SMTTQ About Us

To begin, my name is Michael Grutsch and I was born in Cleveland Ohio. I rode my first streetcar at a very young age while shopping with my mother along Euclid Avenue. In 1953 our family moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin and it was here that I developed a real fondness for electric traction. There were four city streetcar lines operating along with numerous trolleybus lines, and I will never forget the day that I discovered the North Shore Line while riding my bicycle.

As the years passed, one by one the streetcar lines were converted to bus operation. In 1963 the North Shore Line too, gave way to progress. By this time I was in my early twenties and "hooked' on traction. Since the streetcars no longer operated where I lived, I traveled to cities where they did operate, Boston, Philadelphia, New Orleans, San Francisco and Toronto. I was a regular subscriber to several trolley publications and when "Traction & Models Magazine" ceased publishing I began a small newsletter with hopes of filling the void. Thus "Scale Model Traction & Trolleys Quarterly " was established and we have been publishing for over fifteen years, catering to the trolley historian, modeler and traction enthusiast.

For the prototype fan and historian we often cover car lines end-to-end and present rare or never before seen photos of these lines. These photographs are not just old pictures of streetcars, but rather windows back in time, scenes of old neighborhood streets, perhaps the streets and surroundings you grew up in. Maybe we can take you back to that comer drug store with its marble soda fountain and nickel phosphates. Our traction articles range from turn of the century beginnings on up to present day activities and a car drawing or track route map accompany these articles.

With regard to modeling features our philosophy is simple, rather than trying to tell modelers what to do, we instead try to show what other modelers have done. We believe in the promotion and growth of the traction hobby and each layout we present features a track diagram along with a set of photographs.

From a mere 12 page booklet we have grown to a 24 page magazine complete with color cover. With an initial start of just 54 subscribers we have expanded to our current press run of 1,800 copies. We have hobby shops and dealers in 14 states and Canada, plus a dealership in Europe. So why not consider joining us as we promise to continue to present the very best in the World of Traction.