There is always movement and action

At one model engineering exhibition in London a national newspaper reporter, alert for a new angle upon which to write, after looking for some time at the wide variety of scale model tramcars gliding over the tracks on the Tramway & Light Railway Society’s stand approached me and asked, ‘Why model tramcars and not model trains?’ ‘Simply because on a model tramcar layout there is always movement and action,’ I replied. ‘In the heyday of electric tramcars it was the slogan of many tramway undertakings that “There’s always a tram in sight”. While not wishing to decry model railways, when the model train has passed, there should be a scale pause before the next one appears, that is if correct timekeeping realism is to be observed. No such restrictions applied to tramcars, the streets always had a profusion of them.’ Duly impressed the reporter left our stand and next day I observed with interest that this theme had been developed to the extent of three-quarters of a column in The Times newspaper.

E. Jackson-Stevens explains the allure of model trams in the introduction of his book, Scale Model Electric Tramways and How to Model Them, 2nd printing, 1986, published by David & Charles Publishers. First published in 1972.

That’s the only statement I’ve seen in print that tram, aka streetcar, modelling might be worth pursuing because it’s fun, and not for the usual prosaic reasons that such a layout could easily fit in a tight space, or more closely mimic how the prototype actually functions.