Full size drawings O GAUGE St. Louis Car Co trolley built by the American Car Co
Description
Full size drawings
No material, Drawing only
THESE ARE REPRODUCTIONS OF A 1940 PLAN
St. Louis Car Co
Full size printed drawing with dimension's a 17" x11" sheet
Three page article
Note: no building notes
PLANS WERE OF FULL SIZE TROLLEY
WE HAVE RESCALED and ADDED MEASURMENTS IN INCHES FOR O GAUGE
O GAUGE
TROLLEY LENGTH 10 ¾ ”
WIDTH 2 3/64 ”
By J. Winslow
THE title of the article doesn't mean that the car is a dual purpose car like a locomotive; it's merely a not so-unusual case of a second hand car. The car, or cars, in this case changed hands once.
Back in 1925 the San Antonio Public Service Company bought themselves ten new cars from the St. Louis Car Co. They were pretty much the same as a previous order built in 1923, with the exception of the roof which was higher, and the window sashes, which were metal instead of the common wood variety.
Although this may not sound so important, it changed the appearance of the car considerably.
The photograph shows the cars as they looked when they first appeared in San Antonio. Most of the cars had a Brill 77e truck, although the one in the photo shows a St. Louis truck. While mentioning the trucks, it might be well to note that the San Antonio gauge was narrower than standard.
In 1933, San Antonio won the distinction (?) of being the first American city to go all-bus. When the city went in for this other type of transport, the Third Avenue Railway System of New York City bought both the 1923 and the 1925 vintage cars. Since a reader complained last month that technical data was not specific enough, I will pause and give out the complete data: The 1923 cars were built by the American Car Co. (Brill) and were numbered 500-509 in San Antonio. When the Third Avenue Railway got them, they renumbered them 1230-1239. The later type (in the plan and picture) were 510- 519 in San Antonio, and became 1240-1249 in New York.
In general, the construction of this car differs very little from ones described previously with the exception of a few of the details. The position of the gong as well as the metal guard around it is unusual. The bell could be a large brass screw filed flat on the top. The guard would simply be wire bent to shape and soldered. Unlike most trolleys, the doors were made to open inward. When the Third Avenue Railway took over, they replaced them with the same kind of door that they used on all their cars. Of course these opened outward.
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