Oh Man, I didn't even think about them being one direction. Wow that would look pretty stupid going backwards half the time. Well I already bought it so I guess its just going to have to be part of the scenery until I build another layout. I don't even have room for double reversing loops. I seem to remember some sort of track turnaround someplace for just a situation for real Street cars. I don't know what they call them and only saw them in the middle of an intersection where the street car turns completely around on a dime. I'm almost positive they have them in San Francisco and I think I saw them in Pittsburgh as well. I'll have to think about and maybe come up with something I can make myself, but the line would be so short that it would probably be a pain in the butt to consonantly turn the thing every few minutes. Well OK Thanks for the heads up Inkaneer.
I assume the PCC you bought has trucks that will allow the car to negotiate prototypical curves of about 7" radius in N Scale. A 15" wide shelf would give you enough room for a reversing loop.
Streetcar lines have, and have had, reverse loops, turnarounds and the like. Some lines did use double ended cars which eliminated the need for that type of trackage. I am guessing that the double ended cars were more costly, and perhaps the comparison of costs between double ended cars or the real estate, trackage and maintenance required usually came out in favour of the tracks and single ended cars, in certain cases, at least. The Bachpersonn PCC car has a mechanism similar to that of the Brill. B-mann has improved the integrity of the gears, but the mechanism still has similar gear ratios to the old one. This is why I am not impressed with it. You may not have the problem of gears' cracking, but the runnability is still not the best. The Tomy Tec mechanism is likely the best solution for the PCC. I suspect that it would work for the Brill, as well. I would choose cutting up two Brills and the LL FA-1 chassis simply because I have the two shells and the FA mechanism.
I have never seen it except in catalog photos so I don’t know anything about it. Here is a link to the Bachmann site although I did not buy it from them. http://shop.bachmanntrains.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=2618
The Streetcars that I grew up with were definitely not double ended cars and I just wanted to add something from my past to my layout.
Sadly, the 11.25" radius, if actual, would force a 24" shelf width. Hoping for a 7" radius as a solution to your predicament.
Growing up I was fortunate enough to have spent time along the former Pacific Electric San Berdo line through El Monte, which by that time was operated with a single SW1500 switching the industries that were left along the line between Los Angeles and El Monte (the line east of El Monte was severed at the former SP crossing). Trolleys and interurbans were gone nearly 20 years by that time and I honestly did not believe I would ever have a chance to experience anything like them. Then "Fast Forward" just a couple of years I landed at Ft. Devens just outside of Ayer, Mass., which changed my fortunes in a big way. Among the experiences I had were the chance to ride B&M Budd RDCs to and from Boston (as well as to the Cape to visit a friend) and numerous rides on the MBTA's Green line, which still operated with PCCs and even had some street running on the south end. For the record those PCCs ran at speeds (underground) that were quite similar to running speeds of the Bachmann model... heck, I still remember the rocking and rolling side to side that those old cars did while flying down the tracks and the squealing that they did when they entered a tight curve. At certain points short radius loops were used to turn cars when needed, with one being at the south end of the Green line and another that I knew of just short of where the Green Line went past North Station. These are experiences that I hope I never forget. Boy... those were the days!!!
So I did a Yahoo search for “n-scale turnaround” and this photo came up. I can’t find any more info on it, but it looks like I could just glue some track on to it and be done except for a motor. Its from eBay, but it might be something from their archives. Has anyone seen anything like this?
Neither the Brill nor PCC are good enough models to really worry about whether they might be running backwards or not. Jason
It doesn't really matter if it runs or not because it still will look good on my layout, but thanks anyway.
Jerry, when I was a kid we rode the streetcars almost every day in Pittsburgh. On one occasion I remember very well was when my whole family took the Streetcar to an amusement park in the north hills for a school picnic. We almost filled the entire car with just our family to include aunts, uncles and all my cousins caring picnic supplies because it was an all-day event. Somewhere after we crossed the bridge along the Allegheny River the car actually went on to what appeared to me at the time to be Railroad Tracks and I was just so fascinated with them. It was even more fun at night coming back seeing the lights shining down through the wood ties from other streetcars passing along the raised tracks.
The street turntables were used in a lot of city locations where there wasn't the room for a wye track. A search of some of the traction modeler sites and supply links might turn-up one and I have seen them in the larger traction scales.
Thanks John, I was just about to buy a couple of the Tomytec (Komono 090) Bus Turntables to modify, but then I decided that I could make one myself since the one on eBay doesn’t actually turn on its own. Right now I’m searching for a 12VDC motor that I could rig up to turn 360° each time the street car reaches the end of the track while cutting the power to the track. I'm not sure if I'll use micro switches or photo switches. I’m off work this week, but I will not be able to actually start this until I receive the Bachmann Trolley which might not be until after I go back to work. It’s going to be a while before I actually get it working because I don’t have much time while I’m working, but I can just set on a street with some nonfunctional track for now.
