Lionel 60 trolley pantograph

Hi, Kevin!

There is no pantograph on the No. 60 trolley--just a wire trolley pole that changes position when the trolley itself strikes a bumper and changes direction.

It is not uncommon for the pole to not line up parallel with the car body when this action occurs.  That always bothered me a bit, but I never have spent any time trying to figure out how it might be corrected.

That black plastic assembly just lifts off the connection rod inside the trolley.  Just pull straight up and it will come right off, as will the wire pole itself.  None of those parts are glued...simply a press-fit deal.

Allan,

   Thank you for the information.  I just did not want to risk breaking it if it was not deisgned to come out that way.

    Kevin

Some #60's the trolley pole will swing a correct 180 degrees so the pole is parallel to the body in both directions, most will swing the pole around 220 degrees. The reason is all Black lettered and many early Blue lettered units have a 2 piece spring bumper slide and it has a cut out gear segment in it. It wasn't punched out with quite the correct ratio for the pinion gear that the trolley pole shaft is connected to. The later Blue lettered version has a solid one piece bumper that doesn't have the spring in front. This new stamping has a corrected 'gear ratio' and swings the pole in a true 180 arc.

So no matter how long you fiddle with early version, the pole will always swing wide to one side. This late version also has the vented roof.

A note as far as operation, always use a 260 or later version die cast bumper with the sprung buffer. The later all plastic solid bumpers don't work so well, the spring is needed to absorb the shock without derailing the car.