Interurban and streetcar systems across North America possessed equipment that met the myriad needs of their operations. The equipment on a given system usually included passenger cars, freight equipment, and service equipment. The systems with a greater service area and resources often had many classes of equipment within each of the passenger, freight, and service categories. Smaller systems often had to make do with a small amount of equipment they had, so equipment would serve in any of the needed roles on a day-to-day basis.
My own HO scale equipment covers the passenger, freight, and service categories for Long City Lines, as well as models of different types of cars from many historical interurban and streetcar systems (sticking to theme is difficult). The envisioned size of the Long City Lines system exceeds my abilities to acquire equipment to cover the whole system, which is also why any future layout will mostly focus on portions of the overall operation, leaving most of the system forever on paper. Nevertheless, I want to model a good variety of the different kinds of equipment I envision for the system. The roster will grow over time.
My current roster is listed below, with Long City Lines equipment first, and the equipment of historical systems listed second. Following both rosters is the imagined numbering system and description of equipment for Long City Lines.
Long City Lines
Make: Bachmann Spectrum
Model of: Birney Safety Car
Notes: Awaiting repainting and lettering for Long City Lines. Equipped with DCC.
Make: Bachmann Spectrum
Model of: Peter Witt streetcar
Notes: Awaiting lettering for Long City Lines. Equipped with DCC.
Make: Ken Kidder, Traction (brass)
Model of: Double-Truck Birney
Notes: Awaiting new motor, new poles, DCC, and repainting and lettering for Long City Lines.
Make: Interurban Models (3D printed)
Model of: Cincinnati Car Company Curved-Side interurban car
Notes: Currently being outfitted with Bowser trolley drive. Awaiting painting and lettering, Bowser trolley pole, and DCC installation.
Make: Interurban Models (3D printed)
Model of: St. Louis Car Company, Arch Window Lightweight
Notes: Awaiting trolley drive, trolley poles, DCC, and painting and letting for Long City Lines.
Make: Pennsylvania Scale Models (die cast)
Model of: Indiana Railroad "High-Speed" built by American Car & Foundry
Notes: Awaiting trolley drive, trolley poles, DCC, and painting and letting for Long City Lines.
Make: Cannonball Car Shops (plastic kit)
Model of: General Electric 40-ton Steeple Cab electric locomotive
Notes: Kit needs assembly
Make: Model Traction Supply (die cast kit)
Model of: Differential Dump Car
Notes: Kit needs assembly
Models of Historical Equipment
Make: Northwest Short Line (brass)
Model of: Twin City Rapid Transit standard car
Notes: Currently being outfitted with a new motor and DCC. Missing fender (people catcher) being constructed from scratch.
Make: Bowser
Model of: Presidents' Conference Committee (PCC) streetcar
Notes: Equipped with ESU DCC & Sound.
Make: Bowser (die cast)
Model of: Indiana Railroad "High-Speed" built by American Car & Foundry
Notes: Awaiting new motor, new trucks, DCC, and renumbering from 67 to 57.
Make: Oriental Limited (brass)
Model of: Indiana Railroad railway post office (RPO) - coach, as rebuilt by Indiana Railroad in 1935 from baggage-coach car originally built by the St. Louis Car Company.
Notes: Awaiting new motor and DCC.
Envisioned Long City Lines Roster
Although there is little chance I will ever be able (or need) to acquire what I imagine is the full roster for Long City Lines, I still like to imagine. After all, I am imagining an entire metropolitan area where none currently exists, so why not commit to the bit? It's kind of like imagining an entire world or universe as part of a novel, play, or movie, just without the novel...or play...or movie...
As such, the following is the current classification system for the Long City Lines equipment roster as it stands during the time period modeled (1945):
Numbering System
All cars have a 4 digit number, with freight and service equipment in the 1000 series, city cars in the 2000 series, interurban cars in the 3000 series, and buses in the 4000 series, with each thousand series referred to as a class. Equipment is further broken down by type within each class, and each type is associated with its own hundred series within the class. For example, steeple cab locomotives occupy the 1000 (“ten hundred”) numbers, box motors occupy 1100 (“eleven hundred”) numbers, box trailers occupy the 1200-series, and non-revenue service equipment occupies the 1300-series, depending on type.
Freight and Service Equipment
1000-series: Freight Locomotives
1001: General Electric 40-ton Steeple Cab
1100-series: Box Motors
1200-series: Box Trailers
1300-series: Service Equipment
1300s - Line Cars
1310s - Snowplows
1320s - Crane Cars
1330s - Side Dump Cars
1330: Differential Dump Car
1340s - Motorized Flatcars
City Streetcars
The Long City Lines streetcar roster consists of 75 streetcars. There are 15 single-truck American Car Company Birney Safety Cars (numbers 2000 to 2014) and 60 double-truck cars. The double-truck streetcars consist of 20 Brill Peter Witt streetcars (numbers 2100 to 2119) and 40 American Car Company double-truck Birney streetcars (numbers 2120 to 2159). All single-truck streetcars are double-ended and all double-truck streetcars are single-ended. The double-truck Birney cars were originally double-ended, but were converted to single-ended with the front trolley pole retained to facilitate backing movements.
2000-series: Single-Truck City Cars
2013: American Car Company, Birney Safety Car
2100-series: Double-Truck City Cars
2107: Brill, Peter Witt streetcar
2137: American Car Company, Double-Truck Birney streetcar
Interurban Cars
The interurban car roster drastically changed during the 1930s. Most of the older (and mostly original) interurban cars were replaced with secondhand lightweight cars as different systems across the U.S. were abandoned and the cash became available to make purchases. By the end of the 1930s, Long City Lines possessed multiple Cincinnati Car Company Curved-Side cars and St. Louis Car Company Arch Window lightweights. The immediate buildup to the war also saw the addition of many pieces of equipment from the recently abandoned Indiana Railroad, with multiple "High-Speeds" and an RPO-Coach joining the Long City Lines roster.
3000-series: Heavyweight Interurban Cars
3100-series: Lightweight Interurban Cars
3100: Cincinnati Car Company, Curved-Side interurban
3104: St. Louis Car Company, Arch Window Lightweight interurban
3107: American Car & Foundry, Indiana Railroad "High-Speed" interurban
Motor Coaches (Transit & Intercity Buses)
Long City Lines began operating buses with the conversion of the Hilary line from streetcar to bus. More buses joined the fleet upon the creation of the Pauline crosstown line, and even more buses were loaned when the Defense line was created. With the end of the war in sight, Long City Lines also wants to expand into the intercity bus trade, but uses its new intercity buses (Aerocoaches) on the Defense line for the time being.
4000-series: ACF H-17-S Bus
4100-series: Ford Transit Bus
4200-series: General American Aerocoach