My first layout featured a Eheim/Aristo Craft/Brawa trolley bus, it wore out, my interests changed, I never bought any more while they were still available new.
As I am planning the new layout, my interest in either a city trolley system, or a trolley bus system, has been rekindled.
Brawa, the last producer and marketer of the Eheim trolley bus, gave up on the product nearly two decades ago. It was after all product that had never really been updated much from it original 1950’s design, and it was a little oversized, and dare I say toy like.
Rubber tired trolley buses were pretty common in many US cities from the mid 30’s into the 50’s. Here in Baltimore, after WWII, trolley buses made up about 1/3 of the Baltimore Transit Co system.
I am still working out the details to see if either a trolley or a trolley bus would be practical in my city scene, but it just got me wondering if anyone on here is running trolley buses or has any interest?
I only rode them only a couple times in Baltimore. Unlike streetcars, which had wheel noise that I could hear from my home 1 mile away from the #8 line. They were dead quiet. Then and now I don’t know why they didn’t accidentally stray too far from the cantenary.
Well, it’s certainly interesting. If you have the city streets on your layout, it would be a fun addition. Unfortunately, I don’t — and I’m in S scale.
I’ve been interested in/kicking around the idea of a layout based on the Shaker Heights (OH) trolley line. (It ran from Shaker Heights down to E.55th in Cleveland. Not sure if it made it as far as Cleveland Union Terminal. [^o)]) I have both of the Bowser Shaker Heights post-war PCC trolleys and they are very nice models. It would be a fun project and make a good, narrow, around-the-wall shelf layout for a given room.
Trolley buses are still quite popular in Europe. Salzburg/Austria has a quite extensive network of trolley bus lines, and in Solingen/Germany are also a few lines. Britain has scrapped all trolley buses in the 1950s and 1960s, but in eastern European countries, they are still abundant.
There is no functioning HO scale model of a trolley bus currently on the market. The former Eheim line, later Brawa, was quite OK and only slightly oversize, but it wasn´t working very well. The catenary was quide crude and the movement rather jerky due to pick-up issues. Rietze in Germany makes a nice model of a trolley bus, which could be used as a basis for a working model.
I found this interesting video on Youtube:
Daniel used the Faller Car System to “steer” the bus around the track, and not the trolley poles, which Eheim linked mechanically to the front wheels. He was thus able to make the catenary look a little more prototypical. Electrical pick-up is done through the trolley poles.
Yeah well Kevin, a lot of model railroading demands the suspension of belief, HO fflokes standing on platforms never getting on the train that they’re waiting for, is one that readily springs to my tiny mind. However, beautifully modelled scenes without people also strikes a nerve!
I see that the Brawa trolley buses appear to be available on eBay, but wonder if one of these Faller powered chassis would provide a reasonably accurate wheel base, though a body to suit a 50’s Baltimore trolley bus might be more problematic.
That is why it is always 2:00 in the afternoon on my layout, time never moves.
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I look at it as a diorama where only the trains move. I know that makes no sense at all, and requires a complete suspension of belief, but it works for me.
From those videos (the OPs and Ulriches) it seems these trolley buses move quite realisticly! I think if you could add some details then you could make a quite realistic scene.
Or perhaps you could use a road system (EDIT just like Ulrich’s first video which I initially missed) of some sort as the drive and then have non operating wires. That might allow for a more realistic appearance.
Yea, that got me wondering as well. So I just had to dig around.
Wiki calls it “dewirements”, and drivers need extra training on how to keep in the lane when turning corners, and to slow down at overhead wire crossings to avoid dewirements.
Sheldon - I believe that, should a manufacturer be brave enough to market a trolley bus system, it would be an instant success, at least in continental Europe, as more and more cities seem to be interested in this form of “green” public transport.
If you plan to use old Eheim/Brawa buses, they would certainly benefit from having a new motor installed.
There are still a few system here in the US, and a few being considered from what I understand.
I’m currently reading a book on the history of the Baltimore Transit Company, they struggled in the 50’s trying to decide between Trolley Buses and diesel buses. Several of the Trolley Bus routes lasted until 1959 here in Baltimore.
I was thinking a new motor and/or a better power supply might do a lot for the Brawa bus. Later ones are also made of better plastic and have the steering “internal”, making them look much better.
We will see.
Yes, even here in the US, I think a new product could do well.
It’s not as hard as you might think, they were designed to have reasonable leeway.
That was actually one of the main advantages on top of not having tracks in the street to maintain.
The trolley bus could actually pull over to the curb, and steer around minor obstructions (dumb motorists).
Just like looking forward down at the road and staying in your lane, the driver could look up and the wires and steer toward them. If he stayed reasonably under them, the poles generally could track fine.
Now, the way most people drive today, spoiled by power steering, making lazy and jerky turns, it might be hard to teach some of them to drive a trolley bus…
Thank you for bringing back a memory from my youth. When I was about 10, I received a Christmas gift of an electrical trolly bus system, probably Brawa. It was just a simple loop with what I recall were fairly large catenary wires, more like metal strips than wires. It ran around inside my Super O Lionel 4 x 8 past the Plasticville structures. Wish I still had it all.
The only thing there is that both the plug-in hybrid developments and the periodic-recharge alternatives give you most if not all of the ‘green’ advantages without the high fixed costs and eyesores of overhead double trolley wiring.
There are certainly places for longer-distance running, for example larger regional services comparable to American interurbans, or in BRT-like schemes, where trolleybus operation is desirable - do you happen to remember where to find information on that British proposal to put the conductors, ground, and data in one “collector head” that would be servo-tracked to keep it on the overhead wires independent of vehicle movement? it was like three poles in one ‘turret’ head and as I recall the initial DFM for it had been done. A modern clean-sheet-of-paper trolleybus need not use dumb poles or require someone to go ‘outside’ to rewire…
That is all very interesting, but I believe Ulrich was simply refering to someone re-entering the HO model trolley bus market?
As currently there are no manufacturers in that space. In fact, since the 1950’s introduction by Eheim, the only direct competitor to Eheim/Brawa was a brief Japan knock off sold in the 60’s.
My brother, who’s into American Flyer S gauge, bought about a dozen or so of these sets many (40?) years ago, from a hardware store in Baltimore going out of business. A few ran, but most didn’t, and the catenary was very clunky (even by Flyer standards!). Knowing my brother as I do, I’m sure he still has them boxed away somewhere…
