As soon as it became apparent that I would no longer be modeling the Front Street Spur in a coffee table, or building any of it with N scale equipment, I wondered what I was going to do with both of those things. Being the salvager that I am, I thought that I could at least repurpose my coffee table project into something else–something simpler. The idea for a Salem streetcar layout began to take shape. Several factors attracted me to this new idea.
First, streetcar operations were very simple. They went back and forth along a fixed route making stops to pickup and drop off passengers. All I would need to build this layout is several pieces of cheap flex-track, which I already had.
Secondly, I already knew a lot about streetcar operations in Salem thanks to my related research on the Front Street Spur. Whenever I came across references to the Salem streetcar scene, I saved them in a “someday folder.” This information stockpile could now serve a purpose. Furthermore, I noticed that the streetcar lines traversed the iconic parts of Salem. This scratched an itch I didn’t know I had…until I scratched it.
Lastly, a streetcar layout doesn’t require that much equipment. In fact, one streetcar is really all you need. As it turned out, when I researched prices, my favorite model store happened to have some streetcar models on clearance, and I picked up one for just $20! The die was cast.
So, for several months in 2018, I spent my free time designing and building a streetcar layout that would fit within the coffee table I built. The challenge was to create a single-track, point-to-point layout plan that wasn’t boring. In my favor was the fact that the coffee table design forced a side-view of the layout. Which meant that, using backdrops as view blocks, I could divide the layout into four distinct scenes, each viewed through it’s own window. But rather than circling through the four scenes with an oval of track (which was predictable and boring), I opted for an S-shaped, point-to-point plan. This configuration lengthened the overall run time and permitted me to connect the two long scenes together behind the backdrop.
Now the only question that remained was which scene belonged to each window? To answer this, I turned to my research stockpile. I wanted to string together four of the most iconic streetcar scenes of Salem. Scenes that Salem dwellers would either recognize or find intriguing. The four scenes I settled on were: (1) the streetcar barn near the waterfront, (2) a section of downtown along historic High St, (3) the Salem Capitol building with ornamental trees in full blossom, (4) the Deepwood Estate, a.k.a. Bush Park. The streetcar barn and Deepwood Estate scenes were natural fits for each end of the line and would occupy the small end scenes. The downtown (High st) and capitol building (State st) scenes would take the roomy sections.
The further my plan developed, the more excited I got; primarily because I was able to incorporate Salem scenes that held a lot of nostalgia for me. We had been living in Southern California for over five years now and we missed our hometown. This project was a way for me to reconnect with my Salem roots even better than the Front Street Spur would.
At some point it occurred to me that this streetcar layout was more about Salem than about streetcars—and I was OK with that—but operations are very important to me in a model railroad. It’s the mechanics of railroading that makes this hobby tick for me. So I began thinking through how I could make a relatively boring streetcar system operationally interesting.
The most compelling idea I came up with was to automate the streetcar running including randomizing stops. That way the streetcar could just entertain viewers as they watched it go through the scenes, wondering where it was stopping next. Running the streetcar using an Arduino with a power shield was doable, but I wasn’t sure how to trigger the stops. Experimentation confirmed that tiny rare-earth magnets on the underside of the streetcar could trigger tiny reed sensors placed between the rails. Sensors at both ends of the layout could be wired together to trigger the streetcar to stop and reverse course. Then the eight or nine sensors in between could be wired together to feed the stop randomizer.
Construction of the new streetcar layout progressed quickly, and it was even somewhat functional within a few months. However, despite my best efforts, streetcar operations just did not hold my interest. It seemed like just more of the same merry-go-round stuff of my childhood years. The proverbial nail in the coffin was my subsequent discovery of sectional layout building techniques that allowed larger model railroads to take up less space when not in use and during transport. At this point, the coffee table project was an obstacle in my path towards progress. I sold my n-scale EMD SW1 locomotive and boxcars and purchased the HO scale Alco S-4 by Atlas, which would become SP #1020 on the new HO scale, Front Street Spur.
And so, my second model railroad project died, but not without lessons learned. For example, I learned that problem-solving is a very appealing aspect of this hobby. Overcoming problems is what kept me engaged with and enjoying the Salem Streetcar Layout until it ended. Many times a model train simply serves the purpose of adding movement to a diorama of some kind. Streetcars are a very accessible way to do that.
Finally, I learned that streetcar models are effective at bringing the social aspects of places into focus. This is probably why streetcars are a natural fit for Christmas village layouts and the like. This is also why I decided not to sell my little, n-scale streetcar, because I will probably bring it out again one day to build something small with my kids. Not unlike that memorable evening long ago with my grandpa that my mom caught on film, and that I’ve always remembered.
