Street Car Appeal

Oooohhh, Tyler likes.

The new F-line PCC streetcar from Bowser, seen here in San Francisco Municipal Railway paint.

Looks good, looks good. Models like this come out and that interurban railroad I've been thinking about sounds better all the time. (The Bachman "Peter Witt" streetcar is another. If someone will make a good ready-to-run steeple-cab freight motor, I might make the jump.)

When it comes to modeling, interurban and streetcar lines have the following assets and liabilities:

Assets:

• Compact track arrangements (such as Sacramento Northern's 40th & Shafter terminal)
• Short trains
• High frequency of trains (it's a streetcar line, after all!)

Liabilities:

• Lack of ready-to-run models (for some, this is a plus)
• Catenary or overhead wires (a real modeling challenge)
• Era (1900-1950, with some exceptions; heyday of the interurbans was the 1910s and 1920s. Unless you model it as a de-electrified switching road, like the modern day Southern Railway of British Columbia.)