#Post 12

The wish to return to modelling traction was probably caused by viewing a nearly fifty year old 8mm film of my collection. At that time I was collecting no particular company or prototype. That ended up with a Pacific Electric Hollywood car, a North Shore car, a New Orleans car and a Birney car which could have come from many cities, you just have to name one. Chuck in a single truck sprinkler and freight car and also a bogie centre cab work freight car and you have a very mixed bag for a traction layout. It wasn't that long really since the tramway system in Sydney had finished and I certainly knew more about our system than any overseas one. And as commercial models of Sydney weren't available the next best was something from overseas.

Brass models were probably at their peak during the 70's to 80's and were gladly received. There was an owner of a hobby store in Melbourne that always got a visit when I got down that way and after heading down the stairs into the shop, you were immediately in 'brass heaven'. As I had not long been working my choices were on the low price side of things, hence the Birney and single truck freight car.

So wind the clock forward and a chance to 'start' again in traction was made by the choice of what was available. This ended up being an entire fleet of painted trolleys sourced from Facebook Market place. And the majority of this painted fleet were from the Chicago. And being from downunder I don't think I was expected to know american geography. I had a rough idea that San Francisco was on the left hand side and New York was on the right. And due to the numerous hurricanes soon learnt where Florida was - bottom right.

I thought that I had better start squatting up on my geography lessons just in case I got some questions on where places were. And yes Chicago is to the left of New York.

Most of the models I obtained were from Chicago and pained in the 'red and cream', I am not sure if there is a more accurate colour classification available but for now 'red and cream' will do.

Wanting to learn more about where my trolleys came from I Googled 'Chicago Surface Lines' and on the Australian Ebay up came a 400 page book titled 'Chicago Surface Lines - An Illustrated History' by Alan R. Lind and as an added bonus it was autographed by the author! And a bargain for just under $30AU postage paid. After a couple of days the book turned up. The cover was a bit torn but what do you expect for a fifty year old book?. It also had that typical 50 year old paper smell and probably had never seen the sun in all that time. So I laid it out on a table outside turning over a group of pages each time I went past hoping to make it smell better. Unfortunately there are no coloured pictures in there but it seems extremely comprehensive covering all aspects of the CSL lines. Not one of my favourite things to do is reading but plenty of good pictures to enjoy.

Another thing I have learned about Chicago is that it was home to the North Shore line and amongst their fleet were two four car trains known as the 'Electroliners' and they operated between Chicago and Milwaukee. My interest in the Electroliner peaked when a friend who was aware of my introduction into traction happened to mention if I wanted to buy an HO painted model of the Electroliner to which the answer was of course 'yes'

Electroliner on the elevated in downtown Chicago

The model was produced by Con-Cor in the early 2000's and is painted, and includes internal lights, seats and head and tail lights. There are four trolley poles, two are raised for travel in each direction. The model is currently DC but DCC ready which will be fitted when the time comes for operation.
 

HO Electroliner as released

It was good I made an early decision to obtain this unit as I haven't finalised the layout design yet and one thing I became aware of is that 10" radius curves are around the smallest this unit works best one, so that will be a determining factor with design. The layout will be more likely be designed around city streets rather than open country side where the majority of the trips were made. But an iconic model that deserves collecting.

Starting point Chicago - internet photo

Street running - internet photo

Heading out of town - internet photo

At the time of receiving the unit I was in the throes of demolishing my narrow gauge layout and decided to take a few photos in amongst the O scale structures and humans, only the absence of overhead wiring gives it away.

 I am sure the model wasn't run much when received so it ended up doing a dozen or so laps around the layout to run it in and one part of the journey over the Thomson River bridge I managed a video.

 This is a great add to my collection and I can't wait to see it 'under the wires' one day.