Post #32

Some times you can be lucky. I was looking through my favourite time waster the other day. I have joined two specific Facebook sites dedicated purely to model railways. I was lucky the day I was looking and came across a tram that was being offered up. Long story short I ended up getting a fleet  of cars from the buyer that were already painted and ready to go. What a way to go, the whole fleet in one go. They are currently being fitted with dcc decoders while the layout building continues.

But I recently spotted a pile of rolling stock surrounding a green tram. I wasn't familiar with what it was, the photo wasn't very clear. I messaged the seller that I was only interested in the tram and a yellow wagon that was beside the tram. In his posting he declared that he wasn't familiar with what he was selling. I ended up in the end getting all of the items as he didn't want them.

What I ended up with

The package ended up here today, nicely packed in bubble wrap. I suppose one bonus was that there were also two freight cars labelled for 'Pacific Electric' at least they were an traction line that I was aware of.

Once I got to the bottom of the bubble wrap the tram was a pleasant surprise. I discovered it was a painted brass model and I found out where it operated by showing my ignorance and posting some photos on a US Facebook site 'Traction Model Railroading' to see if anyone could shed any info on it. Despite it being around midnight in the states a reply came back advising that it was a model of a 'Sacramento Northern Niles car'.

At the South Aurora terminus

Another interesting issue was that the car was labelled 'South Pacific Electric Railway' I was familiar with the 'Pacific Electric Railway'. A possible reason for that particular naming is that our Sydney Tramway Museum was also know as the South Pacific Electric Railway so I am guessing it was named after that. As I am collecting cars from anywhere and not just a specific company it will stay that way.

I took it down the shed to try it out and after giving it a good dust off with the paint brush it went onto the track for a run. It was only DC at this stage and when the throttle was opened nothing happened, not what I hoped for. So out came the screwdriver to take off the four screws from the body. (Why can't current models be assembled this way? So simple.) There no broken wires and when the wires were placed onto the carbon brush terminals it sprung into action. Great. It gave off that familiar electric motor smell these old motors seemed to have. After having the motor working I then placed the body back on and then gave it a run up and down a short section of track.

The wheels were clean indicating that it probably hadn't done much running but it will benefit with a bit of running to loosen up the mechanism. I found also that operating under DC there wasn't much of a range on the throttle but when decoder is fitted I hope there will be a much smoother operation over the speed range. I much prefer the slow side of the dial.

One bonus with this car is that it is fitted with two trolley poles meaning it will be able to travel between the two termini on the layout. It will mean dropping down the front pole and then putting up the rear one, but that is at least part of the fun and operation.

The car has an inbuilt sound when moving along which makes you wonder why fit a sound decoder? The only bonus there would be a horn and compressor sounds. It would be certainly different if it was a steam or diesel locomotive.

Next to the new platform under construction

Well I am certainly happy with this purchase, just means I will have to keep looking out for more? 😇🚋