=for traction modelers,
the BullAnt
***
In September 2005, one of the web surfing members of the Southern California Traction Club (SCTC) came across the BullAnt power drive. The drive was in the formative stages and only drawings were available on the web site. The unit was to be produced by the Hollywood Foundry in Victoria, Australia. When we found that different wheelbases could be offered, we contacted the company and inquired as to whether a 5.0' wheelbase truck (17mm) could be built. When they answered in the affirmative, we made arrangements for examination of a sample unit. They immediately agreed, and the first 5.0' wheelbase power truck unit reached us October 14th. The BullAnt is reminiscent of the Ken Kidder drives imported in the 1970s. These drives had been made by Darumaya of Japan and were still available until a few years ago in Japan. We immediately began to install the unit in a Fairfield New Orleans 800 series streetcar and within two hours the unit was installed. The majority of time was spent rewiring the unit for overhead wire and, in particular, for trolley pole reverse. The photo below show the car after conversion with the BullAnt 5.0' wheelbase power truck and the original 5.5" trailing truck.
During the conversion process, we removed the old open frame motor and bracket weighing 1.8 oz. We then mounted the BullAnt power truck flywheel first in the existing hole in the floor as it least interfered with the chassis mounting screw and resulted in almost no cutting of the floor. Because of the relatively short bolster, we merely soldered the bolster to both sides of the chassis floor. We replaced the lost weight of the older motor with an A-line 12401 motor cradle affixed to center of the the floor with aquarium sealer, and a 1.0 oz adhesive weight affixed to the center of the roof.
But there was a problem. the unit was really noisy and an examination by the club mechanical guru, Dave Garcia, resulted in a diagnosis of a gear misalignment, which was relayed immediately to Hollywood Foundry. They agreed with our diagnosis and submitted an upgraded power truck for our examination last month.
The new unit arrived on January 18th and was placed in the test car. We noticed immediately that three helical gears (two brass and one Acetal plastic) had replaced the original gears and the noise of the original unit was drastically reduced. both the original and the modified unit came with the 20mm swiveling bolster, which we found a little short. We were advised by the Hollywood Foundry that there will be both 26mm and 32mm swiveling bolsters available as no-charge options by the time this issue is published. One will also be able to obtain a non-swiveling bolster as a no-charge option for the single truck applications. The following photo shows the original BullAnt, the companion trailing truck and the modified BullAnt installed in the original chassis of the Fairfield New Orleans car.
On Sunday, January 22, during a business meeting of the Southern California Traction Club (SCTC) , the unit was tested. As you can see in the photo above, an A-line motor cradle normally used when repowering these cars was installed for extra weight. The A-line 40321 motor is the normal motor used when repowering SCTC and Custom Traxx cars. Another 1.0 oz weight was installed in the roof of the carbody. In all, the complete car weighed only 6.6 ounces, which is short of the 9.0 oz goal weight for this car. the test car is wired for trolley pole reverse so the two-pin male plug shown in the photo connected with a female plug in the car body which connects to both trolley poles. Since all SCTC cars must be certified on the club test track, this track was used for the BullAnt testing.
The unit ran at 31 scale miles per hour at 7.0 volts. Ampere draw was not measureable as it is less than the .1 ampere that our digital meter detects. The Ken Kidder unit, installed in an identical car ran at 62 scale miles per hour at 7.0 volts and .1 ampere. We consider the BullAnt an improved Ken Kidder unit. The BullAnt is also quieter than the Ken Kidder.
The BullAnt can be made with wheelbases as small as 49" (14mm), which is just perfect for those older 1895-1920 streetcars with outside-hung motor trucks, such as the Brill 27G and 76E. But the units are available in many other configurations. HO scale BullAnts can be made for HOn2.5, HOn3, HOn3.5 as well as standard gauge. Wheel sizes currently available range from 27" to about 34". Excellent Mashima motors are used ranging from the small but powerful 1015 to the 1020 and 1024 sizes. A companion trailing truck is available although it is not as free rolling as desired at the present time. All wheels used on the BullAnt powered and trailing trucks have the Code 88 tread, which is .088" wide while the normal Code 100 tread is .110". There have been no operational problems with these wheels to date.
More details concerning BullAnt can be found at www.hollywoodfoundry.com or you may write them at:
Hollywood
Foundry
P.O. Box 38
Garfield, 3814
Victoria,
Australia
_________________________________________________________
The
Anaheim Great Western &
Atlantic Train Show
***
Hobbies Unlimited presented the Great Western & Atlantic Train Show at the Anaheim Convention Center during the weekend of January 7-8, 2005. Hobbies Unlimited is the company, headed by John Geoghegan, which took over the former Great American Train Shows in July 2005. This show was a bonanza for those patrons who love to view operating layouts as the overwhelming majority of the floor space in the show was devoted to the model railroad clubs. There were eleven different module clubs at this show. At the top of the list was the huge Del Oro Pacific Large Scale layout with their new yard, which cost the club over $8,000.00 to develop and construct. The 20s & 30s HO scale model railroad was also on hand. This year the club is installing a traction portion on two of their modules. Charles Hepperle, a former member of the Southern California Traction Club, is the club member installing the overhead wire. Using two cars borrowed from Custom Traxx, the following photos were taken:
Other HO scale layouts were the Pacific Coast Modular Club along with the Orange County Modular Railroad. The premier HO scale traction club, the Southern California Traction Club, was unable to appear as they were just completing major structural repairs on one of their trailers. N scale was represented by the Orange County 'N'gineers, Ntrak Express, and the Antelope Valley N Scalers. The Orange County "O" scalers and the Orange County Tinplate Trackers represented the 1:48 scale modelers. There was another very detailed large scale layout, the Door Hollow Shortline.
