Transit Modeling – A Broad Niche

First in a Series - page 2

By Alfred Barten

Why Model Transit?

It’s normal to want to build or have a model of something familiar. With so much of the world’s population living in or near urban centers, it might seem surprising that transit modeling isn’t more widespread. Have the manufacturers read it wrong? Or has transit not sufficiently caught the imagination of the public. Admittedly the call of the lonesome whistle to the young farm boy is something the city dweller hasn’t experienced, unless he grew up on a farm and answered the call. But the city boy’s counterpart is the ever-present transit vehicle, its sounds, its movement, its familiarity.

I suspect it may be more a matter of the extra effort that needs to be made, particularly with trains and trolleys, that discourages many. A trolley, for example, generally requires overhead power collection. A rapid transit train requires overhead power collection or more likely outside third-rail power collection. A rapid transit train and a trolley may also run on an elevated structure and/or in a tunnel. Modeling the urban environment also takes more effort in the form of buildings, automobiles, trucks and people – and therefore expense – than a bucolic scene. It may also be that city dwellers have less space for a model railroad than their suburban or rural counterparts.

Still, there are those who have pioneered and others who continued. Trolley modeling has been with us quite visibly for over 60 years, but rapid transit modeling has been much more slow to catch on. Fortunately, we are now seeing mainstream manufacturers producing rapid transit. Curiously, we have not seen much for the smaller scales – N and Z – which would seem perfect for rapid transit modeling, since it can be quite expansive.


Bachmann N-scale Brill semi-convertible right out of the box, awaiting assignment and perhaps refinishing.

Of course rapid transit modeling is extremely well represented in train simulations, especially the drive-it sim, BVE Trainsim. Other train sims, such as Microsoft Train Simulator and Trainz Railroad Simulator, also have rapid transit representation, thanks largely to third-party creators.


Driving the London Underground in a LT 1995 train by Steve Green, Miles Codrington and Dan Lewis for BVE 4.

Personal computers have taken us beyond what could previously be modeled and we now have train dispatching simulations and system-wide simulations.


If you look closely will see an elevated train, a ferryboat, and a tram in this screen capture from a Locomotion scenario. Hint: they're all blue or blue and white.

Space Considerations

If limited available space is a concern to city dwellers, trolley modeling offers an attractive solution. Just like the prototype, trolleys can “turn on a dime.” A typical minimum radius turn for trains in HO Gauge is 15 inches. Many HO gauge trolleys can turn on a 7-inch radius. An HO train layout with 15-inch radius requires a baseboard of 34” x 34” for a minimum circle, whereas a similar trolley layout with 7-inch radius only requires an 18” x 18” baseboard. With either train or trolley you can build a shelf layout.

Another answer to the space problem is to join a club and work with others on a common layout in a central location. Closely related to this approach is to build modules and join them to modules built by others when getting together for special events, such as regular group meetings or train shows.

There’s also the question of smaller scales, such as N and Z. The former has been with us for a good 40 years; the latter for a good 20 years or so. An N-scale trolley layout with 4-inch radius requires only a 10” by 10” baseboard for a simple circle. If N-scalers are known for building layouts in a coffee table, Z-scalers are known for building layouts in briefcases.


Bachmann Brill semi-convertibles in HO and N scales.



Here's half of a symmetrical N-scale urban trolley layout that fits on a shelf, 11-1/2" x 48" (42" would be sufficient). Turns have a 3" radius.

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