The Straco Layout, Part 27 - Local Power to the People!

The Potomac Electric Power Company truck from Line Mar.

I honestly thought I was through adding vehicles to the Straco layout (read more about the whole project here) when I added a set of six Namura cars and trucks ( (Part 26 - Maxing out the Motorway). But then an oddity came to my attention.  

A few months ago I noticed a LineMar vehicle on eBay. LineMar was the Japanese subsidiary of Louis Marx & Co, a major toy manufacturer. The vehicle was a Potomac Electric Power Company truck.

I grew up in the metropolitan Washington, DC area, and was well familiar with Pepco. I suspect this was made for promotional purposes (Collecting - and collecting information 5). It would have been a nice addition to the layout, especially when I display it as part of my presentation to a Washington area-based toy car collector's club.

The bustling Straco layout/display. The Pepco truck is just turning the
corner in the upper left-hand corner of the photo.

Nice, but not at the asking price. The first offering I saw for this vehicle was priced at $49.00. That was far more than I wanted to spend.

Everything on this layout has been relatively inexpensive because there's nothing here that I needed to have. Just things that I thought would be nice to have. In fact, the entire project came about on a whim, and funded accordingly.

But then another Pepco truck came up for auction, and this time the price was right ($8.50). So I now have a Japanese tin toy that most likely was only distributed locally. And since it's a locality that means something to me, the truck's a welcome addition to the display.

With all the cars jamming the roads now, the display itself is beginning to resemble Washington area traffic!

Total cost for the project:
Layout construction:

• Pegboard: $4.95
• Flathead Screws: $0.40
• Molding: $2.49
• SilClear: borrowed from a friend
• Green Paint: left over from another project
• Wood Screws: $3.60
• Felt Pads: $1.99

Power Pack: $5.90
Small Houses: $3.00
Testor's Gray Paint for road: $1.29
Bandai Areo Station: $8.99

Vehicles:

• Two Japanese toy cars: $2.00
• A.W. Livestock truck: $4.99
• Taxi: $2.99
• Ambulance: $2.99
• Two Japanese patriotic cars: $6.99
• Namura Police Car $2.52
• Haji three-wheel sedan $3.00
• Namura lumber truck $3.48
• 1950's sedan $2.99
• 6 Namura vehicles $16.99
• LineMar Pepco Truck $8.50
  

Total Cost: $90.05