I recently acquired two of the Miniatures by Eric Peter Witt cars, models of prototypes that have been on my wish list for longer than I care to recall. I obtained the Detroit 3959-3980 model, with the imposing overhanging destination sign, characteristic of Detroit, and the Brooklyn 6000 car. This report is principally about the Brooklyn car. Both of these cars were Depression-era attempts to modernize huge systems and were the last attempt to do so before the PCC’s appeared in the mid to late 1930’s.
Eric Courtney is a professional resin caster who is to be commended for undertaking these projects that appeal to geezers like myself. They are an original and new contribution to our small but ardent hobby. The body castings are very acceptable with nice details. Before doing anything else, an hour of cleaning flash from the windows is time very well spent; it will richly contribute to a far more finished looking model when it enters service. The trolley boards need to be placed on the roof, inasmuch as they were not integrated into the casting. Centering them accurately is vital both for appearance and to assure that the pole bushing will sit exactly in the center above the pivot for the rear truck. The modeler will need a pair of Bachmann Peter Witt trucks if using the Eric-built chassis which is available with a peppy motor (though it is visible below the floor line on the left side and will require some camouflaging with an air tank) and universals that connect from the motor to the geared front and rear trucks. A generous sized flywheel is incorporated into the drive. This enables an eight-wheel drive. The roof walk from the right side to the trolley boards must be cemented; the one that Eric provides is fragile and difficult to bend to the roof contour. Fortunately I had a small stash of brass ones that would be perfect for this. The car needs a headlight that in turn needs to be seated dead center in the front and should be 9-12 scale inches in diameter (Figure 1).

Figure 1 - Brooklyn 6000 Front End.

The trolley rope catcher is on the rear, centered under the roof line and above the center window. Reviewing photos reveals that about half of the 6000’s and their closest kin, the 6100’s, had the trolley rope catcher where Eric has placed it (Figure 2).

Figure 2 - Brooklyn 6000 Rear End.

The others had the catcher located on the left side beneath the rear windows (See red arrows). I mention this because if one is compulsive about prototypic accuracy, some research will be needed to choose a correct car number with this feature. I have chosen to model car 6046, since I have a picture of the rear of this car with the pole catcher where Eric has placed it. The floor is attached to the body shell with screws through the floor into front and rear posts cast into the inside of the car roof. I found that the screws provided, while good for the front floor to post connection, were too short to reach the threads in the rear post. Three options were available-a longer screw, countersinking the screw hole on the rear of the floor, or cementing a 1/8 inch L shaped tab to the inside rear of the car, and having the floor rest on it. I chose the latter method (Figure 3), though any will work.

Figure 3 - Interior View-Brooklyn 6000 model.

The advantage to the method I chose is the ease of getting the floor off for working on the car. The front post was a tad shorter than the rear one; consequently, the car was lower in the front than in the rear. This was corrected by placing a three scale inch shim between the bottom of the front post and the floor, which leveled the car nicely. After attending to these details comes the next chore, getting the car running. With a floor and motor, having acquired the Bachmann Peter Witt trucks, which were back-ordered at Bachmann, one would surmise that getting the car operational would be easy, but not so fast! Eric has metal strips on the underside of the floor that contact the metal tabs on the trucks to pick up power from the rails. These strips need to be soldered together and a contact wire soldered to the negative terminal on the motor (Figure 4).

Figure 4 - Running gear installed and wired.

A wire was soldered to the underside of the pole bushing on the inside of the car roof. That wire was crimped near the rear post that should accept the mounting screw from the rear of the floor (issues with that already discussed!) The contact wire from the bushing is cemented to the post and crimped again at the floor (Figure 5).

Figure 5 - Trolley Pole Contact Wire

It should have enough tension to swipe a brass tab cemented to the plastic part of floor (Figure 6).

Figure 6 - Contact Plate for Trolley Pole Power.

From thence, a wire is soldered to the plus terminal of the motor. Now all the wheels are powered and connected to the negative terminal, and the pole is connected to the plus terminal. Testing with a power pack showed that the motor ran well with the plus wire in the pole bushing, and the negative wire attached to any of wheels. Accordingly, it seemed like it should be ready to run. Not-so-fast again! Now we needed to address an insufficient turning radius in the trucks. The first thing I did was to huddle with my great friend, Bob Dietrich, who devised and published a method to improve the turning radius in the Bachmann Peter Witts several years ago. This involves lengthening the U-joints in which the trucks are constrained to allow more swing in the trucks. This step is essential for satisfactory operation and turning, especially in ORR 2400/2403 turnouts. I have two such turnouts on my layout and one other reasonably sharp radius (maybe 7-1/2 inches) so this step was vital. It involves using a Dremel high-speed cutter tool, part 194, 1/8" 3.2mm, to slightly lengthen those U-joints (Figures 7 & 8 below). Omit this step and the car cannot operate.

NOTE: The enlargement of the holes identified with the white arrows in Figures 7 & 8 is a step that must be done slowly and carefully. Cut too much and you may have ruined the floor and possibly the model.

Figure 7 - Dremel Tool and Areas to be Enlarged.
Figure 8 - Dremel Tool Routing One of the Four Areas.

