Gonna put a trolley line in on my future layout

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

I picked up a Bowser Brill trolley last night over on the popular auction site. I am planning to put a small loop in over in the village area for the trolley to operate. It will have functional overhead wiring for power pickup. The trolley needs to be painted and detailed a bit first. Hope Santa brought everybody what they wanted this year. Mike

2

Mike, did you know that Indiana was a hot bed of interurban lines early in the last century?. A little research into Samuel Insul will amaze. Classic Trains probably has back issues covering his lines. Classic Trains’ predecessor, Vintage Rails had some great coverage. Be careful, you may find yourself being overtaken by electric railway mania! Have fun.

Lou

3

I know, I used to have a friend that collected the electrical insulators from interurban lines, I have two of the “mickey mouse” style ones that carried the primiary buss line at the top of the pole in my collection from him. We have a couple abandon road beds just up the road from my place, bridge abutments still in place ect. Other than the high cost/difficulty of getting proper cars for the lines near me, it would be fun to model. I have overhead catenary on my German layout, so the lure of modeling interurbans/trolleys is very much alive here. Mike

4

…recently picked up Modeling Electrified Railroads at Kalmbach’s PDF-download when they were reduced on sale. Good stuff!

5

Just be sure you’ve allowed room for hand access to areas behind and below the overhead before you string it – learn from my mistakes!

6

I am used to it alco fan, my Marklin layout has full overhead catenary that is “live”. It is a total blast to run the E-lok (electric locomotive in Germany) with the pan up on the wire. Folks at shows look at me in disbelief that its really drawing power from the wire, till I slow down and pull the pan down with a small wood dowel and she stops. I found a neat pic of one of the interurban combines for the Kokomo Marion and Western Traction Co that ran right out of Kokomo, IN back in the 30’s I think a Suydam PE Combine with the rounded top windows is very close, not exact but captures the flavor of the car. Now I need to find one at an affordable price that is unpainted. Mike