You can buy chassis like the above post, from TomyTec, I believe a subsidiary of Kato. I have three of them and the plan is to swap out several Bad-men Street Car chassis'.
Hi all For the sake of discussion and possible solution to power these, here are the dimensions Internal width of model - 15.2mm Internal length - 57.5mm Height at lowest point of equipment chamber [outer end of body] 2.7mm Height at highest point of equipment chamber [just before cab] 5.7mm Requires truck centres of 53.5mm Axle centres of 13.9mm Wheel diameter 39" [6.19mm] Then following that Baldwin Westinghouse Internal width of model - 8.7mm Internal length - 60.4mm Height at lowest point of equipment chamber [outer end of body] 5.2mm Height at highest point of equipment chamber [just before cab] 9.5mm Requires truck centres of 34.7mm Axle centres of 13.6mm
Cool thread! Nice work too. I live not too far from the old Illinois Terminal ROW. Going through some of the small towns nearby you can clearly see the IT stations as they have five port holes near the roof of the building. Also small electric sub-stations in the country is a good clue as to where the IT ran through. Technically, the Illinois Terminal still exists in modern times as Amren Electrical utility. I've walked many miles and have been given permission to travel on the former ROW with Jess the Jeep. I have found many interesting bridges. If I wasn't so busy with the B&M and CB&Q, I could see myself modeling the Illinois Terminal from Champaign through Decatur Illinois.
This is Bandai chassis 4 and is available on eBay from PlazaJapan (Jun-san writes in excellent English) or from Hobby Search (English website and ordering) in Japan. This is a TGW(Tsugawa) TU-DEKI 1 single shaft power unit. Very small but only one axle powered I believe. TomyTec and Tomix are toy giant Tomy brands and between them have way more powered chassis (and Tomix has larger model railroad product line in general) than Kato (basically 2 power units with a few variations each). Andy Tetsu Uma
I have several books relating to the various Interurban RRs that operated in California and just looking at the photos makes you realize what this nation gave up when “Free” highways and interstates became available. Well those and vehicles that were more reliable than a 50 cent pocket watch. It is a genre of railroading virtually un-modeled with nothing available commercially in N-Scale with regards to motive power.
True. No argument here. Younger people have almost completely missed this tragic history. And now are being taxed to replace it with public operations, versus the old privately owned, VERY efficient versions. It used to be done. Go back to when I was a boy, and I recall seeing the articles of O and HO interurban layouts. The name Bob Hegge comes quickly into mind, along with such as the Suydam models....
It would be nice if someone filled the void as to Pacific Electric Cars on Shapeways.. Western Railcraft and Minatures by Eric are long out of production.. I've tried to locate those, no luck. I think that there is a market for those...
I have the very expensive DVD collection of MR magazine dating back to the first one. Up until about 1965 there was a trolley car of some sort in every issue and nearly every layout. In my opinion a transition era model railroad is missing a great deal if there are no trolleys or interurbans. The electric railroads were really nearly everywhere (especially in the Midwest) and many times ran parallel to and interchanged with the steam roads. The layout builders back years ago knew this and often included some form of electric line. In my opinion a transition era layout isn't right or complete unless an electric line is present. In my situation, I want to model primarily Milwaukee road passenger trains , however the presence of electric railroads in the Milwaukee territory in the Midwest was abundant, I have to include them. I can think of maybe a half dozen electric lines around the Milwaukee road: TMER&L CNS&M WP&L FtDDM&S WC&N Mason City and Clearlake. BA&P Any others? Randy
How about the old Puget Sound Electric Railway? It paralleled the MILW, along their west side, from Seattle down toward Tacoma. Fairly good coverage in books by Warren Wing.
OH yes , good one !! Any others ??? How can you model the SP in the LA area without the PE ?? Anything in the Quad cities ? Davenport, Moline, Bettendorf Iowa ? Anything else in Montana (other than the BA&P ) ? Randy
There were interurban operations in both of the Butte and Anaconda areas. Cannot recall right now how they were laid out. Also in the Spokane, Everett and Bellingham areas. Am thinking was something in the Miles City as well, but no reference is coming into mind. And of course there was the MILW operation in Great Falls, plus the Gallatin Valley operation MILW bought, that became their operations out of Bozeman.
Another one was the Spokane & Inland Empire RY, which later went into the Spokane, Coeur d'Alene & Palouse RY under the GN. Not sure how this interacted in Spokane itself, but the MILW built over their line at Rosalia, WA.
