Garden Railway Forum

As a small boy in the Victorian gold field city Bendigo in the 1940s and 1950s I was accustomed to traveling on trams. Many (many!) years later I visited the tramway museum in Bendigo's twin city, Ballarat. Instantly half a century fell away and the same swaying, squeaking, grinding and whining memories of traveling on a tram returned. Eventually the inevitable occurred and once again I saw a trolley pole swing free. But it was just a matter of moments to pull down on a retaining rope, repositioning the guide on the wire and all was soon operating again.

So part of my Gauge One garden railway became a tramway. The Bachmann G scale tram is very similar to the trams that operated in country Victoria.

The overhead wire of the model tramway is of a simple design. The trams are actually track powered. Dowelling is inserted into brass tubes. (These brass tubes are not really necessary but have some cosmetic appeal. They probably may also have some strengthening function).

These brass tube and dowelling uprights form the uprights that run alongside the track. The uprights are thus then slotted into holes along the track Thin brass tube is then inserted horizontally through the dowelling. It is positioned so that it is over the rail. The tips of the tube are then bent vertically downwards.

Piano wire is bent upwards at each end and this vertical wire is inserted up into the downwards facing brass tube. Each section has two lengths of piano wire inserted into each tube. These lock together, to be retained permanently.  

The wheel /guide on the sprung trolley pole is filed intro a deep V. This then fits over the wire. It is greased as is the whole wire length.

And that's it. The horizontal brass tubes that are passed through the dowelling can have an angled support bracket to appear to be supporting the wire but that is just cosmetic. The tram will now operate. The trolley pole must of course be trailing backwards.

Turn up the power and the whole thing just ambles away swaying and whirring just like the real one. And if the trolley pole swings free on occasions then so did the full size versions. It is strangely satisfying to pull the trolley pole cord down against the spring and then release it up onto the guide again. My tramway is point to point so the trolley pole needs to be swung round to the opposite end of the tram to be ready to move off again. It is a manual function that replicates reality in miniature.

This sounds great, looking forward to the photos.

Could we see a video of it in action if possible?

Beautifully made and well described. It looks both elegant and functional. I guessed from your description that it would have to be out of reach of family pets.... our dogs would destroy that in seconds!

Wow! Sandy pic. no.3 could well be Bendigo in real life. Even the trees and flowers look right, and the track running through one of the many park areas. I could very easily be swayed toward a tramway. Looking forward to more pics.
Grant.

Excellent. well done. I also had to look twice at the No 3 pic. I thought it was a real life. The Bendigo trams still run and it is well worth a visit.

That looks very nice - shame you can't power it through the overhead as then, when you have a dewirement the tram stops - it would save possible damage to the overhead. Otherwise, could you put a microswitch, held in the "ON" position by the trolleypole, into the power circuit?

Trams are fun!

I have a tramway with overhead wires too.



33 was a Ballarat tram most of it's life. You can still ride on it today at the Ballarat tram museum!



It's made from an extensive rebuild of a bachmann tram.



V214 is another bachmann tram rebuild. It's not an exact model of the real V214, but close enough. You can see the real one at the Hawthorn tram museum.

Always good to see other people with garden trams!