Part 1: Modeling Modern Transit

 

This presentation is not just for people who like trolleys! Modern transit systems – Light Rail, Streetcars, and Diesel Multiple Units – are a pervasive aspect of the modern cityscape which can be easily integrated into normally freight-centric layouts. However, despite 60 systems having been built in North America in the past 40 years, many immediately adjacent to freight railroads, they are rarely modeled.

This clinic provides an overview of modern transit: how modern transit evolved from historic streetcars and interurbans, what makes them different from their predecessors, the infrastructural and operational characteristics of each mode, and, most importantly, how modern transit systems relate to and can be modeled alongside regular mainline or shortline freight railroads.

 

Listen to the show on Apple, Spotify, iheart Radio, or Youtube:

Have a Thought? 

Proto-Future is attempting to do something which has never been done in model railroading before. I am here to ruffle feathers, seed ideas, get rusty gears turning, and help the hobby escape the transition-era worshiping rut we’ve been in for 30+ years, thereby better appealing to younger generations and improving the world around us along the way. If you have any thoughts at all – good or bad – pause for a second, think them through, make sure they’re logical, then email me, and we’ll see where it goes.

While the podcast is transitioning to Proto-Future, I still happily accept beginner questions and will address them on-air every now and then. Feel free to email me via the contact form, and I’ll do my best to help you in your quest.

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This is an expensive endeavor, not just in money, but in emotional expenditures. Any amount you could donate, even a dollar a month, is reason enough for me to keep going. Your generosity would be very appreciated.