Quality Streetcar models in Nscale

[CNR5529]

Gotta look for some very thin thread or some such!

You might want to take a look at EZ line. Comes in appropriate colours, is very fine, and is stretchy in the event the line gets snagged. Credit Valley, Georges and Dundas Valley Hobby all have/had some. Not certain but maybe Panther too?

Oh and its a trolley pole, not a pantograph. The TTC Flexity cars have both a pole and a panto. 

[bbunge]

I’m thinking of maybe adding the retractor cable to the rear of the car (not sure what the proper term is) … you know, the wire or rope or whatever that spools into that bell housing located between the taillights, and pulls down the pantograph. 

Gotta look for some very thin thread or some such!

This is looking so, so good!  The device is called a trolley retriever or trolley catcher.  I've been considering using something like 0.10 wire for the rope, but having tried it yet.  I carry my cars around to shows, so I would need something that at least a bit robust.  Human hair is an interesting option. 

Bob

[peteski]

  Human hair is an interesting option. 

Bob

Would probably be closer to scale diameter than those other options (EZ Line or thin metal wire).    Vert thin silk surgical suture might also be an option.  I recall @robert3985 mention the specific type and size for N scale applications.

[Dwight in Toronto]

Lol … human hair and suture thread - great ideas.  However, I’m thinking that the black wire from one of those prewired 0402 led’s might be (at least, for me) ‘good enough’.  I’ll give it a quick look-see. 

[peteski]

Lol … human hair and suture thread - great ideas.  However, I’m thinking that the black wire from one of those prewired 0402 led’s might be (at least, for me) ‘good enough’.  I’ll give it a quick look-see.

It will probably scale out to something like 3" N-scale diameter, but if good enough is good enough.  Serisously, you did such a nice job painting it and installing a decoder and all those lighs. Might as well strive for a realistically scaled retriever (not Labrador).   
Remember, this is TRW: better modeling through peer pressure. 

[robert3985]

Would probably be closer to scale diameter than those other options (EZ Line or thin metal wire).    Vert thin silk surgical suture might also be an option.  I recall @robert3985 mention the specific type and size for N scale applications.

@peteski - Peter, Suture Silk comes in varying sizes.  I use "non-sterile" woven black silk suture in the 6-0 (six-ought) diameter, which is .003", mainly for the wire braces on my cabooses' smokejacks.  Initially, I used fine wire of various types, brass, stainless, bronze...but it all stretched after a while from just routine handling of the cabooses and sagged, which looked bad.

Suture silk, on the other hand, is slightly stretchy (very slightly), and gives when bumped, so it remains taut on my cabooses' smokejacks...so far, for years.

As a bonus, it glues very well with thick CA and doesn't wick it...but, I always use Accelerator to set it off quickly...so there's no CA "residue" showing.

It also knots very well, obviously since it's made for sewing up wounds, so that tying it around a trolley pole would offer a secure attachment method on that end, drilling a small hole and inserting the other end and CA-ing it there (with slight tension on it) would make for a nice-looking trolley catcher cable, even if it's black and not metallic.

Suture silk comes in either black or white, so maybe white would be a more appropriate color.

The company that made my 100yd wooden spool of 6-0 suture silk is "Ethicon, Inc." out of Somerville NJ...but I bought mine back in the middle 1970's to use on my model sailing ships for ratlines on my 1/8" clippers and whalers. I don't know if the company still sells it on spools without attached suture needles nowadays.

Another possibility is to use fly tying "silk" by SemperFli Nano Silk, and comes in various colors and diameters, including 6-0, 12-0 and 18-0 and might be a good substitute for actual silk suture, but, I don't have any experience with it.

Photo (1) - 6-0 Suture Silk smokejack bracing on N-scale UP CA-8 Caboose:


Have fun!

Cheerio!
Bob Gilmore

[Dwight in Toronto]

Remember, this is TRW: better modeling through peer pressure. 

Oh man … that TRW mantra is sage advice; point taken!

Bob - thank you for the info on suture silk.  I’m going to make a few enquiries to see if I might be able to rustle up a small strand (a friend is a specialist in our local hospital). 

In the meantime, it costs me nothing to try that fine LED wire, and I’ll post a photo for peer critique.  I can easily replace it if I manage to score the suture thread.

Thanks again guys - it’s a big help.

[Dwight in Toronto]

Well, unfortunately, my friend at the hospital is in diagnostic imaging, and has no access to sutures and such.  So, my fall-back approach for the trolley pole catcher cable was to use a small length of thin wire, left over from a pre-wired 0402 led.

There was a short factory solder lead at one end, so I squeeze-wrapped that around the tip of the trolley pole and dabbed on a touch of CA.  Then, as per Bob’s suggestion, I drilled a #70 hole into the side of the retractor bell housing, fed the other end of the wire through, and CA’d it to the inside of the shell.




I might be able to straighten the wire out a bit better once the CA has set up for a while. 
As Peteski said, IRL this might scale out to be a 3” thick cable, but I suspect that it’s the best I can do for the time being. 

I’ll try to make and post a short video of the finished streetcar running on my test oval.

[peteski]

So Dwight, no human hair anywhere in sight?     I guess the peer pressure didn't work well this time.
Just kidding.   

The LED lead wire looks acceptable. but I'm thinking that if it is a stranded wire, you could strip the insulation and just use a single wire strand.  That would be more in-scale. 

[kiwi_al]

You could possibly use normal dressmaking cotton thread which should be finer or the finest (thinnest)  fishing line - just thinking outside my box 

[Dwight in Toronto]

Hey Pete - my gut feel was that hair would be difficult and frustrating to handle, so I chose what I thought was an easier option for a first attempt.  And funny enough, I did indeed try to progressively nip-&-pull/peel 1/4” pieces of insulation off of that led wire so as to yield a much thinner material, but I could only get maybe 3/4” of bare wire and then it would break. 

kiwi-al … I looked at run-of-the-mill seamstress threads, and not only were they pretty much the same o.d. as that wire, it was actually harder to try to get thread to simulate the straight line of a cable under tension.  Thread also tended to have a fuzzy texture which was kinda visually distracting when viewed up close.

[nickelplate759]

my recollection is that the retriever cables often have a little (but not too much) slack in them - I think yours looks pretty good.

[Dwight in Toronto]

my recollection is that the retriever cables often have a little (but not too much) slack in them - I think yours looks pretty good.

Wow - that’s so reassuring to hear … thanks man! 

You know, now that I think about it, I’m sure you’re right - I remember seeing those cables behaving rather loosely, kinda flopping/swaying side-to-side as the streetcars trundled along.  They were not under tension.  Nice revelation!

[R L Smith]

I don't know what color the rope would have been in your era for Toronto, but the recent rebuilds for Muni have a white rope.  And the rope exits from the left side of the trolley catcher, which you captured very well.

[peteski]

I don't know what color the rope would have been in your era for Toronto, but the recent rebuilds for Muni have a white rope.  And the rope exits from the left side of the trolley catcher, which you captured very well.

That looks exactly like what a white/gray human hair would look like on an N scale trolley.   

Just bustin' your cookies Dwight.