Minitoys Trolleys

CW

I cannot shed light on history but can add that I bought one brand new in early 50's at Polks Hobby Shop and ran it around the tree every year. I owned it into the early 70's and never ran it much any more because the pickup shoes wore out. I tried finding parts at YORK at that time so I picked up many trolleys on tables to look at the shoe arrangements. I did notice a real similarity in the trolley itself at that time.

As I recall they came with two different names, Public Service and Rapid Transit.

If you look real close in the picture, you can see the trolley in the center.

Thanks for the comment!

I have one marked "Public Service", and one that was repainted.

The collector shoe assembly on mine are marked "Thomas Industries".

I don't know of anyplace to get any replacement parts.

A while back I purchased a couple of Bowser Brill trolley roofs to replace  broken ones on two old trolleys I had. Maybe the current collector assemblies will fit the Minitoys trolleys too. I don't know whether Bowser will still sell Trolley parts. 

It is unclear to me what Bowser is doing with their trolleys. The "O" gauge page does not show them, but has a headline stating "Many Trolley Cars are back in stock", and the trolleys are listed under "Discontinued Items".

In the late 1940s the Pittman Brill car was one of the first trolley models availabile for the general market and could be found in hobby shops.I had built some Walthers North Shore cars during the war but when I saw this kit in a hobby shop in Buffalo I had to have it and built it as soon as I could, Then while looking through an old Electric Railway Journal I noticed that the side looked exactly like a Jamestown Stret Railway 80 series St. Louis car.The side was 1/4 inch too high to allow the power truck to fit in the car.The final product was a nice model.

  This also happened with th MTH PCC. Many people claim this is not n accurate model but the only deiscrepancy I find is the side is nine scale inches too high again to allow room for the power truck.I used a saw and cut out sashes to make a Boston picture window car. The Left hand door came from another kit. Gave it to my trolley buddy who runs it on his little display layout.I converted one to scale trucks and wrote it up in O Scale Railroading when I was the Traction Editor. I did it again years later to model the only PCC that ever ran in Buffalo. Could only run in the lower end near the car house.They got the cars fromCleveland who got them from the Twin Cities and were wider than most.They could not fit up the platforms on Main Street.These were intended for a line to Tonawanda which never developed and eventually went to Brooklyn where they were scrapped.

 My advice is if you see a kit or car you want get it aand change to the car you desire.The only person you have to please is yourself.

and oh yes the Minitoy trolleys had Pittman bodies.

Bill,

DO you know whether Pittman continued to make trolleys once Minitoys got into the game?
Did Pittman make finished trolleys, or only kits?

I believe that these went to Bob Trimble out in CA who still periodically sells (on eBay) the sides for both as well as a roof for the LVT freight motor, but no end castings for either. 

The 4-wheel Bowser drive works for the 4-wheel work car. 

I'm in the middle of casting in resin some alternate side for the the 4-wheel work car now.