June 2020 Trolleyville Times

The Real Fun in Model Railroading!
Making Existing Items Work! - Part 2

In Part One we described how we modified an old Bowser Brill Suburban floor, part 1285, to fit the Baltimore 11 window semi-convertible as produced in HO scale using the 3D printing method. Part Two will describe our efforts to paint the car, install a DCC decoder and install LED headlights.

First of all, there were many orders of these cars with both major and minor differences between the groups:

Series Built - Builder Notes

5001 - 5160 (160) 1905 - J.G. Brill Co. Open platforms until 1917! Brill 27GE-1 trucks.

5201 - 5300 (100) 1906 - J.G. Brill Co. Open platforms until 1917! Brill 27GE-1 trucks.

5161 - 5200 (40) 1905 - Stephenson "High Speed" cars with Brill 27E trucks. Open platforms until 1922.

5301 - 5379 (80) 1907 - J. G. Brill Co. MU "High Speed " cars with Brill 27E trucks. Open platforms until 1921.

5380 - 5439 (60) 1910 - J. G. Brill Co. PAYE - Open platforms until 1919. Brill 27GE-1 trucks. First cars with roller signs on the sides.

5440 - 5499 (60) 1912 - J. G. Brill Co. Open platforms until 1919! Brill 27GE-1 trucks.

5500 - 5559 (60) 1913 - J. G. Brill Co. Closed platforms installed on all but 26 by 1920! First cars to have lighted glass route numbers. Cars were not good hauling trailers. Brill 27GE-1 trucks.

5560 - 5644 (85) 1914 - J. G. Brill Co. First cars delivered with fully enclosed platforms and flush dashers*. Brill 27GE-1 trucks.

5645 - 5744 (100) 1917 - J. G. Brill Co. Brill 27GE-1 trucks.

5745 - 5824 (80) 1917 - J. G. Brill Co First "Stretched" cars with 13 windows, All prior cars only 11 windows. 27GE-1 trucks.

5825 - 5874 (50) 1919 - J. G. Brill Co Actually purchased by the U.S. Shipping Board Emergency Fleet Corporation. First Baltimore cars with anti-climbers.. MU, Brill 76E trucks

5875 - 5884 (10) 1919 - J. G. Brill Co Leased from United States Housing Board in 1919 and purchased in 1924. Brill 76E trucks.

All data from "Baltimore Streetcars", 1982, by Bernard Sachs, George Nixon & Harold Cox.

* Most early cars with windshields were built in this fashion to allow clearance for the swinging manual brake handle. The installation of air brakes made this totally unnecessary. Under orders from the PSC, beginning in 1916 most of the older cars were rebuilt with flush dashers.

After looking carefully at the shell and reviewing the above data, we decided to model BTC 5583 as shown in the next photo. We chose the paint scheme on this car as it seems to us to be more colorful than the final all NCL all yellow scheme:

The first step was preparing for painting. Painting is always 90% preparation. We had already washed the shell using established procedures (See Trolleyville Schoolhouse) for a 3D printed shell and sprayed both the interior and exterior of the shell with Tamika Fine Surface Primer (Light Gray) SKU 87064. After allowing three days to dry, we started masking the windows from the interior for airbrushing the interior black. We normally do not do this but since the exterior windows will be white, we did not want to have to cover black spray with white. So the interior is now black except for around the windows (Below Top).

After another few days to dry, we masked off the upper half of the car. Always use patience when masking. This will save considerable time later. After masking, we always spray a light coat of Testors DullCote on the tape and area to be painted to seal the take edges and help eliminate leaks. After waiting a few hours for the DullCote to dry in the sun, we then airbrushed the window areas with TCP-005 Gloss White (Above, bottom). When we removed the masking tape our car looked as shown above right. We would wait another 24 hours before masking for the yellow-orange letter board and lower half of the car.

If you are a modeler who have purchased a 125130 mechanism and own any of the Bowser New Orleans Cars, you have noticed that the end braces that connected the two side-frames on the New Orleans cars are NOT present in the 125130 mechanism packages. This happened due to a mis-communication when the 125130 drives parts were ordered from the manufacturer, who is now out of business. They were inadvertently omitted and now that factory is out of business. We made our own from Evergreen Strip Styrene #142 .040 x .040 and some .025" spring wire we use for trolley poles. Carefully with a hand drill drilling the ends with a #74 drill (....very carefully...) to accept the wires. Some are shown at right in various stages of construction. these little things are the real fun in modeling!

While waiting for the DullCote to dry, we started to decide where to put our decoder and to install the Volkmar Dipswitch (VMD) that we have been using since 2015 when Volkmar Meier, Interurban Models, introduced it to the entire Southern California Traction Club. We eventually purchased a bunch of the switches in 2018 on Bay for under $7.00 and have used them in every LRV, modern streetcar and traditional streetcar we have readied for DCC operation ever since.

