Bob’s been in touch with his scratch built HO trolley line:
“Hi Al,
Love all the posts,ideas,and videos from your subscribers.
Every bit of it makes me think of different ways to accomplish various parts of my layout.
Attached are some pics and a video of the Trolley Line that I put on my Basement wall.
It has all hand made houses, trees and the sky background which I also painted.
Lots of people and the businesses are named after various family members. Cathy’s (my wife) Chocolate Chip Cookies, Bob’s Train World etc…)
It is HO scale, runs on DC, ( I also have a 5’ x 10’ HO Train layout that is all DCC)
The Trolley is controlled by a Circuitron AR2 Auto Reverse module coupled to a Circuitron DT-4 module which allows it to stop at intervals designated buy the Opto-Sensors located in the track.
I live in Springfield Pennsylvania, just southeast of Philadelphia, in the good old USA !
I hope you and your readers enjoy my little world!
Thanks for all your hard work!
Bob”
Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.
Loved what Bob has done.
It just goes to show (again!) don’t let lack of space stop you having fun.
And best of all, starting small lets you get your feet wet, and in no time at all, you’ll be hatching plans for the next one.
It’s a great way to go from the armchair, to actually laying track and enjoying yourself.
And now on to another Bob:
“Hi Alastair,
The task was how to integrate my love of model railways and the grand kids desire to race their model cars around a race track.
Main board is 8’x4’ then extended across window into goods yard and made a loop back to main side.
Please see finished project which has us all happy now!
Love your posts and ideas from members!
Kind regards
Tony from Stockport”
That’s all for today folks. A huge thanks to the two Bobs.
In fact, it’s given me an idea, I think I might do a post linking to all the layouts that don’t take up a lot of space.
That’s all for today, folks.
Please don’t forget the Beginner’s Guide if you want to have some fun of your own.
Best
Al
Looks great!!! I am waiting to move to build my layout.I will have something similar to this in the middle of it,going through “town” as the larger trains run around the outside of that. I also plan to have a monorail going around the room at about eye level(wall mounted like you have done).Keep up the excellent work and most importantly-ENJOY
Superb Trolley Line! Wow!
That trolley line is inspirational. Cheers! NJ Mark
The trolley line is great fun. Thanks for sharing it with us.
WOW! DO any store lights or buildings have lights for night operations?
Fantastic ! ! !
Love the painted buildings and the circuitry to make it work. Very nice job from a guy who grew up in the Delaware Valley.
MN Dan
Great layout and show for the Trolly. Great use of space as well.
I have an “O” Guage Trolly I am going to put in my city scene. I assume the electrical I saw you make your self. Would you share how you got it to stop and go?
I would love to have it stop and go. Currently it hits the bumper at each end and reverses direction.
Great job!
Sincerely,
Jim Beal
Dude, that is slicker’n snot on a doorknob. What a great idea.
Looking good!!
Excellent use of material – gives many ideas what can be done with limited space.
Thanks for sharing
You can run trolley cars of the overhead wire quite effectively, including trolley reversers at the ends of the line, guaranteed to make people fascinated. If your layout has to be in portable sections, it’s harder to keep a constant tension in the overhead, but still perfectly do-able using pantograph pick up and all-wheels current return. Very satisfying too, watching the pan flexing gently up and down as it runs.
Rod
Glad to see a trolley line. Sold my O scale collection of cars, kits & trackage to finance the manufacture & sales of high quality headphone amplifier. Now have a few pieces of HO traction items.
BRAVO!
Thanks for all the nice comments and compliments.
No, there wasn’t a lot of room behind the houses to install lights, I did think about it but decided not to undertake that idea.
Jim,
The Trolley Line is 12Volt DC train controller which controls the speed and a 12volt wall wart that controls the Circuitron AR-2 module coupled to a Circuitron DT-4 which I bought at a local train store.
The AR-2 allows it to stop and reverse direction when the Trolley covers a light sensor in-bedded between the rails.
The DT-4 also has up to 4 inputs for light sensors to stop the Trolley wherever you place the sensors.
They both have controls for the length of time that they stop and reverse the Trolley .
Future plans include extending the line around the room passing thru a park/wooded area.
Very cool idea I like it
This is so unusual cant wait for the next instalment.
Bob, nice work. Since you don’t have room to light the buildings, look at the artist Thomas Kincade. He uses some kind of luminescent paint that looks ordinary in normal room light. But when there is ambient light from a bulb or spotlight nearby, the windows in his paintings seem to light up. For someone like you, that might be a way to light the buildings easily.
Love the layout 👏
Your video arrived at exactly the right time for me. I just purchased a G scale Peter Witt with the proper Toronto paint job. Using photos from the TTC website I went to a professional printer and had the decals made, which I am now carefully affixing to the correct places. Between 1963 and 1965 the Peter Witts were phased out and replaced with the the-new PCC cars. As I lived in that city until 1963 and visited many times later, I got to ride on both types of cars.
I’ll be looking for more of your videos as your tinker with and expand your line.
Love the trolley line Bob – nice work.
Bob 2 – Great to see how you’ve incorporated the Scalextric with the railway – super modelling. Just hope the crash barriers prevent the cars flying off into the railway – if they’re anything like mike Grandchildren ……………
Best to all
Brian, Wokingham, UK