Large Scale Central

Trolley modelling

Modeling
#1

Finally started back again on my freelance trolley. Not based on any particular prototype but has some similarites to Sydney/Melbourne trams. Of late a company in the States has been exporting Melbourne trams to the States and refurbishing/rebuilding them for use on municipal railroads as commuter/tourist attractions. Thus a trolley similar to myine would not be particularly out of place on an American theme railroad. The trolley scales out at 52 feet in length. From memory the local trams were around 48 feet. Based solely on Bachmann coach pieces and powered by an Aristo centre cab drive block.

#2

Nice!

#3

Yea, looks good!

#4

Tim,

That is on beautiful looking trolley model…

#5

That’s a great bash/scratch build. Hard to believe it’s mostly Bachmann coach parts.

#6

Nice work! Someday…

#7

Fifty-two feet! Yowsa, that’s a long trolley! Looks great. How are you powering the trucks?

Later,

K

#8

Kevin, from memory, the local trams are approximately 48 feet in length, so 52 feet is not too far off the mark. One truck will be powered by an Aristo centre-cab drive block (requires the Bachmann coach truck sideframe to be shortened slightly). This is my version of a trolley pole. I have no knowlege of how one operates but applied a little ‘know-how’ to come up with this solution.

(http://www.lscdata.com/users/tim_brien/_forumfiles/madsza.JPG)

(http://www.lscdata.com/users/tim_brien/_forumfiles/madszb.JPG)

(http://www.lscdata.com/users/tim_brien/_forumfiles/madszc.JPG)

#9

Nice looking model! I like that pole.

#10

Bruce,
it took about two hours to make. All made from scrap brass pieces.

#11

Wow, that’s looking great!

#12

Looks good enough for gummint work!

#13

Marvelous work–that’s really great

#14

WOW , thats really good looking , and a nice pole also .

#15

Very cool as usual :wink:

#16

Almost at the point of dismantling for painting.

(http://www.lscdata.com/users/tim_brien/_forumfiles/madtba.JPG)

(http://www.lscdata.com/users/tim_brien/_forumfiles/madtbb.JPG)

(http://www.lscdata.com/users/tim_brien/_forumfiles/madtbc.JPG)

(http://www.lscdata.com/users/tim_brien/_forumfiles/madtbd.JPG)

(http://www.lscdata.com/users/tim_brien/_forumfiles/madtbe.JPG)

#17

Excellent work Tim :smiley:

I’ve never done anything in brass except for experimenting with a switch frog. I do have lots of electronics soldering experience. What do you folks use as a soldering tool? I have a rather large propane torch which is probably over-kill for railings and the like. My electronics soldering pencil is probably too light/cool. Is something like a dual heat Weller gun the proper tool, or should I be looking for a small torch ?

I’m thinking of building a few of Bruce’s ideas this winter - Glad Hands and Switch Stands.

Jon

#18

Looks good. One quick point–most trolley poles used rope as grabs for the crews, as it is not conductive. Grabbing onto a chain attached to a live trolley pole would likely have been career-ending. In most cases, the rope was attached to a spring-loaded winding mechanism that looked almost like a bell (alarm or boxing-ring bell, not locomotive bell) mounted on the front of the car.

(http://fortcollinstrolley.com/images/Trolley1.jpg)

Here’s a shot of the Fort Collins trolley that I used to work on back in college. You can see the cord winder just to the upper left of the headlight. There was no kind of a catch or anything on that one, it’s task was simply to keep the slack out of the rope. Later, K

#19

I beleive the device on the Birney is a “catcher” that locks if the pole jumps the wire. The other device that was used was a “reteiever” which would slam the pole down to the roof if it jumped the wire. On cars with retrievers, there were wood strips across the end of the roof so that when the pole slammed down, it would not break the roof.

As for the rope, it was also wax coated. That way, when it rained, the operator did not get the thrill of his life when he touched it. Also, some rope has a small metal core. That wouldn’t be a good thing to use either. Leather soled shoes, rain, 600 volts and a conductive rope are probably not a real good idea.

#20

I use a small (very small) pencil tip soldering iron for all my soldering work (on larger jobs I use two small irons, at the same time, to get heat build up). It requires the tool to be switched on for several minutes to get very hot, then it is a matter of allowing the heat to soak into the job to get the solder to flow.

I intended adding a length of thin rope to the end of the chain to secure to the front of the cab.