St. Louis — Trolleys Take Shape at Gomaco

February 2017

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch posted a story on February 16 explaining how Gomaco Trolley of Iowa is helping with the rolling stock requirement of the Delmar Loop streetcar service intended to draw visitors and tourists to suburban University City just west of the St. Louis city line.

Five streetcars have been obtained for the new line, two were built by Gomaco and ran in Portland, OR and the other three are from Melbourne, Australia and were used on a heritage trolley line in Seattle.

The first of the Gomaco replicas arrived in St. Louis February 16. 
The car is one of two refurbished 1990s replicas of 1903 streetcars previously used on the Portland Vintage Trolley service in Portland, Oregon. The second car is expected to arrive in coming weeks.

The car was shipped after weeks of testing at Gomaco in Iowa and is housed in the Loop Trolley headquarters on Delmar Boulevard. The next step will be extensive test runs on the newly installed track. At Gomaco, the car's seating layout was changed and wheelchair lifts were installed at each end of the car.

Two of the Seattle cars were delivered in June. The third is due this Spring. The three Seattle trolleys cost a total of $200,000.

Service on the new line is scheduled to start in late Spring.