The VMD is basically three slide SPST switches:

Two-Rail
Operation Overhead Wire Operation

Switch 1 (left) Connects to or separates the left side wheels from the right side wheels. OFF ON

Switch 2 (center) Connects to or separates the left side wheels from the motor/decoder ON OFF

Switch 3 (right) Connects to or separates the pantograph or trolley poles from the motor/decoder OFF ON

Installing the VMD requires a 9.5 mm by 10.0 mm rectangle to be cut into the floor between the Bowser motor mounts. We did not think of this last month when we were at John McWhirter's fully tool-equipped garage. So we had to do this the hard way by drilling several holes inside of a 9.5 mm by 10.0 mm rectangle with a #48 drill, cutting the rectangle out with a coping saw and filing the sides to the exact rectangular shape desired. For the VMD schematic, click here!

Our method of masking is to use thin tape, Tamiya 6mm or thinner for sealing the edges and fill in with other tapes such as the 3M white tape that do not stick as strongly such as shown in the next photo. We will be airbrushing Badger Model Flex 16-54 Railbox Yellow on the lower sides and letter board after the usual thin coat of Testors Dull cote.

The next photo shows the car after the second of two light coats of Railbox Yellow.

The roof and truck side frames were airbrushed with tru-color TCP-009 Grimy Black. The next issue is the application of decals including the red striping included in the Custom Traxx CN5001 decal set. We first applied the numbers and lettering using the same decal set and then the red striping. Application of the red stripe decals, especially on the ends is tricky. There is just enough striping in the decal set to do the job right...once! We made a few mistakes and had to use a little red Microscale 3"& 4 3/4" red striping (SKU 91105) to finish it off.

Time to consider installing a decoder, the headlights on both ends and final assembly.

We decided to install a KAM4-LED in this car to avoid using resistors with the headlight LEDs, because it is smaller than the KAT series of "Keep-Alive" decoders and the fact that the decoder was obtained as a warranty replacement from Train Control Systems. It will be mounted in the roof in a place where it does not interfere with the Bowser 125130 drive mechanism.

When we first acquired the shell, it had belonged to Richard Allman, East Penn Traction Club member resident in Villanova, PA. He had installed four 1/4 ounce weights in the roof and in the platforms. Due to uncertainty on how the Bowser floor would work, we removed all the weights. At this time the shell weighed .7 ounces and the Bowser floor with motor and flywheel weighed 3.2 ounces. At this time we planned to add 1/2 oz weights under each platform behind the anti-climber so we would be starting out with a car weighing 4/4 ounces. Adding weight would have to be done after decoder and headlight installation was completed.

We had no warm white LEDs on hand for the headlights so we decided to go ahead and mount the decoder under the roof over the rear platform to keep wires away from moving parts (drive shaft). We also painted the edges of our decoder flat black.

Electrically connecting the decoder is a little different using the VMD but the wiring is as follows:

Decoder KAM4-LED Wire Color Purpose VMD Schematic Wire

Gray Motor + Connect to - motor terminal [M-]

Black Incoming Power - Connect to left track pickup. [L]

Yellow Rear Headlight + Connect to rear headlight PC strip.

Violet Lighting Function Not Used

Blue Front & Rear Headlight Common - Connect to Lighting Common PC Strip

Green Lighting Function Not Used

Red Incoming Power + Connect to red VMD red output. [R]**

White Front Headlight + Connect to front headlight PC strip.

Orange Motor - Connect to + motor terminal [M+].

**Note - Right track power does NOT go through the VMD!

The above photo shows the installed VMD and some of the end braces made to connect the truck side frames.

The final issue is the installation of the two headlights. This is normally a simple task. We used small warm white LEDs eventually obtained from Arnie's Model Trains. We drilled a 1mm hole in the center of the headlight reflector. We painted the reflector silver and the hole through the body black and inserted t our LED from the rear and then shrink tubing from the rear which is butted up to the interior of the wall (to prevent light from showing in the interior).

However, since the 3D printed bodies tend to be very translucent, we have had to change that procedure to avoid the light from the LED lighting up the dasher. We placed our black shrink tubing on the LED before insertion and ensure that only the LED shows outside of the reflector.

In the left photo, at left is our 1mm Warm White LED. At right is the same LED with heat shrink tubing making the unit 1.3-1.5 mm wide. The original holes drilled for 1mm with a #60 drill are re-drilled with a #55 drill and then cement into the headlight opening. The right photo shows a completed headlight exterior on the BTC car.

We had already drilled our 1mm holes in the headlight reflectors but they would have to be widened to the diameter of the LED wrapped in shrink tubing. After using our calipers to determine the correct diameter, we settled on using a #55 drill to widen the headlight holes, repainted the interior of the headlight holes with TCP-077-Silver, waited for the paint to dry and installed the wrapped headlights from the front and secured them with a very, very small dab of Walther's Goo on the back of the shrink tubing prior to insertion. Once secure, we soldered the black wires to the long common printed circuit strips and the red wires to their respective shorter strips. When we tested the lights and both worked as we intended, the entire headlight cavity was filled with Canopy Glue to simulate the headlight lens. You can almost see the "light bulb" in the upper right photo.

