Druck trolley 17/64ths

[Carey Williams]

Hello ...best wishes for a Merry Christmas and a healthy & happy 2019

In a previous posting finding the perfect cantenary ..I posted an ad from Druck out of New Rochelle , NY found in Model Craftsman end of 1935 .
Druck was one a of makers of 1/2" scale traction mid 1930's ...as well as did Shaw & Pittman . 1/2" for indoors was short lived as the masses went to O gauge ...End of summer 1935 Druck announces it's new O gauge line. First ad I've found with a illustration of their trolley in January 1936 a Cincinnati & Lake Erie "Red Devil"? ..February, Model Craftsman , Walter F Druck pens an article about his trolley..with full drawings for the scratch builder ..or you can buy his castings .
The seller of this fine relic had a bit more info casting were offered by Graham in the 40's and Traction House / Coastal Cities in 1950's ....I found one ad for Coastal in June 1957 Model Railroader ...

Castings are a bit basic ... needs much more sanding and some filler ....oh yes some proper trucks with drive would be nice also ... this model is a bit odd as the body sides show signs of previously painted ...where as the roof no sign of paint...

Druck introducing the trolley in 1935 was the height of the 17/64ths movement ..... Druck's ads predate Walthers' trolley ads which hit February 1936 .. ... a Northshore unit .

The original Druck castings were brass ? bronze ? later folks aluminum...other Druck pieces out there ? ... in the ad a flyer is mentioned ... anyone seen one ?
Thank you

Cheers Carey

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[Rufus T. Firefly]

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[stephen neill]

Perhaps "right" like a lot of things is in the eye of the beholder.

I am confident that Carey thinks it is "right" the way it is, and I would agree. Incomplete, yes, because it doesn't have trucks, etc, that Druck intended, but still "right" because that is the way Druck made it.

As, admittedly a poor comparison, think of finding a cave drawing from the stone age, and bringing in an artist to modify it because it isn't an accurate representation of people, or animals, etc.

Carey and I spend a lot of our hobby time on O scale history and its preservation, door stops. Others like the latest and greatest brass imports, or building models, etc. Viva la difference! It's all good.

Steve

[Rufus T. Firefly]

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[De Bruin]

Interesting old model of a very interesting prototype, after C&LE folded these went to the Cedar Rapids & Iowa City ( as in "swing and sway the Crandic Way" ) and Lehigh Valley Transit, both iconic interurban lines. I agree it would be real effort to bring this up to snuff but that said think it would make a nice model. I've come over to appreciating castings for their heft and durability, though putting the glazing in for the front windshield on this would be extraordinarily tedious, amongst other potential labors with the floor, steps, powering etc.
But if I was modeling interurbans, I would definitely take this on.

[J. S. Bach]

Speaking of cast Al bodies, I have at least nine of these Gryzna (sp?) Philadelphia Suburban cars, although only three are painted and four are (or can be) powered. And, yes, I know that they (all of them) need windows. 11 is on the wrong trucks and will eventually shed them to another body that will represent an Illinois Terminal streamliner with a little bit of work like filling in the rear door for one.

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[bob turner]

I like them. Rode a lot of streetcars, but somehow never rode the Media line. There is a charm to these old models.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

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[stephen neill]

Dave - Wow! The trolley looks great. Thanks very much for speaking up and posting pictures. He spelled his name Grzywna. I have one, but only one, of his kits. I'll take pictures and post them. They don't show up in central Texas, so I must have gotten it online or at a show. Do you go to any of the shows?

Rufus - If you see any before March Meet, if you will get them I will buy them from you at that time. That way you can satisfy your urge to buy them knowing you won't need to spend time building them

Any body else have one or more of these? Or something similar? Let us hear from you.

Thanks again, Steve

[Carey Williams]

Hello all ...
the Grzywna..pieces look nice ...
a quick search on the web found this from a example that was sold ..

