It seems that there's a new 'heritage ' trolley system in the US

[Mario_v]

In Issaquah, Washington State, using former Lisbon 519 (locally built in the portuguese capital by Carris in its Santo Amaro shops in 1925 using Brill plans).

I've seen some modifications that were made to comply with its new line ;

-The car has been standard gauged (original gauge was 2 1/2 ft) ;

-It's not exactely a trolley but some sort of Railcar+Slug ;

-The Controller (throtle) fitted is not original (it had a GE K10 when new, now it seems to have some sort of BTH Model ).

Video (let's hope it gets properly inserted, I've been getting some difficulties with video insertion)

watch?v=za3uqyxap28

The offical site : http://tramsstophere.wordpress.com/2012/09/11/a-little-bit-of-lisbon-in-the-pacific-northwest/#comment-838

[Overmod]

There has been QUITE a bit of discussion about this setup on RyPN.  It's actually almost the opposite of 'railcar + slug", the little trailer holds a genset that provides traction power to the trolley in the absence of overhead wire.  I believe this bears about the same relation to an actual trolley as CheZoom does to a '57 Bel Air; a significant part of the design considerations were involved with modern Federal conditions such as ADA compliance, ditch lights, and so forth, and not on restoring historical systems to operating condition.

I would respectfully opine that 'heritage' is not exactly the word that describes the system here, at least not in the sense of historic preservation.  IIRC, some care was taken to keep the electrical components of the car 'trolley-compatible' rather than using any of the potential alternatives (e.g., IC engine and torque-converter drive under the floor...)

As noted in the video, it's for the enjoyment of kids and non-purists, and certainly better than one of those Boyertown imitation trolley bodies on truck chassis  ;-}

[Mario_v]

Overmod

There has been QUITE a bit of discussion about this setup on RyPN.  It's actually almost the opposite of 'railcar + slug", the little trailer holds a genset that provides traction power to the trolley in the absence of overhead wire.  I believe this was specifically designed so that minimum electrical modifications would need to be made to the trolley vehicle.

Then it's more ingenious than I tought

[NorthWest]

Thanks! I'll have to check that out sometime when I am nearby.

[desertdog]

Mario_v

Overmod

There has been QUITE a bit of discussion about this setup on RyPN.  It's actually almost the opposite of 'railcar + slug", the little trailer holds a genset that provides traction power to the trolley in the absence of overhead wire.  I believe this was specifically designed so that minimum electrical modifications would need to be made to the trolley vehicle.

Then it's more ingenious than I tought

There is a similar genset trailer that powers the trolley at Astoria, Oregon.

John Timm

[Firelock76]

Genset trailer or no, that thing is COOL!  I'd love to see something like that round here.

It must be REALLY cool to have a grandma who's a trolley conductor.

As an aside, I heard someone proposed something similar to that trolley genset to get a preserved GG1 running again, i.e. a generator mounted on a flat car or in a boxcar.  Nothing came of it however.

Hey Mario, thank everyone in Portugal for us for sending that little gem over here!

[Deggesty]

Thanks, Mario, for this.