Brief History of the origins of the "PCC" Streetcar / Trolley

     In the middle of the 1930's Depression, all major cities needed to buy new streetcars, but money of course was in short supply. So a committee was formed by the Presidents of the transit systems to design a "common" design streetcar that could be mass produced efficiently. This group was nick-named the "Presidents Conference Committee" or "PCC".

     The design that emerged was to bring modern looks and technology to streetcars, and the basic "PCC" design was the most sucessful streetcar ever built, 4500 PCC cars ran in 33 cities in North America, and the design was even copied in Europe after WW II.

     The Art Deco Streamlined PCC cars first appeared in 1936, and were a "hit" with the public. They were much more smooth riding than the existing streetcars, and people would let a "old fashioned" streetcar pass on the street and wait for one of the new PCC cars to ride on. On Sunday's some cities offered "free" rides on the transit system, and people would ride the PCC cars to a public park for a picnic, or downtown to the civic center of the city to a museum or civic event.

Features:

• DCC Ready with NMRA 8 pin plug
• Space for Speaker mount
• All wheel drive
• Powereful 5 pole motor
• Interior with lighting
• Working headlights, tail lights.
• Authentic paint schemes
• Runs on tight 9 inch radius
• Motorman figure
• "Next Car Light" (Where appropriate, see comments below)

      Some (but not all) cities used what they called a "Next Car light". This was an extra Red light on the front of the PCC car which the motorman could turn on and off as needed. When turned on, it told the passengers waiting at the next stop, that this streetcar would not be stopping, either it was "full" or "out of service" and heading back to the car barn.

      ** Con-Cor is adding the "Next Car Light" to some of the cars were appropriate, but this fuction can only be accessed in "DCC" mode when you add a DCC decoder (not supplied with the model). And then the P-3 Function control can be used to turn the "Next Car Light" On or Off as it is traveling down the tracks.

ORDER YOURS NOW!!

grl