No. 1 Northern Superintendent Ian Plett recently emailed members, asking them how they  “spent their summer vacation”. Long time member Neil Carleton sent some images of the excellent module he created.

Neil had originally planned his module for display at a train show in Regina, Saskatchewan, which was cancelled due to COVID-19 concerns. It’s built to the original NMRA specs but using code 83 rail and with existing 2 foot adapter modules it will fit in with Free-mo style.

The streetcar tracks are girder type to allow a clear groove for the wheels. They are soldered to copper PC board ties. Tinted spackling was troweled with home made tools to leave the rail heads a bit proud of the road to allow for cleaning. He painted and weathered the road.

The overhead wire works. The Bachmann streetcar is switchable from two rail to one rail and overhead. The poles are brass and connected to the wiring bus. The power goes to the span wires attached to the poles and are soldered to the running wire using lost wax brass castings. The span wires are not soldered to the poles to allow slight adjustments.

He used a special tool to bend the girder track and some turnouts, so the next modules will have loops to allow continuous running. He used information online at East Penn Traction Club and Trolleyville School as well as a multipart article he downloaded from Model Railroader.

The poles and small brass parts were sourced from a fellow in Ohio, the track from Custom Traxx and the wire was from Cloverdale. A few others are from Micromark. The sanding tower is a Kanamodel kit as is the water tower. The oil tanks are ABS plumbing pipes with added details. The lunch stand is a Bar Mills kit.