BERy Type 5 streetcar

[Leverettrailfan]

I happened upon a screenshot from this thread which leaves me very curious. I'm a massive traction fan, and native to Massachusetts, so naturally I've been keen on Trainz Boston transit equipment (of which there isn't much). Now, from what I can tell, amidst tume's PCCs, there's a streetcar which looks like an absolute dead-ringer for a Boston Elevated Railway Type 5 semi-convertable car.

Seems to be in an early livery, from before the classic cream and tangerine was adopted.
Is this one of tume's works [the model, not the route]? If not, does anyone know who created it, and if they've made it available to others?
Any help would much appreciated, it looks like a stunning model and up until now I thought they'd never been done in Trainz!

(Side note: I am familiar with lrv3400's models of the Boeing SLRV and MBTA Type 7- with no offense to the effort that went into the models, they are looking rather dated, and lack things like interiors and changeable rollsigns. I saw some screenshots of someone's Trainz models of the Type 7 which had been given interiors and roll signs, but to date I've been unable to learn anything about who made them, or when they were made! All I know is they look stunning)

 

[JCitron]

TUME created the models and they are used on his Season Town route that comes with TANE and maybe TRS2019.

I agree these are awesome models and remind me of the ones I used to ride when I was a kid. I grew up and live in Haverhill today and used to travel to Boston and rode the PCC trolleys and later LRVs. The PCC trolleys had character and a quality not found on the new equipment we have today.

I agree the older models are a bit outdated (That's an underestimate!). It would be nice if someone could update them. The closest I could find are some models by alterr that are close to the LRVs. These are his U-bahn trams. There are various ones for the UF12 and UF14, meaning versions of his U-bahn Frankfurt routes, Their colors are incorrect for the MBTA, but they look a lot like the Breda LRVs we have today.

There are also some GT8s available, sorry I can't remember from where, that are similar to the new ones as well. I use those on my Gloucester Terminal Electric route I created out of gfisher's Gloucester Terminal.

 

[Leverettrailfan]

TUME created the models and they are used on his Season Town route that comes with TANE and maybe TRS2019.

I was not referring to the PCC cars- I actually have the Season Town route. My specific interest was in the streetcar that appears to be a Boston Elevated Railway Type 5. There are no color photos I have seen of them in a green color scheme, but plenty of them in classic Boston Elevated Railway colors- both solid orange with a maroon stripe, and the more famous orange and cream. For example of a prototype, Connecticut Trolley Museum's preserved car 5645:

I am familiar with the U-Bahn models and have downloaded some of them. I also have the GT8. All are utterly gorgeous models.

 

[JCitron]

There's an older Peter Whitt car that's similar. I can't remember the author, but being an older model it can be reskinned. TUME's models unfortunately can't be reskinned due to being built-in. I'm not sure they could be anyway even if they weren't due to the complex texturing that's done today making such things nearly impossible.

There are some other European trams that are similar, but unfortunately right now I can't check my content because my system is down due to a failed hard disk.

 

[Leverettrailfan]

I know of the Peter Witt car on the DLS. I wouldn't say they're too similar, since "Witts" are single ended cars, with curved fronts- versus the Type 5, and all other Boston Elevated Railway equipment built between the early 20th century and the first PCCs- which were all double enders, and featured the "Boston front"- the distinctive 3-panel vestibule ends. I believe this characteristic began with some slightly earlier Boston streetcars, don't quote me on it though.
Boston never operated any Peter Witt cars- until the PCCs, all BERy streetcars were double ended. Part of the reason a small fleet of Type 5 cars survived so late was due to there being certain routes on the remaining Boston streetcar network which required double ended cars. As a result they're fairly well preserved (5 surviving examples iirc).

For some reason, the MBTA streetcars on the DLS class the PCC as a "type 5", and the Boeing LRVs as a "type 6". PCCs never had a "type" designation, as far as I understand this was reserved for cars that had been designed specifically for use in the Boston streetcar network, beginning with the Type 1 and 2 cars. There's a prototype the MBTA mocked up for a Type 6, but it was never manufactured as cost estimates were too high.

As for Tume's PCCs, they would never look quite right as they're modeled after St. Louis Car Co produced cars, and except for the very first, 3001, all of Boston's PCCs were made by Pullman Standard of Worcester MA- and they all featured a set of lefthand doors. Additionally, by the end of their service life, almost if not all of the single ended pullman cars had couplers and MU control. If you wanted to, you could easily play with tume's PCCs on the DLS, from the "Municipal Transit Railway", but reskins are not permitted for sharing. The texture mapping doesn't entirely lend itself to reskinning.

