- Traction Modeling

Samhongsa 2-8-2 S-2 Mikado

Wed, 20 May 2020 01:46:05 +0000

s-l1600 (1).jpg (Size: 243.63 KB / Downloads: 2326)
s-l1600.jpg (Size: 283.08 KB / Downloads: 1725) Hello,

I am eagerly anticipating the arrival of a well loved and cared for Brass Samhongsa CNR painted 2-8-2 S-2 Mikado.
The previous owner has said that after approximately 15 years in storage the motor is working in forward and reverse but the locomotive will not move. He suggest it could be drive chain linkage has become disconnected or that the coupler has dried up.

This is a lovely looking engine and I would like to see if we have any other owners of this type of brass locomotive that could make some suggestions?

Thank you

Sean

Steve Jackson to speak at MCHS

Tue, 16 Jun 2015 12:06:55 +0000

At 7 pm on Monday, June 22, the meeting of the Madison County Historical Society in Anderson IN will feature county historian Steve Jackson’s presentation of “An Electrifying Era,” a pictorial story of the Interurbans and street cars that existed in the Anderson area from 1888 to 1941. Anderson was the home of the Union Traction Company.

The meeting, in the Madison County History Center, 11 W. 11th St., is open to MCHS members and the general public. There is no charge to attend this or any event in the facility. Parking is available on street and in the parking lot across the street.

Help getting started with Traction

Thu, 04 Jun 2015 12:41:45 +0000

Hey guys,

It may be worth dusting off the cobwebs in the "traction modeling" section, but I am curious if anyone here has experience with it.

At my club, their is a possibility of putting in a trolley. At this point, its seeming unlikely, since there may not be enough time to do it. That said, I was able to establish that a dogbone-style run through our city streets was potentially viable.

My main concern is the track, however. the Girder rail seems to be a different animal than the usual HO tracks. From what I can tell, there is either this "ORR" rail that I would have to hand-lay, or there is the "Proto:87" track, which is actually a flat piece of metal with a groove cut into either side (the top is the flangeway, the bottom is a locating groove).

Either one seems intimidating and expensive.

Any advice on getting started?

Right now I only have an unpowered IHP Kawasaki LRV, but I plan to pick up a few of the local philadelphia prototypes if I get the chance. there are a few SEPTA and PTC "PCC" type units out there, and some resin models of the Red Arrow Double-ended PCCs.

Platinate Overland Trolleys

Wed, 21 Aug 2013 07:56:46 +0000

Hello guys,

after finishing my N-scale Southern layout, I steped right into the the next adventure, dedicated to an old trolley line at my home area.

First : A brief history

The “Pfälzer Oberlandbahn”, or as the native called her “the snail”, was a 14 miles long trolley line between Landau and Neustadt in the southwest of Germany. It was build in 1912 and the full line opened service in January 1913.

The railroad was constructed as an overland trolley line with meter gauge and connects the small villages along the palatinate mountains with the bigger cities of Landau and Neustadt. In the other direction, she brought citizens out into the nature for relaxing. As the railroad was build, there was no major traffic on the streets and you had to walk or use an horse cart to travel to another village near by.

The trolleys were a big and important step into future for the people in that time and for the region as well.

Starting at the state railroads main station in Landau, the trolleys run through the city up to the north. Between the villages along the line, the rails were laid into the rural streets except for some short sections, where the trains had their own RoW. Passing through Nußdorf, Böchingen, Flemlingen, Hainfeld and Rhodt, the train arrvied at Edenkoben, midpoint of the line and home of the main facilities. The 5 track car shed is still in place and is used for buses today. All trains started from here in the good old days. The line continues over Maikammer, Diedesfeld and Hambach until she ends at the state railroads main station in Neustadt.

For these 14 miles long trip, the train tooks 1h45 at a top speed of 18 miles per hour. So you can imagine why the native called her “the snail”. But it was better than taking a walk and the whole trip costs 15 cents when the line was opened.

After WW2, the railroad was in a bad condition but she was back in service very quick when the war was over. Anyway, the material of the line was well done. Through the years of WW2, there was no chance to replace rails, overhead wires or to do major maintainance at all. So in the 1950th, the railroad was in a very poor condition. So the company decided to replace the trolleys with buses and the line between Landau and Edenkoben was switched to bus service in 1952. Three years later, on 30th of January 1955, the last “snail” runs between Edenkoben and Neustadt. The next day, the whole line was served by buses and the “Palatinate Overland Trolley” becomes another fallen flag in Germany narrow gauge history.

But the company itself survied until today and is an important bus service in this region and by old people, the bus line 501 is still called “snail” or “electric tram” in memory of the old days. The company still uses the old tram shed as mentioned above to store the busses at night.

In 2013, the railroad would be 100 years old and that’s the reason why I started a model building project with this therm. Another point is, that I live in Böchingen and the railroad runs direct in front of my house. There’s even a photo of the opening with my house in place (see red arrow). Not much has changed in the past 100 years. The house in front of mine is gone and at least the railroad.....

If there weren't the books written by a railroad historican, I guess the railroad would be forgotten for ever. Since non of the prototype cars survied and there's no memorial to the old trolley line, I decided to make my own ones in H0 scale.

Ant that's what I'll show you in the next posts.

