting on top of mega-gauge models, as live-steamers do. It throws the whole scene completely out of scale, like a grown man on a child's tricycle.
It’s just one guy’s opinion, but we think that it might revitalize the hobby. Instead of just running a car around and around a repetitive course --- as attractive as the models are --- we begin to reproduce a segment of real life. We believe that the additional realities that we can then model in miniature will bring in hobbyists from many other skills and interests.
Until you’ve seen the Thorne Rooms, in the Art Institute of Chicago --- an entire world modeled in breathtaking miniature --- you might not fully appreciate what we mean.