We have a nice upstairs patio that gets virtually no use. Until most recently. I had the opportunity to read about a some marvelous O Gauge Trolleys that are sold by a wonderful gentlman who lives very close to me: Walt Cameron.
He has a small company calle Western Hobbycraft. On one of the O gauge forums, he announced a blow out sale on his trolleys. The trolleys are made in Korea and he has many on the way. With failing health, he indicated that these wonderful trolleys would be available for a great price. The O gauge community, that frequents OGaugeRR Forum responded in kind by buying up these trolleys! He is now trying to alleviate himself of his entire stock. Great deals to be had!
I met Walt and we talked. He is a wonderful gentleman and I managed to get a 2 Rail, DC trolley for the Chicago Line. Being an old Chicago boy, I was very happy to obtain one. These cost more than the 3 rail.
I hooked up my MTH RealTrax. It has a roadbed and is perfect for setups on carpet or 2nd story patios. Yes - it is 3 rail but I plan on running my 3 rail up here also. I soldered jumper wires to the two outside rails and hooked up my LGB 1 amp. The two rail trolley worked great!
Western Hobbycraft Chicago 2 Rail with interior lighting and Detail.
This little gem has already seen a hour of run time on the rooftop. I set up the track Saturday and was running that evening as you can see below. The details on this are wonderful. Rivits for the counters and a nice soft interior light. Both headlamps will light up depending on the direction. There are two motormen in each end. There is nice undercarriage detail also.
The front step assembly on each end, has very small chains. Nicely done!
We tested the unit before leaving his home.
These two rail units feature a horizontal motor and something that is akin to a chain drive. It really is a small, metal band that turns the wheels on one of the trucks.
So late Saturday night, two of my boys and the $700.00 cat [who had his cast taken off that morning decided to hang out and watch the new trolley.
The boys would follow the trolley around the track. I would stop and reverse it and they thought that was the funniest thing in the world. I would stop it, move forward a couple of feet, stop, reverse, stop, forward...you get it. They would try to guess which direction. Simple little game.
Then "Zoomer" got into the act. He really didn't seem that interested in the tolley. He did let it run under him once as noted above.
After things quieted down, we spent another 30, precious minutes on the patio. The boys grabbed their blankets and just watched the trolley and the moon. Nice night! Thanks for the Trolley, Walt!
The LiZarD SkyLine will be open for business tomorrow night when I hook up the Zephyr E8 and the cars.
