Electric streetcars — or trams, as they say in British English — used to be a primary form of public transportation in cities around the world. Los Angeles, for example, had more than 1,200 streetcars running along 20 streetcar lines. Streetcars were considered noisy and inflexible, however, and around the middle of the last century many cities ripped out their streetcar tracks and replaced streetcars with buses, or switched to light rail systems.

Not everyone hated trams, of course, and from the beginning modelers tried to preserve them. London cut off its tram services in the early 1950s, and this 1958 newsreel shows a Mr. Jackson Stevens and his son, Nigel, rebuilt a miniature London streetcar line in their garden in Glastonbury, Somerset.

 

Today, Nigel Stevens’ grandson could begin with 3D printed model trams representing various cities and at various scales before painting, assembling, attaching pantographs, and running their own miniature tram lines. Here are a few examples:

London

Tony Heselden of the 1:43 Transport Models Shapeways shop designed this E/1 500 Class tram, an O scale version of a London streetcar that served the British capital in the 1930s. It comes in two parts, with an insert for the seats. Tony recommends White Strong & Flexible and makes this tram available in Frosted Ultra Detail also.

Terry Russell of Terry Russell Trams built, painted, and photographed the E/1 500 Class tram model above.

Vienna

Vienna operates its Straßenbahn, or streetcar network, with 1,071 stations along 29 lines. Scalemodels has modeled several historic Viennese tram cars, including the Wien Type F Nr.701-750 at HO scale. If you decide to build this one, you’ll also want to order the seats and windows.

Tramwaybastler (German for tram hobbyist) has more information about and models of Vienna streetcars back to 1897.

Prague

The Czech engineering firm ČKD Tatra supplied streetcars to cities throughout the Soviet bloc, from Sarajevo to Samara. This HO scale Tatra T3 by tramvaj is a miniature replica of the streetcars that served Prague from the 1960s through the 1980s.

Budapest

Ganz UV trams were manufactured in the Hungarian capital in the decade following that country’s 1956 uprising against Communist rule — when more than 100 Budapest streetcars were damaged or rendered useless, according to the city’s transport company.

Soehaves workshop modeled this Ganz UV tram at N scale. The miniature is made to fit on a Tomytec TM-TR01 chassis.

Sydney

Sydney had the largest tram network in Australia, but the last Sydney tram ran in 1961. Joseph Spinella of Traction Scale Models modeled this Sydney C Class Tram at HO scale after

the former Sydney break down tram 56s which for many years was attached to Fort Macquarie Depot (Now the site of the Sydney Opera House). Notice the 6 window configuration of this tram. 56s was numbered 12 in passenger service.

Traction also made a Melbourne W2 Class tram.

Have you designed or built a model tram? For what city? Tell us about it in the comments.