I've scoured the internet and DLS pretty hard for every US streetcar I could find, and then some European equipment- even a few Japanese streetcars. Alas, the most tantalizing fruit seems to be glimpses of equipment that there is no mention of anywhere. Perhaps it's high time for me to try to get past my aversion to CAD and attempt to learn how to make some myself. Though frankly the idea terrifies me!
Still a little hopeful maybe Tume or someone else might be able to provide an answer for me but I know sometimes it can be annoying/upsetting to have users ask you for content in your screenshots which is/might be unreleased for whatever reason- and I don't want to be "that person".

 

[JCitron]

You are running into a problem that we all face when attempting to model a prototype. There are so many close but no cigars out there and outright nothing that even comes close. If you are interested in modeling, I recommend Blender since it's free and works well with Trainz. I've only used it once and that was about 8 years ago now and a lot has most likely changed.

You have a deeper knowledge of the BERy equipment than I do. I came on to the scene with Pullman PCC trolleys running down to Forest Hills and out to Watertown. Sadly, now both of those lines are gone thanks to NIMBYs not wanting noisy trolleys and the T forcing people to go out of their way to either take a bus from Watertown, or the Orange line and commuter rail from Forest Hills.

When I was a kid, my parents brought me on a trolley ride to Forest Hills to visit friends. Dad parked at Lechmere and we rode all the way to the far end of the line. I was about 4 or 5, but I remember the trip distinctly. When I was a bit older, my dad brought me on a random trip on the mainline of the EL. We cut our trip a bit short due to catching our commuter train home, but I still remember that trip to this day. I did a write-up about that in the prototype forum if you want to read it. I was one lucky kid because a short time later it was all gone.

 

[Leverettrailfan]

Most of what I know on Boston's streetcar (and transit) network and history is from books I own, and bostonstreetcars.com, but I've also picked up information from old trolley magazines, talking to people at the trolley museum where I volunteer, and various other online resources. By the time I was born, the only remaining Elevated line in Boston, the Causeway Street Elevated, only had a couple more years before it was torn down. I don't think I ever would have seen it, since the only occasions when my family traveled to that part of the city were to visit the science museum, when we were visiting my grandparents. I don't have very sharp memories from my visits to the Boston area as a kid but on the occasions when I did get to see the green line, it was always briefly, and I can only distinctly remember the design of the Type 8s, though I must have seen Type 7s.

 

[JCitron]

Most of what I know on Boston's streetcar (and transit) network and history is from books I own, and bostonstreetcars.com, but I've also picked up information from old trolley magazines, talking to people at the trolley museum where I volunteer, and various other online resources. By the time I was born, the only remaining Elevated line in Boston, the Causeway Street Elevated, only had a couple more years before it was torn down. I don't think I ever would have seen it, since the only occasions when my family traveled to that part of the city were to visit the science museum, when we were visiting my grandparents. I don't have very sharp memories from my visits to the Boston area as a kid but on the occasions when I did get to see the green line, it was always briefly, and I can only distinctly remember the design of the Type 8s, though I must have seen Type 7s.

I've visited both the small museum in Shelburne, MA and the Seashore Trolley Museum a couple of times. I'll check out that book you mentioned. I have seen it, but never bought it.

You missed a lot down by North Station and Causeway Street. The entrance to the ground-level station had an amazing array of crossovers that would make Trainz AI faint and collapse. There were double-crossovers and switches all over to connect the loop. Yes. the PCCs required a turn loop on the end of every line because they weren't double-ended. The old EL also came out of the ground at that point, and both the elevated bridge to Lechmere, passed the Science Museum, and the Orange Line, the BERy Mainline of the EL, ran parallel out of the tunnel there but rain straight and continued over Rutherford Avenue Bridge and on to Sullivan Square and Everett Square. This wasn't anything close to the new Sullivan Square station, but a grand glass shed affair that once had trolleys and elevated trains coming and going. Today, all that is replaced by parking lots and an industrial park.

I was lucky in that I rode the trolleys and the rest of the system since the early 1960s and the PCC trolleys made up a big part of my childhood right through my early 20s when they were finally removed from service after making a comeback due to the faulty Boeing LRVs. Compared to the equipment we have today, the PCCs were classy and were made well.

