Brill/PCC Trolleys Success!

[possumite]

Bach Man, your advice from my previous post was good enough to drop some coin on a Brill Trolley, p/n 61093.  The 7" radius was still a bit large to deal with when engineering an N scale town, so I took a leap of faith and experimented with going down to 3.25" with flex track,(and the lid from a Folger's coffee can!) and found that the trolley worked fine with no binding and no underbody modifications.  Though this may not be prototypical and suicidal at high speeds, that issue was offset by the increased workability into the town.  In analog, the Trolley works fine, even at prototypical slow speeds, and enhanced the idea of a layout within a layout. And keeping it simple. Thanks!

[taz-of-boyds]

Possumite,

The tight radius for streetcars is very prototypical, especially in the citys.  They had to get through the existing intersections and could not cut corners of buildings off to run track.

In NMRA RECOMMENDED PRACTICES RP-5 Electric Traction, General, they say: "Freelance models intended for a full range of street railway operations should be capable of tracking curves equivalent to 35' radius (center line of track)."

So in this reflection of the prototype, 35' is 2 5/8" radius, much smaller than 3 1/4" radius.

Depending on where you go with your streetcar railroad (so to speak), you may find some interesting info here:

http://www.nmra.org/standards/sandrp/rp-5.html
http://www.nmra.org/standards/sandrp/rp-5_1.html
http://www.nmra.org/standards/sandrp/rp-5_2.html
http://www.nmra.org/standards/sandrp/s-5.html
http://www.nmra.org/standards/sandrp/s-6.html

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nscaletraction/

All the best!
Charles