Cheers, Gerd

Cannonball kit for a Baldwin steeple cab

Tue, 04 Dec 2012 05:53:56 +0000

Some days ago the Cannonball kit for a Baldwin steeple cab arrived

The kit is normaly made for the older Bachmann 44to chassis but with a few changes the current chassis can be used. So it become a Baldwin 50to steeple cab. See MR 01/2010.

first pics

The kit fits well and can also be processed easily. I still have orderd a few more additional parts at AMB to refine the roof equipment. The delivery will take up to 4 weeks probably. But until then there is still much to do.

Die Cast Subway Car

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 20:59:08 +0000

Late last year I started to see ads for a die cast subway car model that's sometimes represented as "HO Scale". They are from a Chinese company called Daron. MSRP seems to be $25, but you can find them for less if you hunt around -- for instance http://www.awesomediecast.com/index.cfm ... /id/509080

I decided to gamble and sent for one. Here's what I got:
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The ads call it an R-46, but the number and general appearance make me think it's actually an R-142. When I got it out of the box, it seemed undersize for HO, and it is, though the R-142s are meant to run on IRT lines, which take smaller equipment.

Prototype length is 51 feet 4 inches over couplers. I measured the model at about 46 feet 6 inches. Width of the prototype is 8 feet 9-1/2 inches, model is 8 feet even. Height is 11 feet 10-5/8 inches, model is about 10 feet 5 inches. As a result, it's about 10% undersize overall.

The wheels are very crude and are held in gauge only by recesses in the floor, but they do fit on HO track. It's naturally unpowered. The underframe is a total loss, but it unscrews easily. This certainly wouldn't be a bad model as a static feature on a background el structure, and maybe there are other things that can be done with it.

steeple cab project

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 00:14:18 +0000

Hello everyone .
I got "bitten" by trolleys about a year ago .....specifically the industrial variety ....so much so that my next layout will be a point to point dockside setting with a steeple cab as the featured loco

I've not started anything yet but will do in the next couple of months ....other things on my plate as it were . A friend who designs and builds models has a couple of laser machines for cutting his thin plywood used in his structures ( Imagine That Laser Art ) and I'm going to try my hand at cutting the pieces for the steeple cab and building it . I'm hoping to NOT end up with a pile of smoldering kindling , but I HAVE to build that loco ...just something about it .

Terry

HO scale Philadelphia Trolley and Train Video

Wed, 23 Jun 2010 12:28:05 +0000

Hello All
I posted a "progress" video on Youtube featuring Trains, Trolleys and LRVs on my PRRnortheastcorrido r Railroad. All trains run off of Live DCC catenary and Trolleys and LRVs run off of Live DCC overhead wire. This is a modern city layout based on Philadelphia with working traffic lights, crossing lights and a start of RR signal system. The city features two large stations, skyscrapers and neighborhoods "still in construction"

Enjoy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yj3vQ77p0DE

Indiana Service Corp 817

Thu, 22 Apr 2010 00:23:14 +0000

I have an individual who needs a drawing or side view photo of Freight Motor 817. It was cut down from a possible passenger traction car into the freight motor. This took place around Ft. Wayne.

Any help would be appreciated.

New Orleans

Sat, 20 Feb 2010 04:31:57 +0000

It has just been announced that New Orleans has been approved for federal funding ($45 million) for a new streetcar line. Story from the paper:
http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2...ll_co.html

The line is to run 1.5 miles along Loyola from the railway station to Canal Street. They hope to have it finished in 2 years. The grant does not cover cars as they plan to use surplus Canal Street cars.
They are also talking about building a loop from the junction at Canal around the French Quarter to the end of the Riverside line.
New Orleans currently has 3 lines with 3 car styles. The oldest cars date from 1923 are are national historic monuments, as is the St Charles line they run on. (This makes the cars contemporary with Toronto's Peter Witts.)

Constructing a Tatra T5C5

Sun, 09 Aug 2009 12:32:27 +0000

Returned from the summer holidays with two kits of the following tram, 1:87.

(picture from wikipedia)

Started cleaning the parts yesterday to start constructing it, am planning to build one unmotorized, as per the kit and making one powered. First I'm going to have to decide on whether it'll be more or less realistic running on normal gauge or whether it might be a better idea to reduce the gauge to TT or N (H0m, H0e?) to allow for a smaller little layout should I want to build one at some point (will want to finish the N gauge layout first though)

The pantographs on this kit are plastic (as is all), and those I might want to replace with brass. Apparently there may or may not be a motorization kit available for the model (the instructions were unclear about that, were mainly reminding not to glue the wheels and filing off excess plastic)

I guess a running model would do well with a proper wheels/bogies...will need to shop around for something with 8mm(inside)/10mm(flanges) wheels 22mm apart.

I'll post pictures when things progress more.

Galveston. Texas

Tue, 19 May 2009 03:34:02 +0000

On our trip this winter, we spent a day in Galveston, TX. Galveston was seriously hurt by Hurricane Ike last fall. The railroad museum was flooded to the level of 12 feet or more (pictures in Trains, recently) and rolling stock was seriously damaged.
Galveston has a tourist "trolley" operation. There is a lot of in-street track and a car shed near the railroad museum. There is no overhead, so I suspect they run by gas. The pictures I saw looked a bit like the new red cars in New Orleans. I didn't go up to the shed and I didn't see any running.
So can anyone give and current details of how the system is making out?

Put the motors in full series and advance to first notch

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 03:52:07 +0000

Let me start the traction forum with some pictures of my models.
Apologies that I don't have a traction layout at this time.

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