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 Posted - June 06 2012 : 10:11:25 AM
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Some of you may remember the ugly green trolley--Streetcar Named Desire--that I tried to give away. I can't stand throwing stuff out so decided to try my hand at HO kitbashing, quite a stretch for me because my regular hobby is O-scale.
So, I decided to do what the traction companies often did with wood cars--convert it into an express car.
First, the slice and dice. Most of the express cars I looked at were in the 30-36 feet range, whereas the green trolley was a scale 40 feet, so I had to take some out of the middle. I also got rid of the deck roof, because most pictures I saw had the regular flat rounded roof. Cut the sides off, but saved the doors.
Then, I glued on sides made of scribed styrene, used two doors as baggage doors and the other two as single side doors, and made a side window from the windows in the sides. I patched in the roof with .010 styrene and added a new roofwalk.
I chose the Electric Express Company as my prototype because they had a lot of express cars of many different types, though I did not follow a specific car. This was an interesting operation in southeastern, central and western Massachusetts, wherever the New Haven Railroad controlled the streetcar lines. The company was a great service to farmers in small towns that had streetcar service but no steam railroad connections. In 1907, the company shipped 10,000 barrels of apples, as well as tons of milk and oddball stuff such as greenhouse ferns. This car is numbered for the Boston-Worcester area, but could appear elsewhere in Massachusetts because these were pooled cars.
It's a little rough, but I'm not unhappy with it as a first HO effort. Now I have to figure out how to motorize it. I have some trolley power trucks but will need to fabricate a chassis for them. Maybe if that comes out I will splurge on some real headlights.
Bruce Clouette
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Posted - June 06 2012 : 10:20:07 AM
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hi bruce,amazing what a bit of imagination and sum skill can do to a give away,nice piece ken
Edited by - catfordken on June 07 2012 05:54:56 AM
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 Posted - June 06 2012 : 11:30:35 PM
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Awesome transformation, Bruce! The scribed styrene really changes its whole character. I guess you can make a silk purse from a sow's ear. 
The Tyco Depot
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Posted - June 07 2012 : 04:14:01 AM
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Awesome kitbash Bruce.
" Heck with counting 'em rivets, TRAINS ARE FOR FUN! Not called the Mad Scientist for nothing either!"
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Posted - June 07 2012 : 08:32:35 AM
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You did a lot of sharp accurate cutting the Bruce. Well done.
Alco Fan
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Posted - June 07 2012 : 09:45:47 AM
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I likes it
Heh I should send you one of my Desires & have you do it like that 
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Posted - June 07 2012 : 10:51:13 AM
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Well, I think maybe once is enough. Everything in HO is too small, I have to go back to O-Scale,where if you slip it just looks like a little distress mark, rather than a huge gash.
Trolley freight is a special interest of mine. In New England, there were lots of express cars like the one I built, freight motors (looked just the same) that hauled regular boxcars, etc., combines that would pick up passengers or milk or whatever, and even at least one funeral car that I know of. The funeral car had a coach section for mourners and a "baggage" section for the coffin. Cemeteries were often accessible via streetcar, so not surprising. For example, the little town of Stow, Mass., has three cemeteries, all on an electric line that ran from Maynard to Hudson, Mass.
One set of freight motors that I know of was dieselized when the Hurricane of 1938 took down the trolley lines in East Hartford, Conn. They hauled "Wasp" airplane engines from the Pratt and Whitney Aircraft plant to a junction with the New Haven Railroad, later, jet engines.
Bruce Clouette
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Posted - June 08 2012 : 07:46:00 AM
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quote:
Trolley freight is a special interest of mine. In New England, there were lots of express cars like the one I built, freight motors (looked just the same) that hauled regular boxcars, etc., combines that would pick up passengers or milk or whatever, and even at least one funeral car that I know of. The funeral car had a coach section for mourners and a "baggage" section for the coffin.