We finally got to the final testing phase and the car was placed on the test track with DCC power. The car ran as expected but backwards. So we have to reverse the motor leads. This seems to be an issue with many of the motors removed from Bowser trolleys. What is assumed marked as the positive+ terminal really is the negative-.

The rear headlight refused to illuminate. While correcting the leads to the motor, we discovered that we had the leads also reversed to the rear headlight. When we corrected that the rear light worked so out came the Pacer Formula '560' Canopy Glue and we were done, except for the application of decals, installation of fenders, couplers and the addition of some weight.

Finally, a set of Custom Traxx CN5001 decals were applied and our car 5583 started to emerge.

In 1980, while living in New Orleans, LA, we had taken an HO scale Bachmann Brill, modified the ends and installed a Ken Kidder (Darumaya) 76E-2 power truck / trailing truck combination to make a model of NOPSI 453 and got it to run respectively at 5.3 oz of weight. The car also made use of an older Bowser Brill Floor designed for the old Bowser 66 drive for this conversion. It was also finished in 1979-80 with actual paint used on the Saint Charles cars at the time. We added a TCS KAT 12 in 2014.

Our BTC 5583 now tipped the scales at 4.2 ounces. So we estimated that we had to add at least one ounce of weight preferably in the power truck half of the car.

We began the process by adding 1/4 ounce of weight under the front platform as we were installing the fenders. We painted the A-line weight (shown below extreme right) black to make it less obvious. More will be installed before the car is pronounced operational.

This was one of those fun jobs that started with a long known and respected friend, Richard Allman asking Custom Traxx to make decals for the HO scale 3D printed model of the Baltimore Semi-convertible. He represented the project to be a model of a car that would be in great demand with both him and his associates. Of course that did not actually turn out to be the case. Then Richard presented Custom Traxx with a slightly damaged body of a Baltimore Semi-convertible streetcar. Once the Baltimore streetcar body was placed next to a Bowser Brill suburban body, the fun began and continued for months. The final photo is of the finished BTC car 5583 passing BTC Peter Witt 6116 (Bachmann repaint).

This car shell is currently available from Tram Works. (https://model-trams.com). Custom Traxx recently upgraded their CN-5001, Baltimore Semi-Convertibles, decal set, which was made for this car, to include four roof destination signs. There are limited numbers of this decal set available so if you are interested, order NOW!

Note: In trying to make a complex subject simple, we may have missed a detail or two. If any reader has questions, please write George Huckaby at traxx@earthlink.net, call at 310-990-5422, or fax at 310-475-5597!

NEWS FLASH! - We have just learned that Bowser Manufacturing may be working on several exciting new HO scale items. In the traction area, there are new 3D printed traction floors replacing the metal traction floors discontinued many years ago. Another project may be their 5' wheelbase traction drive with Brill 27E side frames mounted on a one of their new 3D printed floors designed to fit their former Brill Suburban Semi-Convertible and the Bachmann Brill Eleven-Window Deck Roof streetcar. Trolleyville came upon these photographs of the new floor with the 58" WB drive taken deep in the Bowser R&D facility during in-house testing. The Brill trolley was marketed for over fifty years by both Bowser and Pennsylvania Scale Models and the Bachmann Brill trolley is currently still on the market so reintroduction of the Bowser shell is not planned.

Bowseer Brill Shell on new floor with 58"WB trucks!
Bachmann Brill Shell on new floor with 58"WB trucks!

The same drive along with a 3D printed floor and 26" wheels may be made for the shells of the ubiquitious HO scale Ken Kidder double truck safety car shown below:

We also believe that the Kansas City All-Electric PCC is still in the R&D stage as the molds are finally to be tested next month at the production facility. Custom Traxx shared these photos of the preliminary shells to the Times.

Both photos show the level of progress on both projects.

Bowser is also working on a drive for the former Varney Aerotrain, which was a model of an exciting attempt to rescue the American passenger train prior to Amtrak.The Aerotrain was a streamlined trainset that the General Motors (GM) Electro-Motive Division (EMD) introduced in 1955. Originally designated Train-Y, the Aerotrain marketing name was eventually adopted. This project is so new that there are no photos available!

The Times is keeping an eye on Bowser. If you have interest in any of these projects let Bowser or the Times know ASAP!

Attention Arnie’s Trains Customers

As the world and our Nation battle the COVID-19 Virus, we must make adjustments to our personal and business life. It is important to limit our exposure to this terrible virus and stay home when possible. Therefore, Arnie’s showroom floor will be CLOSED until further notice during this epidemic. Effective Immediately!

We do understand the importance of a hobby for a healthy mind when cooped up inside. We are still shipping for your hobby needs. If there is anything that you need we are able to ship them to you.

There will be someone to take your call Tuesday through Saturday from 10am to 2pm (714) 893-1015.

Thank you for your understanding and we hope this ends soon so we can get back to seeing everyone!