Perhaps the perception is, that there is only "a handful" of dedicated rapid transit modelers. More modelers in New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, and Boston, are more familiar with the rapid transit lines, than with Amtrak, CSX, and Norfolk Southern. And in those cities, a lot of Amtrak employees get to and from work, on the rapid transit lines that run past the Amtrak stations. Some of which are model railroaders.

If you'd like a Boston subway-elevated car, how about the Osgood-Bradley "East Boston Tunnel" cars, that were used on the MBTA's Blue Line?

http://world.nycsubway.org/perl/show?18319
http://world.nycsubway.org/perl/show?18293

Not only did these cars operate on conventional third rail, they also used pantographs on the majority of the outdoor portion of the line. A decided advantage for modelers like myself, who chose to not run these trains "two-rail" like steam or a diesel, and don't have "live" third rails on layout trackage.

I grew up a block and a half South of the 56th St. el' station in West Philadelphia, and actually rode on the Market Street, and Frankford cars. I'd like to see an actual Market Street car in HO scale, rather than a Hedley (standard body) IRT Low-V, painted for the cars in Philly, but I can live with it, to get a steel-bodied subway-el' car. But if Bachmann does an actual Philly el' car, why not the Frankford cars themselves?

http://world.nycsubway.org/perl/show?74484

They had an arch roof similar in profile to the Baltimore Peter Witt, and lasted in service from 1922, through 1960, with a half dozen lasting into the early 1980's, as a work train.

On the other hand, if it has to be an IRT Low-V, how about something a little different, such as the 1939 Worlds Fair Low-V's?

http://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?7173

Not only did they break away from the standard Low-V body style, they operated on the same lines as the standard cars, and were even MU'ed into the same trains with them at times.

I'm using the Bachmann three-light Type-D color light signals, but with Atlas Snap Relays powered from an AC transformer. My subway trains have a "third rail" shoe mounted on the trucks, that activate a set of contact rails on each side of the track, as a train passes by. It's a simple ABS (Automatic Block Signal) system similar to used for decades on New York and Philadelphia subway lines, with a train resetting the previous siganl it passed to yellow, and the one before that to green, as it trip's each signal it passes, to red.

Since I model a subway-elevated line like those in New York, Philadelphia, and Chicago, I've been installing lineside block signals. Does anybody here have working signals on their layout? If so, are they Type-D (vertical row of green-over-yellow-over red); Type-G (upside-down triangle of green-and-yellow-over-red); or semaphore (either upper or lower quadrant)?

Not that I have anything against layouts depicting small towns with 2-3 story buildings. But I model a medium-sized inner city, with a mass transit system. The smaller buildings are suitable for neighborhood shopping districts away from the downtown area. But in larger quantities, they would be out of place in the central business districts of Newark or Jersey City, NJ; Philadelphia; or Manhattan.

This is why I use hot overhead wire, and both rails grounded together, for my trolleys and el'. Whether straight DC, or DCC, reverse loop wiring is a non-issue on a traction layout, when the rails are bonded together, and the feed is through "hot" trolley wire, or third rail.

Considering all of the layouts featuring skyscrapers, in issues of Model Railroader, and Railroad Model Craftsman magazines, obviously someone want's them besides myself. Areas around big city stations typically have buildings taller than 3-4 stories in height.

What picture is coming across, as none show up for me. I was trying to use the logo that I designed, for my transit system layout.

Has Bachmann considered a new release of the CityScenes buildings, such as the Trade Tower, Metropolitan Building, Ambassador Hotel, or any other building of ten stories or taller?

The amount of staging trackage should depend on the actual number of cars and locomotives, you want to have on your layout trackage at any given time, for the number of trains you will be running. If you have a total of five hundred various freight cars, but only will be running three or four trains of approx. twenty cars in length each, it doesn't make sense to build a yard capable of handling three hundred cars, at the expense of losing the room for actual train running.

On the other hand. If your thing is switching a classification yard or passenger terminal, as opposed to running between end points, more trackage for staging yards would make sense. In my case, I model a city subway-elevated line in HO scale. So the subway car storage yard and shop area, also serve's the purpose as a staging yard.

Are there any photos of the finished Peter Witt available yet, in any of the announced paintschemes? Also, will they be available in only one car number per scheme, or in multiple car numbers? Will seperately-applied decals be available, for various route numbers, and destinations?

I freelance a medium-to-big city transit system, leaning heavily on the Philadelphia Transportattion Co. (PTC), for trolley, and trackless trolley operations, and the Interborough Rapid Transit (IRT), for the subway-elevated line. It's an inner city layout, set between 1960, and 1980.

Converting back to two-rail pick-up, would bemore complicated for me, than a solution. Route on my rapid transit layout with a subway-elevated line, operate's like some in New York, Philadelphia, and Chicago, with a stub-end terminal, a turnback loop in the subway which functions as a reverse loop, a multi-track junction, and a three-tracked el', with the center track used as a reversible express track (traffic direction according to the "AM", or "PM" rush). For me, converting to live overhead with pantograph-collection, actually simplified the track wiring, to noting more than dividing the tracks into electrical blocks. The running rails are electrically joined to each other, in each electrical block.

My rapid transit layout uses pantogrpah collection from live trolley wire, and ceiling-mounted under-running third rail in subway tunnels. A few pantographs arc across momentary air gaps once in a while. If I convert to DCC, will this cause damage to decoders? The under-running third rail is Code 100 nickel-silver rail, inverted at ceiling level, and the trolley wire is 22-gauge copper wire, which has been in use for nearly twenty years.