Re: Bachman question

William Pearce · 2004-11-15T07:21:16+00:00

Mark, Thanks for that reference, interesting! Looking also at a couple ofJapanese books on closed tramways in Japan that I turned up, there wereabout half-a-dozen refered to therein, some of which might have been horsecar lines originally. So, it seems that the Bachmann tramcar might have beenmore correct with Japanese characters thereon. Regards, Bill.

Nov 15, 2004 5 Replies

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William Pearce 21 years ago

> William Pearce wrote:

> >
> > > The Bachmann four-wheeled tram (street car) is a nice little model, I
> > > have one mainly for display, but occasionally run it on parts of my
> > > normal HO layout where it wont hit signals, bridges etc. But, was
> > > there ever a 2'6" gauge electric tram line in real life? There were
> > > light electric railways of that gauge, but how about street running > > > trams?
> >
> > Oh, yes. There were a couple of such lines in Japan that I can think of. >
>
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Dave 21 years ago

Not only does the On30 stuff it look ok with the Christmas Village stuff, but I can testify that last year it held up to very heavy and occasionally rough (but well meaning) handling from a 9 year old and 2

5 year olds without any difficulty. I might have had to tighten or replace a coupler, but that's it. I use the 2-6-0 and a couple coaches and stock car for the kids. I did treat myself to the t-boiler shay (kids can't have that one) and it is beautiful. This year I am replacing the fabric "snow" cloth, biggest problem was this stuff catching steps and pilots. It gives me a chance to practice all of my scenery techniques as I get ready to build a real layout

Dave

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John M. Day 21 years ago

My Bachmann Christmas trolley/tram runs on a mantle shelf layout just 12 inches wide, and yes, I do have turn loops of only 5 inches radius at either end. By carefully laying the curves and having no rail joints on the curved loops, I can get the car to stay on the tracks without any problem at all. We let it run for hours at a realistic low speed.

As for the out of scale ties, they are all buried under a layer of "snow" (Woodlands Scenics glued down with their ballast glue) so you can't see them. The whole thing is designed to fit as a cap over the existing mantle and is made to look like it belongs by using pieces of crown moulding around the 3 exposed sides. I guess it'll be going up tomorrow :)

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Raildavid 21 years ago

That sounds great. Do you have a site where you can post some photos?

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John M. Day 21 years ago

Mail me off list if you would like a few shots johnmday (at) telus (dot) net. Include "Bachmann trolley" in your subject line.

The trolley line went up on the weekend and ran flawlessly after a quick dustoff with the old dustbuster. 15 days of use, 350 days of storage. :0 Not only my 5 year old, but 15-month old, were excited to see the trolley return. We used the presence of a bit of clean track and some power as an excuse to at least turn over all the old diesel locos that have languished in storage for several years. No going round those 5 inch radius curves though!

John Day

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Christopher A. Lee 21 years ago

Have they seen Mr. Roger's trolley?

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