Richard Orr has been a streetcar fan for most of his life. He began to extensively photograph the five remaining streetcar lines in his hometown Omaha in 1950. Shortly after his 1951 marriage, he began to build a traction layout in his home, attempting to operate the little Beach Island single truck car that he has purchased at a local hobby store. He admits that his successes were limited. He had never seen HO scale streetcars operating from overhead wire and he looked for information on how to do this. He never finished that first layout, but he continued to search for information, especially early issues of Vane Jones' Traction & Models.

Living far away from any centers of traction activity, either prototype or model, he found it difficult to advance in the hobby, especially when the Omaha streetcars disappeared in the spring of 1995. Trolley meets were rarely held and when they are held, they were not held close to Omaha. It was many years before Richard attended one of Joe Diaz' meets in downtown Chicago.

HO scale trackwork was geared toward mainline railroading with only code 100 track and double point turnouts available. Pennsylvania Scale Models made three zamac trolleys and there were a limited number of brass imports. Overhead wire was the big stumbling block, with everything produced for O scale use. So his interest started to decline until 1976 during a vacation taken to Dallas. During a visit to LeRoy King to see his trolley layout, it was suggested that he cast overhead wire parts and there was a company in town that had the equipment that he might need. A visit to the downtown office of Southwest Smelting & Refining Company, now called Swest, and a catalog was all it took and some simple equipment was obtained.

Richard then learned the casting process and made enough of his near-scale overhead wire parts and he issued a price list by 1968. He offered an ear (straight hanger), single curve hanger, double curve hanger, frog, two angles of rigid crossovers and an adjustable crossover. He generously sent a sample to well-known O scale traction supplier, who immediately designed a similar one for O-scale, never acknowledging the sample provided by Richard.

The home layout progressed a little. Then the subject of track emerged. Richard had heard of simulated girder rail being made by soldering code 70 rail sideways against code 100 rail. This process, while time consuming, added to the running realism and totally eliminated the problem of plaster dust being churned up by moving wheels and damaging gears and motor armatures. After doing this a while, Richard began to think about casting these items. So, in 1970, his third price list appeared with a right hand and left hand turnout without frogs. These are call point-mates. Because of his casting equipment limited the length of items that he could cast, these early turnouts could not have frogs. Modelers snapped these up, as there was nothing else available. Finally, there were single point turnouts available for HO scale modelers. He even added a wye turnout in his 1976 price list.

Meanwhile, as he found needs, he added them. These items included a tapered line pole, small trolley shoe, and No. 32 phosphor bronze wire for the overhead wire itself. The next items added were the five straight crossings in 30, 45, 60, 75 and 90 degree angles.

Now he tackled the big one, girder rail. In 1986, Richard started working with Bob Rands of Scale Craft (now Micro Engineering) to design and produce a true HO scale girder rail. This was the first ever on the market and was an immediate success. The one drawback was that a curving tool was required to bend the rail since it was asymmetrical.

Bowing to customer requests, he made a left hand and right hand crossing, thus making complicated intersections a little easier. By 1988, larger casting equipment made it possible to make turnouts complete with frogs and that was done. The original point-mates were discontinued when demand fell.

This product line consisting of three turnouts, two curved crossings and five straight crossing was to continue unchanged for 15 years.

In 1980, Richard and a colleague, Carl Hehl, announced that they intended to write a book on the history of the streetcars in Omaha & Council Bluffs. Carl passed away in 1983 but the commitment was not forgotten. Richard took over and the book finally appeared in 1996. Just a few months later tragedy struck Richard in the form of Guillain-Barre' Syndrome. This rare neurological ailment immobilized nearly every muscle in his body, leaving him flat on his back only able to blink his eyes. A respirator kept him breathing and a tube into his stomach provided nourishment. When the virus decided to leave, the body slowly resumed functioning normally as normally happens with 85% of GBS patients. Meanwhile, his wife, Martha Ann, faithfully filled orders with the stock anticipated for the 1997 East Penn Meet, which Richard could not attend.

He even participated in the development of a monument to the DUNDEE streetcar line which now exists in the city of Omaha just a few blocks from his home.

Richard decided in 2001 that the day would come that it would be time to move to new challenges and began to talk to George Huckaby of Custom Traxx. He invited both George and his wife Anne to visit Omaha during the summer of 2001 to observe the casting process. This visit happened in June 2001 and introduced George and Anne to the world of lost wax casting. In early 2003, Richard offered the patterns and molds for the turnouts, point-mates, and crossings along with his stock of girder rail to Custom Traxx.

Custom Traxx and Richard forged an agreement on June 30, 2003 to transfer the business effective December 31, 2003. All patterns, molds and inventories were transferred at that time. The track would be sold under the name ORR STREET RAILWAY TRACK! By January 2004, all turnouts, crossings and girder rail were available from Custom Traxx. Custom Traxx also reintroduced the point-mates that were discontinued earlier.

The rest is or will be history!