- Paint Schemes:
- Most cities had various paint schemes on their PCC cars over the years, we picked out the one for the following Cities we felt best represented the Paint Scheme that is the most well known.
- We are offering these cars two ways, first version is fully Decorated with appropriate colors, Car Number, and Transit system logo (if it was used on the car, some cities did not put a logo on all cars.)
- Note on Colors:
- Very few color photos exist from the late '30s and '40s. Many that exist have faded from true colors. Plus many of the paints used were lead or cadmium based which are now outlawed, so we have matched paint colors as close as we can from all the information available and taken into account photos taken in shade, cloudy days fading of paint colors due to exposure to the sun, etc.
The Con-Cor HOn3 PCC Car Model:
Con-Cor chose to model a "Pre-War" model of the PCC car as the Los Angeles PCC #3001 car has been preserved at the Orange Empire Railway Museum near Los Angles, this car was built in May 1937 and is still running and giving Tourists and Streetcar buffs a short ride at the Museum today, 71 years after it was first built !
The major difference between the "Pre-WW II" PCC and "Post-WWII" version was that those built after WW-II had the "Standee" windows above the side windows. Our model is of the "Pre-War II" car without the standee windows. Although some of the photos shown are of "Standee" cars where we could not find good color photos of that paint scheme on a Pre-War II car body. Please do not be confused, the only version of the PCC body we are making is the "Pre-War II" car as shown in the photo above of the Los Angeles car.
While the PCC car was a "Standard Design" bureucrates in the individual cities that bought them had to add some "personal" touches, such as extra lights, wider Anticlimbers etc etc. We can not model each and every variation. So we chose to stick with the Los Angeles car which is typical in most details to the original PCC Car design.
We wish to give a big THANK YOU to George L Huckaby, Custom Traxx, Inc. for helping us with this project and making various trips to the Museum to gather photos and do research on paint schemes.
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.
Brief History of the Longevity of the "PCC" Streetcars
The Art Deco Look of the "PCC" car probably helped their long life span, but they were well built, and simple to maintain, so some of the PCC cars built before WW II ran in public service until late 1970's in some cities.
Cars built after WW II, can still be found running " in service" today on public transit systems in San Francisco and Kenohsa Wisconsin amoung others. Usually painted in "Heritage" paint schemes of various cities from around the USA and Canada.
And many, many PCC cars, both Pre-WW II and Post- WW II can be found either running or on display at almost two dozen rail Museums around the USA.
In Summary, the PCC car is a real part of "Americanna" and was the predecessor to the "Light Rail" Transit Systems built or proposed in many USA cities in the last 20 years.
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