One set of freight motors that I know of ...hauled "Wasp" airplane engines from the Pratt and Whitney Aircraft plant to a junction with the New Haven Railroad, later, jet engines.
Originally posted by bruceclouette - June 07 2012 : 10:51:13 AM
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Wow, that's pretty cool, I didn't know there were freight trolleys. Guess I'll have to do some research now, that's different enough I may have to make one. Cool!
Jerry
" When life throws you bananas...it's easy to slip up"
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Posted - June 08 2012 : 08:39:34 AM
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if I remember right, Bruce The famous Pacific Electric did this too & they even had one trolley dedicated as a funeral car 
There still is a freight line in Iowa that uses the old freight trollies for hauling freight & they are 70+ years old!  ]
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Posted - June 08 2012 : 09:28:51 AM
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Here's a picture of a funeral car:
This was named "Oregon" (don't ask me why) and ran on the Danielson, Conn. to Providence, R.I. line. This photo, from 1938, shows it after it was converted into a work car, so subtract the extra headlight, ladder, and roof platforms to get an idea of how it looked. This is from an excellent series on New England trolley freight by C.A. Brown in SHORELINER, 1987-1988 (the magazine of the New Haven Railroad Historical and Technical Society).
This would convert nicely from the Ugly Green Trolley, since the five side windows are the same arched type. The arched loading doors might be a bit of a challenge, as would motorizing, of course.
Bruce Clouette
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Posted - June 08 2012 : 4:48:06 PM
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Bruce:
Excellent job- it looks credible, which is my "yardstick" for successful modeling work!
Show us some of your larger scale efforts- the scale is not the focus, but the concept is!
Siouxlake Ron
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Posted - June 08 2012 : 4:58:17 PM
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| Thanks for the pic of the funeral car, Bruce...now you know the fate of mine in the next few months. BTW...those bodies are slightly modified Bachmann units, it only takes a little filing to fit a current Bachmann Brill mechanism in it.
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Posted - June 08 2012 : 11:20:26 PM
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It looks great! I never knew there were freight trolleys. You learn something new everyday
What kind of saw did you use to cut up the body? Also, what did you use to glue it back together? I've done a little experimenting with razor saws, model putty, various types of glue...I'm always curious what methods others use 
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Posted - June 09 2012 : 10:44:19 PM
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VERY NICE work Bruce!!!!!!!!!!
Goit a good question for ya tho.... you from Mass? I ask as I'm in NH!
~John
Many have tried to, and failed, ya just can't repair stupid...
Do NOT try to Idiot-Proof anything!!!! God, will simply create a better......IDIOT!
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Posted - June 09 2012 : 10:53:33 PM
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I never really thought about it before, but makes sense that there were freight trolleys. A lot of short lines used doodlebugs or galloping geese (gooses?) for light passenger and freight service. The Rahway Valley used to load deliveries on the locomotive's pilot when they were small enough so they wouldn't have to pull an extra boxcar.
I never imagined funeral trolleys, though.
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Posted - June 09 2012 : 11:45:29 PM
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its Geese, NKP & now the real one
ALL Geese will be at the Colorado RR Museum next weekend!
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Posted - June 10 2012 : 05:53:42 AM
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Well with this thread its sparked a new interest! I have a BUNCH of those ugly green trolleys!!!!!!! I can give that thing a whole new meaning!
~John
Many have tried to, and failed, ya just can't repair stupid...
Do NOT try to Idiot-Proof anything!!!! God, will simply create a better......IDIOT!
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Posted - June 10 2012 : 6:04:30 PM
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| Excellent work Bruce! The finishing looks great. - Thomas
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Posted - June 11 2012 : 09:50:07 AM
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Thanks for the compliments. I tried cobbling together a chassis but now think I will take Shaygetz's suggestion and try to get a Bachmann drive. I used an X-acto razor saw, the finest tooth one they make, under an illuminated magnifier. I put everything together with the thick, gap-filling superglue (ACC).
