Overhead Trolley Work Motor Project

Started by bparrish, February 15, 2019, 01:44:09 AM

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bparrish

OK  Gents.............. I'm at it again.

Last fall I put up a photo of a sand car that I wanted to build and will in fact finish it.

But I got way-layed with this.   It is from a series of photos in 1909-10 taken on the Idaho Traction Company line here in Boise.  I cannot leave this alone.  The photos aren't the best but I'm headed back to the state archive to get photographic copies from the glass negatives rather then just photo copies of a questionable print.
This car is a overhead wire and pole car.  The cab area is narrowed at the base on each side so as to carry full length overhead wire poles.  I hesitate to call them telephone poles for obvious reasons... They aren't ! ! !

So with that ... Here are a few of the source photos of which there are four more available.





Then on to a fresh page for the initial work.
see ya
Bob
Did you ever notice how many towns are named after their water towers ! ?

bparrish

So to begin.  I'm starting with the frame rails only as a foundation to the whole things.

I will be using a Northwest Short Line power 4 wheel power truck and a super small Digitrax decoder in the narrow area between the pole notches in the cab.
Raw frame rails




The coil springs are held captive by the various suspension wires of .030" wire.



The journal boxes are taken out of an old brass Red Ball passenger truck



The elliptical springs are cut out of a crushed piece of brass tubing.

Did you ever notice how many towns are named after their water towers ! ?

Janbouli

What a great project , gladly following.
I love photo's, don't we all.

PRR Modeler

Bob, I'm really looking forward to seeing your project progress.
Curt Webb
The Late Great Pennsylvania Railroad
Freelanced PRR Bellevue Subdivision

BandOGuy


Great work so far!
Wonder what ever happened to the style thing for men of wearing a fedora everywhere?
Working on my second million. I gave up on the first.

bparrish

Here is a shot of the side frame that did not go up last night.


So I got after squaring up the frame.  Here are a few shots of the frame with the drive truck dropped in. I will create the brake hangers and from there will be small wires that go over to the screws on the motor and anchor the frame.  The frame will be completely insulated from the decoder.  Most of my scratch built trolleys are like that.  It solves a lot of problems later.







Did you ever notice how many towns are named after their water towers ! ?

ACL1504

Neat project, I'll be following along also.

Tom ;D
"If we are to guard against ignorance and remain free, it is the responsibility of every American to be informed."
Thomas Jefferson

Tom Langford
telsr1@aol.com

Bruce Oberleitner

You Rascal!  What a cool project.

Why do I feel another 1st place ribbon is coming your way at national convention?

GPdemayo

That is a neat looking trolley Bob.....looking forward to your build.  :)
Gregory P. DeMayo
General Construction Superintendent Emeritus
St. Louis & Denver Railroad
Longwood, FL

Rail and Tie

Excellent work Bob. Coming along great!
Darryl Jacobs
Inter-Action Hobbies
www.interactionhobbies.com

bparrish

So I had a little time at the bench today.  Got the motor suspended and the sub deck on.

The motor hangs on two loops of wire that hold the brake shoes.  They are black plastic so that nothing stupid happens and connects one or another wheel to the frame; which will remain polarity neutral.  Then small loops of wire are tied around the corner screws that hold the power truck together.  Those were then shaped and soldered.  A bit of leveling went on that there is no good way of showing.  The final calculation is made at each corner with a digital vernier down to the work bench.
Probably not much more till Monday.

see ya







Did you ever notice how many towns are named after their water towers ! ?

Jerry

Very interesting project.

Very fine workmanship!!

Jerry
"And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years." A. Lincoln

bparrish

Thank you all for your kind remarks.

Now after that I need to get this out of the way.

I hate Norm Abrams ! ! ! !   You know....... the wood working guy on PBS.   


Why you as  !?!?!?!?

He never says "oops" and everything fits the first time.  I've done a LOT of woodworking and even more machine work.  IT DOESN'T WORK LIKE THAT ! ! ! !

ok........... I'm better now.

I had this notion that I could use pre-made cast pilots from Labelle for their trolleys. I have a ton of their castings and this was going to be a push over.

Wrong ! ! !

The melting point of the white metal is too close to my coolest melting point solder....180 degrees Fahrenheit.

So I fried the legs off of two castings just to prove to myself that it wouldn't work.  Here is the evidence!



So on to making my own pilots

Next!
Did you ever notice how many towns are named after their water towers ! ?

bparrish

I have put up on this forum before how to make these but not one this small and I need two of 'em ! ! !

This is hard to see but.................  I make a layout on .007" brass that includes the width, eighth and how far it sticks out to the front.  In this case two scale feet up and out and nine scale feet wide.

The photos below show the various scribe lines for all dimensions, angles for the stick out part and the cross lines where the holes will be drilled for the .019" brass wire.
From here the holes are drilled while it is in a whole sheet and easily handled.

The holes are drilled at the intersections of the various lines.






Next
Did you ever notice how many towns are named after their water towers ! ?

bparrish

Then the fold is made between the vertical and the stick out part.  What better name might I use for that description?

Wires are put through each pair of holes and the bend in the wire is only to keep them from falling out while the next is inserted.  Wanna know how I discovered that ? ? ?
Then I use liquid solder flux and run a line of solder over the whole thing. It is really quick.  Then I take a zuron nipper and cut off all of the tag ends.    After that I file everything down to the sheet brass. There is enough solder wicked through the hole to hold it all together.




Somewhat cleaned up.


Here are the final pilots with the backs cut out so as to be able to see through the  pilot.  There is a lot of clean up work but this only takes about two hours for both of them.

Did you ever notice how many towns are named after their water towers ! ?

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