A Trolley Pole on a Steam Locomotive?

“Reee-diculous!”, you say? Well, meet “Lil’ Stinky”, the latest addition to the Razorback Traction Company’s motive power fleet:

(repowered 8700 Dockside; DC drive replaced with an AC drive with manual direction lever. Oddball Japanese trolley pole mounted)

The latest addition to the Razorback Traction Company’s motive power roster is this little 0-4-0 steam engine.

And, yes, that’s a trolley pole on the steam dome, and a high-voltage line headed towards the firebox.

Here’s the scoop:

http://www.friendsoftherail.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?f=257&t=252

During WWII, the Swiss, facing a coal shortage, rigged a couple of steam engines to run off of electric overhead. Now, if this is good enough for the Swiss, it’s good enough for me.

I figure, though, that rather than run off the pole full-time, an electric element in the boiler would be used to heat the water overnight/first thing in the morning, letting the little steamer get up to steam faster and allowing it to work sidings that don’t have overhead wire.

For all of Lil’ Stinky’s size, there’s oomph there; Stinky is buzzing around my layout as I type this, effortlessly hauling three heavy Hogwarts Express coaches.

Upcoming upgrades: A working headlight and an electronic steam whistle.

I don’t think you had to go as far away a Switzerland to find a prototype. I have seen pictures of a trolley pole on a diesel switcher. The switcher didn’t use the electricity as motive power, the pole was required to trip the trolley signal system when the diesel was operating on track under the wire.

http://www.snowcrest.net/photobob/spl5.html

I remember having seen that photo too, but it was quite some time ago. Was it a Pacific Electric diesel switching locomotive, using the trolley pole to operate the signals? Anyone know for sure?

Yep. Being a SP subsidiary, PE leased SP diesels for switching operations.

They also leased SP steam switchers, but, alas, didn’t mount trolley poles on those or I’d have a REALLY good prototype! (When a steam switcher was used, an electric loco tagged along to operated the signals.)

http://www.newdavesrailpix.com/pe/htm/pe136.htm

Mitch

Neat rendition of the little steamer. I have one of those guys that I picked up at a garage sale years ago, I should do some tinkering with it to put it back in revenue service.

What a clever addition! We would love to see more of the R.T.C.

Happy to oblige! Here are a couple of earlier shots (seen elsewhere on this forum):

Mitch