The Brandywine Transit Co. and Me

After writing the post on the genesis of the Mt. Lowe layout, the project that took 10+ years from desire to finished layout, I got to thinking about how long I've been thinking about building a layout inspired by the TTC's streetcar network. So far it's been 50 years! 

From very early on I've been thinking about a TTC layout. Maybe from around '74 or '75, I can't say for certain other than when I saw the May '75 issue of Model Railroader at the local smoke shop newsstand with The Brandywine Transit Co. emblazoned on the cover I thought maybe this was the project to tell me what I wanted to know about building a streetcar layout.

It turned out I was rather disappointed.

So fast-forward 50 years. I went searching for information about The Brandywine Transit Co. online. There was almost nothing, but there were the usual AI findings at the top of the search results. They were rather sketchy though, not to mention pathetic and misleading. I decided to go and look up the BTC articles in my old magazines to properly get an idea of the big picture, and do a little reminiscing. The feel of the paper and the odour from the pages was enough to induce some mild time travelling :-)

I was surprised to find that the series was much longer than I remembered. There were 15 articles altogether from the May '75 issue to May '78. The first 10 dealt with construction of the layout, and the last 5 showed how to build some buildings and rolling stock. Here's the list:

May ’75: Part 1: Building the benchwork and plotting the plan

July ’75: Part 2: Beginning the tracklaying and overhead construction with the hidden interurban laps

Sept ’75: Part 3: Continuing with the tracklaying

Nov ’75: Part 4: Modeling the streets and sidewalks

Jan ’76: Part 5: Wiring the city division

Mar ’76: Part 6: Building prototypic controllers and wiring the interurban division 

May ’76: Part 7: Carbarn construction

Aug ’76: Part 8: Passenger terminal construction

Sept ’76: Part 9: Overhead wire construction for the city division

Oct ’76: Conclusion: Catenary construction for the interurban division

Feb ’77: Build a block of stores

Mar ’77: Old-time gas station

July ’77: Trolley-stop luncheonette

Feb ’78: Build a modern block of stores

May ’78: Build a trolley work train

I should also mention that there's a brief biographical note about the series' author, Walter R. Olsen, in the Aug '72 issue. He was an up and coming star at the time. Among other things he had written a popular series on how to build an N scale layout in a coffee table, called the East Glasstop R.R.. It ran in MR from Dec '70 to Apr '71. The biography also contains this rather interesting quote: "I don't care about operation at all. Once a layout is finished I usually run it only for visitors until it is torn up to make way for a new one." I'm more-or-less of the same mind, except for the tearing up part - ok, I have done that, but I like to think it's the exception and not the rule with me :-)

The BTC and series is a master class in how to properly build a traction layout with 1970s model railway technology and methods. I don't think I'd be exaggerating to say it was one of the best layout construction series MR published in the 20th century.

So why was I disappointed? 

In retrospect there was nothing wrong with the series. The problem was with my expectations. In Toronto the streetcar system was and is a fully operating, modern day transit system. The BTC was a somewhat old time system set in 1949 and wasn't urban. As well, it was too advanced and expensive for teenage me. The fit wasn't there.

Once 1977 and 1978 rolled around model railroading was slipping to the back burner. I had other things to do and other interests. These days I have the elements for a TTC inspired layout and some experience. There might be a fit now.