Em-1 asked if I'm from NH. What? You can hear my accent? Yes, I grew up in Concord NH, but now live in Conn.
Bruce Clouette
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Posted - June 11 2012 : 9:59:39 PM
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Bruce, that is too funny! I live in Concord, NH....I tho, grew up in Southwestern, Pennsylvania so.......
I just thought being you modeled the express car from a Massechusetts prototype, I thought you would have been someplace in New England..... further away then I thought but....(I asked merely due to the trolley interest in Mass and locale to the Trolley Museum)
Thats cool tho that you grew up where I currently am!
~John
Many have tried to, and failed, ya just can't repair stupid...
Do NOT try to Idiot-Proof anything!!!! God, will simply create a better......IDIOT!
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Posted - June 14 2012 : 3:57:12 PM
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Now that's a really neat item! I love the character of it. I too never heard of a freight trolley, but it makes perfect sense given some thought. Would be kind of funny to model a retired freight trolley placed into MOW service, or even mainline use (interchange??) rolling stock for a short line or something.
I don't have any of those, but I might not pass up the next one I see...
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Posted - June 18 2012 : 9:53:15 PM
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After looking into after-market powered chassis for my green trolley/express car, I thought I'd give the geared trucks I had a second chance and save the $$. These trucks, which my friend had before he died, look to be German. They all had traction tires, so I took them off the truck to which I attached brass wipers. Then I glued on some machine screws set into styrene blocks, added a piece of brass, and just kept adding washers. Miraculously, it runs pretty well.
Those of you with machinist skills will be appalled, but I had to work with what I know, which is duct tape, styrene, and superglue.
I attached the body by padding it with foam. A lot of work, but something unique, I think.
Bruce Clouette
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Posted - June 18 2012 : 10:10:32 PM
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| Too cool...oughta be a pullin' beastie. You got the truck spacing spot on too...
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Posted - June 18 2012 : 11:22:22 PM
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Well, as the Mythbusters have proven, you can do just about anything with duct tape.
That trolley is supersexyawesome, Bruce.  What is the motor from, and does it power both trucks?
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Edited by - NickelPlate759 on June 18 2012 11:31:57 PM
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Posted - June 19 2012 : 08:02:10 AM
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The motor was in the bag with the trucks. There are couplings on the truck worm gear and on the motor connected by a spline. But because the wheels all had traction tires, I couldn't see how to pick up the current unless I removed the tires from one truck.
It runs OK with just one truck powered, a little better forward than reverse. I guess it's typical, but this thing probably goes 100mph scale if you put the transformer on full. Can't make it creep, but it does run a normal trolley speed on low.
I think my friend had purchased these power trucks with the idea of powering an unpowered unit, maybe even the Ugly Green. I still have one geared truck (why he had three beats me) if anyone wants it to experiment with. No motor, though.
Bruce Clouette
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Posted - June 19 2012 : 2:19:34 PM
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That is too cool. I've been getting into traction modeling myself, but in N-scale, where powered Bachmann trolleys that run great can be had for cheap and you can really take advantage of a trolley's minimum radius for saving space...I've got a micro layout planned for a suitcase.
I've been meaning to try and make one of these out of one of the Bachmann N-scale trolleys for some time now, and it looks like your method on the HO scale version will scale down pretty well...
--Rio Grande--Thru the Rockies
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Posted - June 20 2012 : 06:00:01 AM
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Bruce, thats AWESOME! You done well for what you had to work with!
I myself would have bent some brass stock and made a mount type item to hold the motor but thats just me!
Otherwise you did good, and it looks GREAT! I bet with the washers, it added some weight to hold it to the track at 100 scale MPH!
The finished model looks GREAT! Keep up the good work!
~John
Many have tried to, and failed, ya just can't repair stupid...
Do NOT try to Idiot-Proof anything!!!! God, will simply create a better......IDIOT!
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