Bump-n-Go Trolleys - Continous operation

Doesn't anyone have comments/experience on running bump-n-go trolleys in the bump-n-go mode for sustained periods ???

Tom B

Tom, I've seen these things run 12 hours per day 7 days a week at holiday displays. I am sure something is bound to need fixing but i would not be to concerned. 

Romiller

I missed this post.

we have a MTH m&m bump and go trolley running 5 hours a day 6 days a week and have been running this trolley for over 3 years.

take a look at www.sd3r.org

I use two of the bump n' go trolleys on my club (National Capital Trackers) module. Figure they run about 8 hours a day over a weekend, sometimes more. Especially at Christmas time, they may run 8 hours a day for a week or more.

I've got two BnG trollies - an MTH Railking and a cheapo (but new in the box free!) Lionel Village Trolley from the 1990s. I've been running them with cheap DC transformers from Bachmann HO sets. Running under DC, I've found them to overheat the transformer pretty easily at times. For my longer displays, I'll have to pick up a basic AC transformer in the future.

In terms of reliability - the MTH trolley is awesome. Runs all day and I can get it down to a reasonably slow speed so it isn't smashing into the bumper really hard. I tend to prefer this for shows not only for the slower speeds but it also has pick up rollers and isn't as sensitive to dirty track.

The Lionel is very light weight and must run faster to keep from stalling. It has slide skates, not rollers and those can be finicky on dirty track. However it has a much smoother bumping mechanism so running it faster doesn't result in damage although it sometimes has a tendency to not fully engage the motor on each bump causing it to stall. You can see the Lionel one in the above photo. That show was a week-long event so we had several to swap out. My "neighbor" is a very close friend of mine and had his MTH Santa Hand Car and Trolley so we also swapped those out regularly. It was nice having several holiday themed pieces to run.

Generally for a weekend event, I'll usually just stick with the MTH trolley. For longer events, I'll take both to a show and swap them out every few hours/days.

Thom,

   This is the 1st time I have seen this thread.  I will definitely add to it with my thoughts. I do not know much about the MTH Bumper Cars or Street cars.   I only own one MTH Pittsburgh  Bumper Street Car, that has limited miles on it, and it still works real well, I have a 10' Bump and go line that runs most all the time the Layout is in operation.  Our old Lionel Bumper Fire Car has so many miles on it that the gears are actually worn, and the old Lionel Fire Car is still running strong, bought for me in the early 60's it has been run every year, including this year.   We did wear out an original Lionel Yellow Street Car, that was rebuilt and my brother now owns it.  I use Red & Tacky on the Gears of all these Bumper type Cars, and most all seem to run for darn near ever.

PCRR/Dave

The Cutom made PRR Tweety & Silvester Bumper Car is my Wife's favorite and gets run most all the time.

I have both Lionel and MTH trolleys running on two independent lines.  The new-style Lionel has lots of detail and runs well.  After two years of no problems with an MTH "Center City Trolley", it just stopped dead.  The lights still work OK and respond to activation by the bumpers.  Conversations with a Tech at MTH diagnosed the problem as a probable shorted out motor.  I ultimately reached Midge in the parts department who said the motors are not in stock and may be available in a month.  Meanwhile, I refurbished another older style Lionel trolley and it is doing OK.  Bottom line in my experience is that neither one is completely trouble-free!

X2000

During Christmas season I will run them for long periods of time. I haven't noticed much difference between brands when it comes to to dependability, but I have noticed that when running on superstreets the trolleys with rollers are  much more reliable than the ones with pickup shoes. I have no idea why that should be - just an observation, not an analysis.

I run the trolleys fairly slow. Just enough speed to make sure they will complete their appointed rounds without a lot of "slam and bam" action.

Thanks for all the replies.  I have been running a trolley in an isolated loop, but thought I would reroute it to a single serpentine bump-n-go track.  I'm glad to hear that this change shouldn't cause a durability  problem.  The direction changes will add interest to my layout.

Tom B

Go figure, my cheapo-free Lionel trolley died. It was just happily chugging along and just stopped. Appears to be totally dead....darn!