With trial and error, Bob and I got the car so it would turn on almost all of my switches. As sometimes happens, one switch would make trouble; it was the facing switch of the one siding on my layout that uses the Orr switches. Solving this problem took the better part of an evening, but for now it seems to be good, or at least dependable. I added a series of weights over the front truck, and in the end needed to use around 1-1/2 to 2 ounces of lead (Figure 9).

Figure 9 - Weight Added.

This put enough downward pressure on the truck to keep it from climbing the frog of the turnout. Although the car is eight-wheel drive, I was fortunate that no similar problem emerged with the rear truck. The weight is visible in the car and I will need to put a fair number of people into the car to cover up the weights, but Brooklyn cars were crowd movers! The weight is not a stress on the motor, since it is large enough to pull a train. The universals groan a bit on the sharp curves. With the weight in place, the car easily climbs the 4% grades on my layout. Occasionally the car needed a tap on the body to get started - related to the contact of the truck tabs with the contact strips on the floor. Accordingly I dismantled the trucks and adjusted the contact tabs and by so doing, established better and consistent contact and eliminated the stalling (Figure 10).

Figure 10 - Side view of complete chassis.

Of note, because this is a relatively short car, a short pole seems to track best on the overhead. The motor is noisy, but strong. Next will come the painting and decal application. The HO Brooklyn set that Custom Traxx produces will suffice; it has the right logos for the final light green, cream and gray scheme I will apply, along with the requisite silver numerals and destination signs. A strip of styrene will be needed for the destination sign in the front side window just behind the front door. A fender is needed, which I have in my stash. Some things I wish had been thought out a bit more, specifically the turning radius and the attachment of the floor to the shell. Eric worked with what is available for power units for cars of this type and properly concluded that for all its limitations, the Bachmann-type drive was most suitable. With a lot of work, including grinding out of U-joints and adding weights, it can be made to go through some very tight radius curves, such as the 6 1/8" radius of the ORR 2400 and 2403 turnouts. (See Figure 11 below).

Figure 11 - Brooklyn Peter Witt Model Negotiating Orr Turnout.

The model is very reasonably priced. Eric, as normally can be expected, was attentive to the accuracy of the casting. This is a model of a historically significant trolley that will be a nice addition to my fleet. Now to get the Detroit Witt running....more about that to come, along with pictures of the finished Brooklyn and Queens 6046. Next stop Borough Hall on the Flatbush line!

ADDENDUM: After a long Memorial Day Holiday weekend of trial, error, grief, and final elation, the Detroit car was also made capable of negotiating ORR switches as well [Figure 12 below]. This car has a longer wheelbase so this compounded the problem of radius.

Figure 12 - Detroit Peter Witt Model Negotiating Orr Turnout.

But there are some caveats. First, you must CAREFULLY grind out a little further all the U-joints on the floors, add 2-3 oz. of lead weights. Both Miniatures by Eric cars, after adding the headlight on the Brooklyn 6046, the trolley rope catcher on the Detroit model, the roof walks and fenders on both, are now operating and ready for the paint shop. Final products reports to follow!

Thank you, Eric, for the effort on making both models!

Thank you, George (Custom Traxx,) for developing and producing decals for BQT 6046 and the advice during this project.

Thank you, Bob Dietrich, for the brainstorming about solving the problems!

[BTW, if all this is too much tooling effort for anyone, a very nice, workable, high-quality alternative solution is the Diablo and Lightning drive from Hollywood Foundry. RLA])
________________________________________________

Los Angeles Railway PCC Survives (Very Well)!!
***

In 1963, the late Jack Richer was so inspired by Walter Abbenseth’s streetcar acquisitions, that he had decided to buy one himself. MTA had closed the last streetcar operation in March, and most of the cars went to Chile or Egypt. A few made it to museums, including the 3001 (1937), 3100 (1943) and 3165 (1948), plus the body of 3084 (1937), all four of which came to the Orange Empire Railway Museum (OERM) in Perris, CA. The 3101 (1943) went to a museum in Colorado. Richer kept 3072 in operating condition, and under cover, at his dusty ranch in the Owens Valley, running it back and forth over a hundred feet of track, and powered by a lot of batteries. After Jack passed away in 1999, the car came into the custody of another family in the Owens Valley, who parked it in their back yard, to preserve it, but not being quite sure what to do with it. Now ten years later, it has been offered as a donation to OERM. The car is shown in the current condition below:

Despite being out of service for nearly 50 years, it is complete and in remarkably good condition, with little rust, all of its windows and interior intact, and with trucks with wheels that appear to have little time on them. LARY 3072 is part of the second order of PCC cars in 1938, and shares many of its parts in common with two of the other three PCC’s. Today, this car is probably the last intact Los Angeles streetcar in existence outside of museums. It is likely that this could be OERM’s last acquisition of an intact Los Angeles streetcar. This car and its components can provide a much needed backup to the existing well-used fleet already at OERM. Recent inquiries indicates that it will cost between $2,000 and $3,000 to bring the old car home to its final resting place, but recent developments where the car is presently located have made the acquisition in the near future urgent. as it may have to be moved very soon.

[See 3072, column 2]