Freelance Tram

T

Tim Brien

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trama.JPG

Another blast from the past found hiding in storage thuis afternoon. This behemoth is a little oversized at 66 cms in length. Made a few years ago from kitbashed Bachmann coach kits, brass tubing for the poles and ingenuity.

Power will come from an Aristocraft centre cab motor block. I need to source more paint to continue this long stalled project.
 
Looks very neat - a bit Pacific Electric Lines.

I did steps similar to that on my railbus (bit not quite so neat) and then had to trim them back when they caught some of the track edging :confused:
 
That's really nice! I like the way parts of the original have been used to make something completely different. Clever trolley pole design too, looks like it would be fully functional?
 
Many thanks gents. Trolley pole did take a lot of little grey cells to arrive at this design. It does automatically elevate when released as well as rotating.
 
Nice! Thanks for sharing, Tim.

I am actually working on a free-lance project quite similar to this one. But you're ahead of me: all I can show so far is a floor and two as yet unattached bogies.
 
I am sure that you will enjoy building your model. My one regret is that my version is a little too long. Five windows in each compartment would have been more preferable in reducing the length. Overall my model would equate to around 47 ft in length which apparently is too long for a tram/trolley.
 
Mine will be 20" (50 cm) in length. In half inch scale, it works out to 40 feet or 12 metres. It feels right to me.
 
Tim Brien said:
I am sure that you will enjoy building your model. My one regret is that my version is a little too long. Five windows in each compartment would have been more preferable in reducing the length. Overall my model would equate to around 47 ft in length which apparently is too long for a tram/trolley.
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That's fine for a tram, it's a bit over 14 meters, or about the same as a Melbourne W class. It should go around an R1 curve as long as there's clearance from lineside objects.
 
The "W" class was partial inspiration for my model. I recall several years ago when initially built that the overriding criticism was its extreme length.
 
Tim Brien said:
The "W" class was partial inspiration for my model. I recall several years ago when initially built that the overriding criticism was its extreme length.
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I think a lot of people forget just how big large scale really is. Most of the rollingstock we model is of prototypes that are actually tiny in real life. I run this thing on my tramway:

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Compared to most other rollingstock it looks huge (and certainly feels huge when you have to carry it!) but in real life it's only 13.9 meters long, less than a W. A full size heavy rail passenger car would be over a meter long in this scale!
 
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