Interurbans are trains too!

Randy Stahl Sep 1, 2013

  1. Hardcoaler

    Hardcoaler TrainBoard Member

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    VERY cool documents Tom. I never knew about these lines. Looks like both paralleled the NYC and NKP mainlines. So typical of many traction lines, built to excess. Thanks for posting these. (y)
     
  2. jtomstarr

    jtomstarr TrainBoard Member

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    All, Here's what I know.

    Tom
    Rails AROUND HAMBURG , NY 1.jpeg
     
  3. Randy Stahl

    Randy Stahl TrainBoard Supporter

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    The Cincinnati curve side cars are available if you want to model part of the system... just saying.. thumbnail_IMG_0226.jpg
     
  4. Randy Stahl

    Randy Stahl TrainBoard Supporter

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  5. Randy Stahl

    Randy Stahl TrainBoard Supporter

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    thumbnail_IMG_0278.jpg

    My newest addition. Indiana RR high speed. Obviously this is the beginning of the project, I really hope it turns out well, I've wanted one of these for a very long time !!
     
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  6. Randy Stahl

    Randy Stahl TrainBoard Supporter

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    Well... I don't have any new pics. The Indiana high speed is no longer my most recent acquisition. Since , I have gotten at least 14 more interurbans. Mostly Milwaukee stuff, a couple of North Shore wire cars and derrick car. But the most interesting thing I got was some girder rail from Proto 87. I have a couple of modules I want to build. I am tossing around idea's now. Hopefully as soon as I have a plan I will start laying rail.

    I am also thinking about a shop module to showcase the non running maintenance cars, I'm not sure yet about that.

    I did have a lot of fun photographing the equipment I have and showing it to you! now I need to up my game, finish more equipment, build some new displays, get some stuff running so I can make video's and have a blast with trolleys and interurbans !

    Randy
     
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  7. OlyPen

    OlyPen TrainBoard Member

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    Yes, you do, one traction fan to another!

    Back in the 1970s, about the time Bob Hegge was appearing in RMC and MR, I used to dream of N scale traction that actually ran! Now those days are here.
     
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  8. Randy Stahl

    Randy Stahl TrainBoard Supporter

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    The only show in town were the Western Railcraft brass and wood kits. They were expensive and it was impossible to power them with anything good looking and operating. Still, when ever I see these old kits I get a little excited until I realize that I have the entire North Shore fleet.

    I hope you share on here your interurbans and trolleys !!!

    Randy
     
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  9. Hardcoaler

    Hardcoaler TrainBoard Member

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    I recall seeing this book in hobby shops when I was a kid and so wanted to buy it, but as Randy mentioned, N Scale traction was a nearly hopeless pursuit back in the day.

    upload_2020-9-14_19-49-59.png
     
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  10. Randy Stahl

    Randy Stahl TrainBoard Supporter

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    I've had this book since I was 12...I have HO trolleys as well but the N scale stuff is new and exciting !!
     
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  11. OlyPen

    OlyPen TrainBoard Member

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    One my favorites books in my collection as well. I also have its counterpart from Carstens Publications.

    All of my traction equipment is HO. It's my Plan B should N scale become too difficult as I get older. But I might give a PE box motor in N a whirl someday. It's the overhead that would be especially challenging in N scale.
     
  12. Randy Stahl

    Randy Stahl TrainBoard Supporter

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    I also have the Carstens book.

    The N Scale wire would be essentially HO scale trolley wire. HO is about as small as you can go for practical operating trolley wire. I'm thinking no trolley wire as its hard enough cleaning track under O scale trolleys !!

    I have Proto 87 HO scale girder rail that I think will look great in N scale, in fact most N Scale wheels and flanges are too big for the rail.

    My original traction guidebook was pretty much a rag after years and years of paging through it, I read about Norton Clarks Bemis Street Railway, including the bit about having the controller out of Grafton and Upton RR number 8, a GE steeplecab. Now I live in Massachusetts , 1000 miles away from where I first read about it. 30 years later I am working for the Grafton and Upton RR, hopefully this is where I will finish my 35+ railroad career..

    I am looking for traces of Norton's model RR, I'd like to bring the controller back to the Grafton and Upton RR. I would like to be part of that story...
     
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  13. Randy Stahl

    Randy Stahl TrainBoard Supporter

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    thumbnail_IMG_0281.jpg

    Finally, some TOFC stuff 1926 style.
     
  14. Hytec

    Hytec TrainBoard Member

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    I experimented with hot wire trolley in HO. I gave up after it not operating reliably. I used 26 AWG Nickle-Silver, also 26 AWG Phosphor Bronze. No matter how much I cleaned the wire, any tiny instantaneous power interruption would reset the ESU decoder circuit. I tried setting the board to DC operation, but the same thing happened. Possibly if I bypassed the circuit board, hard wiring directly from the pole to the motor, it may have worked. Maybe a different DCC board manufacturer has designed a carry-through circuit that would allow minor power glitches, dunno. But ESU definitely does not.
     
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  15. Hardcoaler

    Hardcoaler TrainBoard Member

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    I also recall that our local library had this book when I was young. I must have checked it out a dozen times.

    upload_2020-9-15_21-8-3.png
     
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  16. OlyPen

    OlyPen TrainBoard Member

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    One thing that traction offers is plenty of room for stay-alive capacitors. That, Digitrax or TCS decoder, along with a No-Ox treatment on the contact wire and rails, will be my go-to plan for smooth, reliable operation.
     
  17. Randy Stahl

    Randy Stahl TrainBoard Supporter

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    I don't have any HO or O scale trolleys that are NOT live wire. The more I ran them , the better they got. I do have some single truck cars and locomotives that have capacitors but for the most part not. I don't have any trolleys equipped for DCC- I don't feel the need for sound DCC as the trolleys tend to make the correct sounds anyhow.

    I bought the Middleton books at the local trolley museum with money I earned from baling hay and other field work for area farmers in the summer. Farmwork was tough but it paid for lots of goodies I still have,

    I learned to drive on ancient John Deere tractors as a bonus.
     
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  18. MK

    MK TrainBoard Member

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    Never mind. Link to modeling interurbans got filtered out since it was from a vendor who's not a sponsor. o_O
     
  19. Randy Stahl

    Randy Stahl TrainBoard Supporter

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    It honestly looks like we have the current experts on the trolley / interurban modeling here on Trainboard. This has been a fun thread and it promises to get better.

    There are other ways to direct someone to a site other than direct linking.
     
  20. Hardcoaler

    Hardcoaler TrainBoard Member

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    By the way, traction fans might want to take a look at the Fall 2020 issue of Classic Trains to find a four page article Nightfall For Ohio Interurbans by Art Perterson with some great pictures taken in 1937 and 1938 of the Cincinnati & Lake Erie, Lake Shore Electric and Stark Electric.

    Stark Electric in Canton, OH (courtesy Classic Trains Magazine)
    [​IMG]

    PS: I've been a Classic Trains subscriber for many years and think it's a great magazine.
     
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