OK, trains are good, but somebody suggested to me the other day, that incorporation of a 'trolley car' network into a small railway line had never been done, to his knowledge. Heres a scenario I'd like to see ideas/designs for : Single 'through line' to a station. Simple double track mainline through to staging would do. A city setup with full trolley car network..the more the merrier, with holding yard etc. Remeber, trolley cars can do a lot of 90 degree crossovers and stuff, and access to routes can be from multiple exits from the holding area. Single loco consists, obviously, and could be catenary or rail powered. DCC would be mandatory, so ignore polarity and stuff. Anyone think this would have potential for N scale 8x4? What sort of visual impact do ytou think this sort of thing could have?
Trolleys and trains have been mixed in other layouts. I think trolley in N scale would be harder than in HO. I'm thinking availability and quality of running here. I have looked in a 2000 Walther's Catalogue. First there are Bachman Trolleys; these guys are junk. There is some Arnold stuff; it looks very European and pricey. The Canadian average price is around $200 and up. I don't know how well they run. Then there is Brawa, again looking very European. So I am not sure what look you are after, but you need to think availability of goodies. [ 13 May 2002, 03:38: Message edited by: rsn48 ]
Sounds doable, and fun, but in the quality issue: Noone that I know of makes a quality running trolley, and Bachmann is J-class stuff. You could: Retrofit a LL GP-20/SW-9 chassis to a Bach trolley shell, or whatever is cheapest,a nd looks most prototypical, Or, model Euro trollies. I dunno what trollies in the land Down Under are like, but if you choose to model US-types, you could be in for some challenging work to make cheapos work like Katos. Good luck!
I found trolleys to be a nice touch to a layout. They give additional action. I have a two car set "DOWNTOWN' (Bachmann I think). I have them running between two rail stations on 20' track with 'Reverse' current stops at each station. True the track and wheels must stay clean to get good performance, but when they are running back and forth they catch your attention. I had them ducking under the mains on an older layout. Kind of a under ground tunnel arrangement and then climbing up to a second story station platform. The unattended reverse current stops doesn't take you away from the train operations. ..Eddie
Yeah, you;ve all mentioned things I thought would be an issue. Yes, there are a lot of layouts that have trolley car included, but no trolley car network with the railroad as the 'accessory'..... Novel idea I think. I also agree that, ignoring quality for now, that simply obtaining ANY trolley cars in N scale would be difficult, if not impossible, and Australian stuff is made of 'unobtanium'. To have the trolleys as the main focus of the layout would require quality components, and I am sure that would mean, as mentioned, re-engining a lot of cheaper bodies. Then again, there is always making the bodies from scratch (cant be too hard....ROFLMAO). I think this is worth pursuing, but probably in HO, and NOT catenary powered (though catenary wiring would have to be there for scenery, I think). OK, if its worth pursuing, what sort of layouts can you come up with in, say, 8' x 8', HO, double track rail line (doesnt have to go anywhere, and can just be eye candy), and full trolley network. This could just be a 'downtown' scene, an implied city and burbs, or whatever (alpine resort?). What is the minimum turn radius for HO that is running loco only? How do we hide the 'turn around' points where they have to reverse direction to come back down another 'street'? My biggest problem with designing a layout like this is, working out where and how to turn them. Of course, they can be point to point terminii, but I dont believe this would serve to keep interest. Navigating around a city isnt just point to point, so making a true 'route' (or 2 or 3 or 6) is the challenge.
When you say trolley, do you mean older trolley systems or more modern light rail systems? I would love to model a modern light rail line like Baltimore (with the Howard St. tunnel, MARC, and everything), but I have not seen any manufacturers making modern light rail vehicles. I don't have enough time to scratch build a vehicle, so I guess I am stuck dreaming.
I haven't really been given too much instruction in the care and feeding of trolley or inter-urban cars. So my opinion is simply that. I have always thought of a trolley as the little 4 wheel Birney and the SanFrancisco cable cars types, and the city electrics as being the size of the California Red Cars (two trucks) like the inter-urbans were, almost full size passenger cars. I have seen an HO 0-4-0 Dockside switch engine go around a layout that had 3" radius curves, and a small two truck trolley go around a 6" radius. Both were comic displays, running slowly and had metal wheels. I would think if you stayed to scale, in "N" that either type could go around a standard street corner by keeping the track in the center of the street, and make the curve radius start and end (90 degrees) at the street curbs, just like the real ones do (did). Some of the catenary guy wires were hung from the buildings on the side streets, and poles down town. I remember seeing the motorman lean out with a long wrench and change the switch point to change tracks, so the switches should be a snap to make. They are not nearly as big, long, nor complicated as the ones for railroads. As I remember what they looked like, I would guess they could have been what we might call a #2 turnout. There were no guard rails because the frog was more like a crossing so not much chance for a wheel flange to pick the frog point. An "N" Scale trolley should be rather easy to make by converting a passenger car, and some balsa wood to plug the ends. Use elastic thread for the catenary wires, but run from the rails, and just use the catch pole for looks. Just a thought. [ 14 May 2002, 18:47: Message edited by: watash ]
3" curves, now ya talking! YEs, San Fran trolleys and the like are exactly what I'm talking about, but I dont want anything approaching a prototypical layout.... trolleys from anywhere and everywhere, even totally fictitious (but not futuristic) would be dandy. Also, remember that a trolley car only gets above 20 mph if the bridge under it falls down, and those tight curves arent a problem. Also, trolley tend to srop on almost every street corner, so inching them around would actually look realistic :>) PLUS, they dont run trolleys down back streets, only major roads and they dont even run them on every road in the downtown areas, so you can use mutli lane dual carriageway roads for the service without problems of going curb to curb and running over cars. One problem I can think of... .Nice 8'x4' cityscape with major arterial roads, and the only thing moving is the trolleys.... lots of parked cars..... whatis wrong with this picture? Hafta work on that one. OK, who knows how to build your own points? LOL
About a year ago, MR did a series of articles on a "starter" trolley layout, maybe you can ask around and find out in which one or ones.
