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

[James B. Holland]

Hi Bob!


Yes, it Does Look like The Very Same pole I described  --  little 
difficult to see the details but it does give the same appearance.       
I love operations and it would not be uncommon to sit there for 
4-6--hours depending upon day and operate the cars.       I easily 
burned shoes and wheels off the cars!

Had some home made PCC foot pedals that I rigged up to a Transistorized 
throttle and operated my HO system that way about 1967 and later -- even 
operated the track switches thru an overhead contactor!


Jim



Bob Rathke wrote:

> 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
>
> -- Attached file removed by Ecartis and put at URL below --
> -- Type: image/jpeg
> -- Size: 111k (114330 bytes)

-- URL : http://lists.dementia.org/files/pittsburgh-railways/TrolleyRear.jpg