Webb City, Mo. trolley.

RCD · **Posted:** Thu Aug 11, 2022 10:19 pm

Zach Lybrand wrote:

RCD wrote:

They really made this thing so much more complicated than it needed to be was it really so hard to string up some wire?

It's not just stringing up wire, which is a skill that an all volunteer operation might not have in its personnel, it's the cost of materials, buying and wiring up a rectifier, AND paying for the actual power. Setting up a functional overhead is quite the undertaking. If anything, they made the situation easier for them considering the circumstances by using an external power unit.

Wiring up and getting electric motors for a trolley is much much simpler than what they did. Rectifier they're also easy to build. Electric vintage trolleys are extraordinarily simple. As for buying then massively retrofitting and rebuilding a 25 toner and then making a control system from scratch to control said 25 toner now that's a complicated ordeal.

Les Beckman · **Joined:** Tue Aug 02, 2005 1:25 pm **Posts:** 6482

RCD -

The questions I have concern the overhead wire. Copper? Expensive? Subject to theft?

Les

Joe Magruder · **Posted:** Sun Aug 14, 2022 10:11 am

The Webb City trolley is a microcosm of American railroading. We have determined that is is less costly, at least in the short run, to have electric locomotives carry their power source around with them than to install and maintain the overhead wire needed to obtain the electricity from an external source.