Offered is a scarce all metal O-Scale "Red Arrow Line" Philadelphia Suburban Transit / SEPTA trolley car body. The model represents one of the big St. Louis Car Company built quasi-PCC #11 to #24 series double-ender streetcars. Unlike regular version cars, the Philly Red Arrow PCCs rode on St. Louis Car Company outside frame standard type trucks.
It is likely that only a limited number of these O-scale (17 / 64") car bodies were custom built by John Grzywna of West Hartford, Connecticut starting around 1958. Late that year, a small ad for this model appeared in the #20 Trolley Talk magazine. The car bodies were initially offered in kit form consisting of aluminum castings with lower components made of bronze. Those kits required a certain amount of machine shop finishing work that apparently turned out to be too intimidating for most modelers. At some point, mister Grzywna offered his Red Arrow trolley cars as finished bodies. This is apparently one of those built bodies complete with trolley pole hold-down hooks.




The Druck is basic ..and was expensive at the time ... Walthers introduced a month later were not cheap either .... note in ad Walthers had displayed the interurban at the two "big" model shows Chicago and New York ...which each drew thousands of folks to admire the models ( the days before television ) . The interurban was Walthers second powered unit offered ..the year prior he offered the M 10,000 concurrently with Lionel's ..you know who won that war .

Cheers Carey

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[2railjon]

Beautiful photos, Dave! Thank You for sharing!

[J. S. Bach]

Dave - Wow! The trolley looks great. Thanks very much for speaking up and posting pictures. He spelled his name Grzywna. I have one, but only one, of his kits. I'll take pictures and post them. They don't show up in central Texas, so I must have gotten it online or at a show. Do you go to any of the shows? Thanks again, Steve

Thank you. I got them at shows, mail order, and ebay.

[De Bruin]

Great photos Dave, some where Dick Wagner is smiling down on your cool trolley terminal and these PstCo quasi-PCC's (unless of course they sit on Carnicelli's trucks, in which case he won't be smiling....) but I digress.
Great string too guys. About four years ago I had the pleasure of riding the Septa Media line (albeit in one of the Kawasaki's, which are not devoid of cool, but not in the same zip as those St Louis cars ) and it was a lot of fun.
As I recall, someone did a nice white metal postwar "generic" PCC casting set (had the standee windows) that assembled quite cleanly. I can't recall the name of company, but it was a very nice carbody , especially if you were doing Pittsburgh, LA or KC, almost a dead nuts match.

[R.K. Maroon]

John Grzywna offered several car body types. This is a Pittsburgh and Butler car in 17/64s:



The kits could be built as either coaches or combines. You can see the cut line in the car side between the window section and the combine section. The prototypes are interesting in that they had a trolley pole at each end and a pantograph in the middle. There is a even a book about the route. I don't have a copy but it looks quite interesting:



Jim

[J. S. Bach]

Great photos Dave, some where Dick Wagner is smiling down on your cool trolley terminal and these PstCo quasi-PCC's (unless of course they sit on Carnicelli's trucks, in which case he won't be smiling....) but I digress.

Thank you. All but one of them (those that have trucks anyway) ride on Wagner power.

As I recall, someone did a nice white metal postwar "generic" PCC casting set (had the standee windows) that assembled quite cleanly. I can't recall the name of company, but it was a very nice carbody , especially if you were doing Pittsburgh, LA or KC, almost a dead nuts match.

R&T. The "T" was for Bob Treacy, the "R&" may have been a way to use his complete name and the all-electric cars are cast Al, not white metal. T His PCC was 1/4" scale. The green car is an R&T painted for Chicago, the other is a Corgi at 1/50:

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Oddly, I have close to twenty PCC cars but very few photos of them. Note: The air-electric (without standee windows; except for the Kansas City cars which were all-electric but without standee windows) white metal cars are by R&M; I do not remember what that stood for. And here you thought that all PCCs were rubber-stamp cars! A friend and I once calculated that there were somewhere about thirty-plus variants produced just in the U. S. alone.