The tram …

… finally arrived on a slow boat from Hong Kong. I’ve mechanised it with sundry spare gears and Meccano. The item that arrived was only fit for running briefly by clockwork over a carpet.

It was necessary to add weights to balance the motor at the other end. The undercarriage just happened to be electrically isolated from the main chassis due to intervening paint in the fixing method. It was thus feasible to connect the motor between the main chassis with the pickup arm (which was all one piece electrically) and the undercarriage (which is in contact via the wheels with the tinplate track)

In order to stop the tram at each end of the track, those sections have been isolated with kebab sticks and will be connected to the middle section with diodes. Hence when the controller polarity is reversed the tram will run along the middle stretch and stop.

It will look better when the yellow metal wheels have been painted black.

Getting on track …

… it might be a tram prototype, but it was certainly quieter with Hob-E-Lube! This is a laptop testbed for a tram running in front of the Bayko houses awaited daily from Hong Kong, which may not be usable when it arrives. In that case I will have to substitute with Meccano. It has been pointed out that the “catenary” will obscure the houses, so I will need to pick up the current from a centre third rail – hence the need for a testbed.

Bayko addenda …

… a fairly laid back addition to Midway over Christmas. I hope to put a strip of “O” gauge track into the foreground later and you can just see a bundle of it lying on the table.

In the picture, the background looks smaller because it’s much further away …
… perhaps also because it’s “OO” gauge!