Sadly, though, I saw lines get removed including the remnants of the Tremont Street line. The line was deactivated in the early 60s when I was too young to remember, but the tracks remained in the street for quite sometime afterwards. I also remember the service down through South Boston and in Dorchester. Both of those lines came up in the early-mid-60's. The Watertown branch was active, like the Heath Street line to Forest Hills until the mid-1980s. Both are sadly gone now due to NIMBYs. The old tracks were still in place too in Union Square in Somerville. Yes, the original Union Square line not the new one which will use the moribund freight ROW on the old B&L mainline. The trolleys were gone from Mt. Auburn Street and Central Square, but the tracks were still poking through the pavement when I was a kid.

Up in Amesbury, along the Merrimack River, were the remains of the old Amesbury and Haverhill line that went out to Plum Island. Also, at the junction of Rt 150 and Rt 110 is a string of power lines. This was once a trolley line because the ROW is clearly visible. This was a line from Newton NH.

So much is gone now, thanks to the push by management for gasoline and diesel-powered transit. If we still had our systems in place, things would be different today.

 

[Leverettrailfan]

I've visited both the small museum in Shelburne, MA and the Seashore Trolley Museum a couple of times. I'll check out that book you mentioned. I have seen it, but never bought it.

I don't believe I mentioned a specific book. I own one, 'Beneath the Streets of Boston", which gives a history of the first subways (and elevateds) in Boston.
It's funny you mention the Shelburne museum because that's the one I volunteer at- but that is another subject.

I'll forever be pained by all the incredible streetcar and rapid transit lines I never had the chance to see. Some more distant in the past than others, but around where I live even the most enduring streetcar operator pulled the plug on operations, and near all the wooden cars were burned into ashes- very few cars survive in any shape or form. Barely a trace remains of what formerly was.

 

[JCitron]

I don't believe I mentioned a specific book. I own one, 'Beneath the Streets of Boston", which gives a history of the first subways (and elevateds) in Boston.
It's funny you mention the Shelburne museum because that's the one I volunteer at- but that is another subject.

I'll forever be pained by all the incredible streetcar and rapid transit lines I never had the chance to see. Some more distant in the past than others, but around where I live even the most enduring streetcar operator pulled the plug on operations, and near all the wooden cars were burned into ashes- very few cars survive in any shape or form. Barely a trace remains of what formerly was.

Small world! I met Polly and her son at the Gateway Museum in North Adams in 2016 when they had the big exhibit celebrating Old Peppersass' 150th anniversary and road trip. Another Trainzer and I had an exhibit there displaying a route that we were collaborating on depicting the Hoosac Tunnel operations. We were working closely with the Carl Byron and also the North Adams Historical Society as well and got to see and got access to some fine information for the project. The project, like most Trainz projects is ongoing with no eta. Mike and I then made a visit to the museum afterwards when we had a chance.

I feel the same way. Up my way are faint traces of the Haverhill and Amesbury and other traction lines, but as you said many gave up the ghost. The one out of Exeter NH was just one of many that did that early on. They worked basically out of kindness of their hearts and eventually had to cave in. Others just got overridden by other transportation including the long gone nearby railroad branches.

What's interesting is many of the trolley cars were built right in Amesbury MA in the carriage factories. The city even had its own electric railroad from what I saw once in some articles. There are no traces of any of that today and what factories are left are now condominiums along with the old B&M branch which is now a biking and walking trail. The B&M branch was still active when I was a kid. I remember seeing switchers hauling a handful of boxcars off and on down the branch that ran along Route 110. The branch died when the bridge over the Merrimack got stuck in the early 1970s.

 

[tdstead]

goto pweisers download link San Franciso #1 https://jatwsorg.mywhc.ca/PWeiser/zipfiles/Muni1.zip

Not many of the suburban cars, only other option as the New Orleans cars that were on DLS a small one called either trolleycar or tramcar can't remember witch

There was also some Toronto cars that had interiors but don't know if there still around Toronto Trainz Died.

Tom

 

[Leverettrailfan]

goto pweisers download link San Franciso #1 https://jatwsorg.mywhc.ca/PWeiser/zipfiles/Muni1.zip

I'm already well familiar with Paul's brilliant work. I'm specifically interested in the mentioned car as it is a type native to Boston, and I have a thing for Boston streetcars and rapid transit.
I think I have had just about every released streetcar I am aware of- deleted some as I found they weren't the most detailed and lacked stuff like visible passengers. There really aren't a lot of traction modelers in Trainz... I think Paul is the only active one I know, who builds North American traction equipment. I think we can all agree, it's brilliant stuff.