However, this show appeared to have the lowest number of vendors with the least variety seen at this location in recent years, so if you love model train layouts, this was the show for you.
Moe & Kathy Geoghegan, owners of the former Great American Train Show, visited this show on Sunday, but after over six months, there still has been no sighting of or the promised return phone call from the Hobbies Unlimited CEO, John Geoghegan.
One last note for your refrigerator door. The Anaheim show will become a Great Train Expo (GTE) in 2007 so mark that date down when their large color ad appears in Model Railroader. More on the GTE in column 2.
The
First California Great Train Expo
[What
a difference a Dave makes!]
***
Putting the GREAT back in model train shows, the Great Train Expo (GTE) arrived at the Cal Expo in Sacramento, California on January 14th. Sacramento, with its fabulous railway museum, is a most fitting place for the first California Great Train Expo. Several Trolleyville vendors, Custom Traxx; Holland Traction Products; Light Rail Products; MTS Imports, Inc; Railway/Traction Miniatures, and the Southern California Traction Club were on hand for this fine gathering. The Great Train Expo is promoted by CIA Incorporated. Due to the excellent reputation that Dave Swanson's CIA Incorporated has developed in the last few years, many out-of-town vendors such as Neal Carnaby (New Hampshire) and Mike Daleiden (Illinois) were at this show with their top-notch displays. By noon Saturday, 1,500 patrons had already entered the show and the building was fairly crowded up to the 4:00 P.M. closing time. As is the practice of any CIA Inc. managed show, resources are generously but judiciously applied in advertising for the show. Almost $19,000 was spent on (1) five newspaper ads in the Sacramento Bee, (2) almost 4,000 previous show customers emailed twice prior to the show; almost 6,000 notices sent to Kalmbach magazine subscribers; four-color full age ads in Model Railroader and Classic Toy Trains magazines; twenty-eight television ads on UPN (KMAX) and arrangements that resulted in at least two television stations being on hand early Saturday morning. In fact, George Huckaby (Custom Traxx) was asked to participate in a live 9:00 A.M. Saturday promo for the train show. Several show visitors told him that he had been seen that morning on television. We could not miss the advertising of The Great Train Expo. We were watching the television ads for the show on Sunday morning while we were at breakfast.
Above photo: George Huckaby, Custom Traxx owner and moderator of www.trolleyville.com shown with Great Train Expo Show Manager, Kurt Jablonski.
Trolleyville vendors Custom Traxx, Holland Traction Products, Light Rail Products, MTS Imports, Inc. and Railway/Traction Miniatures were all represented at the show and all reported excellent sales. In all, over 9,000 train lovers braved a rainy Saturday and a breezy Sunday in Sacramento to get to the Great Train Expo.
Dave Swanson, CEO of CIA Incorporated, visited the Sacramento GTE on Sunday afternoon after driving a truck to Salt Lake City in a snowstorm for the January 21-22 World's Greatest Hobby on Tour Show. Dave, unlike other train show CEOs, likes to make personal contacts with the show visitors and vendors, both of whom he recognizes as his customers. Dave is shown below discussing the show management policies and attendance projections with George Huckaby.
This month we have been to both the Anaheim GWAATS and the Sacramento GTE. The Sacramento Show was sort of Back to the Future. The show reminds us of the fun Great American Train shows in the late 1990's. Floor plans are available to vendors two weeks before the show opens. Large crowds produced by plentiful advertising rush the doors when the show opens. Certificates of Appreciation are given to the clubs providing the layouts at the show. Show personnel are alert, professional and are working in a well organized, customer friendly environment. The GTE produces a large number of public visitors with well-behaved children. The GTE shows are a lot of fun and just plain enjoyable with both vendors and public seeming to get their money's worth.
What a difference a Dave makes!
__________________________________________
Trolleyville
visits Clover House!
***
Clover House is a manufacturer of model railroad supplies, such as dry transfers and specialty parts such as window glass, chains, tools and printed circuit ties. Trolleyville was invited to visit the Clover House facility during the International Railfair in Roseville, CA held in November 2005 and decided to tour the facility during the weekend of December 10-11.
The business was started by Russ and Jane Clover, shown above during the Roseville show, back in 1975, so they have been in business for thirty years. Russ designed and built, with the help of selected contractors, their adobe brick house, with an adjoining woodworking workshop on a hill just outside the city limits of Sebastopol, CA. This workshop is located in the left portion of the structure, shown below:
We were requested not to photograph the workshop but just as is case with the typical Clover House show display, we can tell you that it is neat, orderly and clean. It appears that you could almost eat off the floor. It would pass a U. S. Military inspection. Clover House was intended to be primarily a model railroad business based primarily on wood products, such as ties, lumber, barrels, etc - that would lead to kits of bridges and buildings, but that changed quickly. In 1980, Clover House purchased Perles Pacific Products line of dry transfers. Since Clover House is located at the very top of a hill, the view when leaving is almost worth the trip by itself.
In January 2004, Clover House released his eleventh catalog in which he reminded his customers that he sells direct only, that he has no sales outlets and his products are not normally available in hobby shops. They take pride in their work and guarantee that customers will be satisfied with their purchase or they can return it for a full refund.
Russ will be 80 years of age this month so he has stated in this new catalog that it is apparent that his business will need to be turned over to someone younger. over the next two years, he expects to sell the entire business. The current inventory contains over 100,000 items. If you or anyone that you know are interested, please contact Clover House at 707-823-7301.