[PRCo] Re: HO Brass Pittsburgh Pre-war PCC car by MTS Imports

[Bob Rathke]

I have one of those Japanese-import, spring-loaded trolley poles with wheel
that Jim describes.  See attached photo taken on my 1950's HO layout.
Around 1956 I bought a plastic single-truck trolley (lettered "PRT 1000")
for about $5 at Bill & Walt's Hobby Shop on Smithfield St.  It was
ready-to-run on HO track, with power pick-up from both rails.  I re-wired
the trolley for pole pick-up, bought one of those brass poles for about $2
at Bill & Walt's, and ran the trolley on the streets in my layout.

The wheel turned a little, but it really functioned as a shoe.  Regardless,
the pole tracked well, even around sharp 90-degree curves, and it seldom
de-wired.  The wheel remained perfectly vertical, and it never tilted.
Maybe it's not the same type pole that Jim described.

I still have the trolley, pole and catenary seen in the attached photo, and
everything still works perfectly nearly 50 years later.  I also have the
buildings, and even the Ford auto seen in the photo.

Maybe next year I'll upgrade to a 1960's operating system....

Bob 10/12/04

-----------------------------
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "James B. Holland" <PRCoPCC at P-R-Co.com>
To: <pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org>
Sent: Monday, October 11, 2004 4:40 AM
Subject: [PRCo] Re: HO Brass Pittsburgh Pre-war PCC car by MTS Imports


> Shoe is Very Common in both scales  (("O" and HO))  --  has only been
> recently that anyone takes the trouble to display a wheel, and then it
> only slides.       That can be easily changed by the modeler if so
> desired and can be homemade by using anything round, cutting a hole for
> mounting on the pole and slicing a groove in it for contact to the
> overhead.       In the 1950s there was a Japanese HO pole with operating
> wheel but it used a spring base like on trolley poles from 1900 - one
> compression spring over the pole with wire to clamp above spring and
> anchored to base on other end.       Wheel would seem to tilt 30-degrees
> from vertical, left and right, but it tracked and held the wire quite
> nicely!       They were short lived.
RR


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