Two Tiny Trolleys II: Planning a Mechanism ~ Monday, September 25, 2006

I've been wrapping up work on the bodies of my two trolleys (see this previous post); I just added steps at each of the doors. Now it's time to turn to the really "interesting" (a.k.a., "hard") part of this project, building mechanism for them.

The mechanical parts--trucks, gears, worms, flywheels, and one motor, that I'll be using are from an Atlas RS-1. For the second motor I'll try to get a compatible (in terms of size and shaft diameter) can motor from a supplier like Roundbell Hobby Products.

To put all this together, I'll start with floors made of brass bar stock. There will be another brass bar on top for mounting the trolley pole, and generally to add weight.

Here's a drawing I came up with in PowerPoint while I was waiting for the train:



The motor will be wired for two-rail operation; the pole will be wired to the headlights, so that the car will have directional, continuous lighting (or better yet the lights can flicker realistically when the car goes past a dead spot in the overhead, just like MUNI PCC's did when I was a kid, without stalling out the motor).