I am planning a street area and have a pcc trolley, as it is single ended, I want to lay a reversing triangle for it, anyone done this or suggest the smallest radius for the turnouts?.
Aristocraft PCC
- Thread starter MR SPOCK
- Start date
I used R1's before I double tracked my garden line (a reverser for my steam tram). The PCC car negotiates R1's OK on my trailer set-up.
If you are DCC this may help, I used LGB R1's for the temporary lash up. Just about right I would say for a PCC.
JonD
Thanks Jon, you just answered my next question about controlling it all cheers Pete
I decided to experiment with some very flexible track, after contacting a chap in Italy about his ho trolley layout and finding he used 4 inch radius track I decided by quick maths that 3 x 4 is 12 bent some rail following the home made compass line, it was a pain bending but once started was easier, next time I will start the bend in the middle and work outwards,
The trolley ran perfectly around the test track so spurred on I will continue, I want it to curve around a garage that I scratched together, based on a one in Cornwall
uk 
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A few of the area to be developed showing Chevy Impala dealers new stock
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Oh, just love the cars - and after all, it's a street trolley and it ought to take tight curves - the limitation is unlikely to be bodywork, more bogie swivel.
Looking good. Such was the swept path (Kinetic Envelope) of long bogie cars, that white line were painted on the road to denote this! On twin track routes, often (on curves) the track were relocated further apart or - in the worst of cases - not allowed to pass on bends!
The usual minimum curve radius for standard gauge trams/streetcars is 45ft, however there are tighter ones; Toronto, Boston and Philly have had curves down to around 12m, so scale that up and you have the minimum radius you can realistically model.
R1 equals a 14.4m radius curve in 1:24 scale, near enough to a typical tramway street corner. Some Australian systems had curves as tight as 10 meters in places, in 1:24 scale that's only 416mm!
or that, I got the car going around a 12 inch radius without too much overhang, but I may ease that to 15 inches I have given up trying to fit in a reversing triangle as its too much track in this area so a balloon loop looks to be the way forward,
Fantastic
- look at:- The swing on those bogies
- The camber on the roads
- The dent in the front of the PCC car
- The woman standing in the middle of the road by the underpass to catch it
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Fantastic
- The swing on those bogies
- The camber on the roads
- The dent in the front of the PCC car
- The woman standing in the middle of the road by the underpass to catch it
did you notice the trollies had no drivers and the cars were also driverless and just randomly moving, and the same old woman was in every snapshot,?
makes a good prototype for a model!!!
makes a good prototype for a model!!!
I really like the outward swing of the bogie on your single-ended PCC Mr Spock! In Brisbane (Australia), I have been told that because of a combination of some very tight radius corners, standard gauge track but almost narrow gauge trams (the Brisbane City Council restricted the maximum width of any tram to 7'8"!), the bogie swing on some models of trams would very occasionally open up the side of a car that had stopped in traffic a little bit too close to a moving tram. Apparently the trams in Brisbane had absolute right of way in peak hours also.
I thought the ones I have seen in museums looked a bit on the narrow side, so that explains that then!
Ferny Grove Museum, QLD
Ferrymead Museum, Christchurch, NZ
Mind you, our Ipswich Corporation cars were limited to 5'9" maximum width (on 3'6" gauge) due to narrow streets in the Town Centre, so such restrictions did apply elsewhere.