# Finding the right Trolley



## PhilG (Dec 23, 2011)

I'm looking for a Trolley to use in a Great Gorge Route model. The prototypes were made by The Patterson and Corbin Company of St. Catharines Ontario. It was run on a narrow gauge. I know I won't be able to get anything exact but I wanted to see how close something commercial would come. The two photos show one from the turn of the century and one from about twenty years later. The cars had open sides but all the benches faced forward. Notice the running board on the side for the Conductor to walk along and take tickets.

Any ideas on how to track something like this down? Or if it comes it it, how I would begin to make my own?

Thanks,

Phil


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## shaygetz (Sep 23, 2007)

Unless it was offered in brass in the past---haven't seen new brass traction offered in years---I'd bash a couple of the Bachmann SF cable cars together. Those fenders on front are available as brass castings.


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## mapper65 (Feb 10, 2009)

Too bad you weren't modeling in G scale because Bachmann made this one a decent number of years ago. 

http://www.hobbylinc.com/htm/bac/bac93938.htm


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## PhilG (Dec 23, 2011)

Mr. Mapper,

I did see that Trolley, it is great. I do have G scale for a garden setup but for this layout I wanted to stick to something I could really detail the Gorge and the Steel Railroad bridge. The open sided cars were used in the summer months but when it rained or it was cold they went with enclosed cars which will be much easier to obtain. I know these open sided cars are going to be limiting. I am probably going to have to go with Mr. Shaygetz's idea of kit-bashing which doesn't sound easy. I guess if I'm going to go that far I may as well get as accurate as possible. I'm currently trying to find out exactly what gauge they ran. I know it was narrow but not sure exactly what it was. The rail bed was designed to be only 10 feet wide. 

Thanks for the response.

Phil

P.S. I forgot to mention that the prototypes were only 28 ft long.


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## sstlaure (Oct 12, 2010)

You could even put an HO trolley body on N-scale running gear if you wanted to mimic narrow gauge.


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## PhilG (Dec 23, 2011)

That's a great idea Scott. Thanks.


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## Massey (Apr 16, 2011)

Bachmann is the only one I know that comes close with it's Brill trolly. It is an OK runner and it has a shaped body very similar to the one you posted pics of. The Bachmann model tho is a cosed side car with windows but that should be pretty easy to mod.

Massey


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## PhilG (Dec 23, 2011)

Thank you for all the great input. I've been searching for days and know if I want to run one of these I'm going to have to make it myself. 
Using the N gauge track sounds like the way to go for me so I've been looking at HOn30 stuff, especially in brass. The problem is I can't find anything to use for a chassis. I've looked for kits, plans, anything to get started. I can't even get a line on powered trucks in N scale to get started. 

Am I barking up the wrong tree or does anyone have any ideas? I'd like to keep the size down so anything bigger than HO is not the way I want to go.

Thanks again.

Respectfully,

Phil


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## raleets (Jan 2, 2011)

PhilG,
I have a Bachmann Brill trolley like Massey mentioned. Right out of the box it was VERY noisy, but I sent it off to the resident train guru (Sean @NIMT) and he worked his magic. It's now 90% quieter and runs like a top.
They make it in several colors and titles, but it could be easily customized.
Good luck,
Bob


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## PhilG (Dec 23, 2011)

I may get one of those just to have, but the problem is that those gorge trolleys were only 28 ft long. If I started out with the correct size chassis then making one from scratch may not be much more work that the extensive modification to a manufactured trolley.

Phil


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## raleets (Jan 2, 2011)

PhilG said:


> I may get one of those just to have, but the problem is that those gorge trolleys were only 28 ft long. If I started out with the correct size chassis then making one from scratch may not be much more work that the extensive modification to a manufactured trolley.
> 
> Phil


Would you like me to measure mine? It is HO, so all you would need to do is divide by 87 and you would have the actual length.
Let me know.
Bob


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## Massey (Apr 16, 2011)

You may end up having to fabricate the entire trolly to get exatly what you want. that seems to be the case with traction equipment. MRR just had a featured layout a few months ago that was all hand made traction. The entire layout was trolleys. You may want to find out what he did for running gear.

Massey


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## raleets (Jan 2, 2011)

OK,
The Brill Trolley is 5 1/2" long.
Hope this helps,
Bob


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## PhilG (Dec 23, 2011)

Thanks Bob, it does. I can compare it with calculations I have made for the smaller trolley against blueprints of larger trollies that I found on the internet, which are close to that Brill. I should be able to scale that back until I'm pretty close. 

I've discovered another problem, none of the photographs of the trollies are nice side shots that would allow me to print them out and measure, so I'm going to have to do a lot of guess work.

Phil


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## mrjcoz (Apr 12, 2011)

on30 bachmann christmas trolly i have runs very well on the crudely installed flex track i ran on foam board for my christmas village.ran smooth and strong .ran nicely on the tight turns due to only 4 wheels probably pick one up cheap now.seems to have a similar roof line.good place to start.


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## tjcruiser (Jan 10, 2010)

Hey Phil,

Sidebar ...

What's the skinny on your avatar pic? That's a neat looking old photo, but I can't really make out any detail.

TJ


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## PhilG (Dec 23, 2011)

It's from the best movie about trains ever.


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## tjcruiser (Jan 10, 2010)

Ahh! Thanks!

TJ


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