Mister Rogers Trolley?

I was a regular watcher, and a foamer even as a toddler. I was disappointed with the trolley, and was always waiting for an episode when a real train was run on that layout.

Great show.  My kids were regular fans.  Way back, in the very early '80s, Eddie Murphy did his version of "Mr Robinsons Neighborhood".  I laughed till I cried.  I saw Fred Rogers interviewed and he was very gracious about all of his imitators.  Even he got a good laugh.  A good man, lost too early.  

What would be a good choice for an already-made traditional-style trolley that could look OK on a traditional or modern layout? Different cities have "heritage" trolleys in operation so it wouldn't be a big stretch to run an older style trolley on newer layouts. A variety of heritage trolleys might have wider appeal and more sales potential for the O-gauge market.

San Francisco has perhaps the best assortment of heritage trolleys in regular operation.

So I posted this earlier, but apparently it never posted. 

I know it's not O gauge, but given the subject matter (which is why this discussion came up on my Google search)...

My Bachmann G gauge streetcar arrived today. Brand new, in the box, bought only for parts.

I would just like to be a nerd and say it made me smile when tracking showed it coming from Pittsburgh, and the remaining parts I ordered (the main drum of the whistle in the front, and some straight track) say they arrive on Friday the 13th, the "king" of all days for it to arrive. Both of these were total accident. 

That said, eliminating the main "bodywork" was much more laborious than expected, or I would have been able to get EVERYTHING done, except prime and paint. Oh, I still haven't found anything at all to make a good yellow sign on top. Everything I find is too tall, or too thick. I'm doing this with zero power tools, unless you count the glue gun with gorilla sticks. This area I live in doesn't have squat for craft or hobby stores, and even the big name home improvement stores were a miss. 

Anyways, back on point. This is what I've done thus far. A couple posts look slightly off but I assure you it's just the angle it's sitting. There's also a few parts made that aren't in the pics, as they can't go on it until after paint (2 complete benches done, hand rails are done, and the black piece that runs along the bottom of each side. Lastly, I got mostly done with one of the bumpers and decided I didn't like it, so back to Walmart tomorrow. The roof is not glued on, either. That will literally be the very final step, as long as no paint fixes are needed. I expect to finish before the NASCAR race on Sunday. I am working on making a working whistle, and plan on sacrificing a Daniel Tigers trolley to modify and use the bell mechanism that dings as the trolley rolls. 

Soon, I WILL be building the bench Mr Rogers sat on to bring the trolley out, and when my wife and I have kids, I WILL build them a blue castle playhouse. Anyone care to guess what their cue to come back inside will be??? I'm not at all kidding about either of these. Once the bench is complete, I will relocate my fish tank and contact my friends at County Road Dept and see if they have any junk traffic lights. Perhaps one day, a TV built right into the wall with a painting my late grandmother did that will slide behind the wall to reveal the screen (my version of Picture Picture). 

My only hangup is putting it in the room that only a fan of the Adam West Batman series would know how to get into. But, it's MY man cave!

Woah. Sorry I dragged that out so long. It's 1:30 am and I can't stay vertical. Here's a couple pics of the crap I did so far. 

I was on the set at WQED back in the mid 80's.  It was two-rail, custom-built (including the track), close to #1 gauge, and powered.  Fred was an ordained Presbyterian minister, and held an education degree as well.  His nephew lived on my dorm floor Junior year, so I got to see him several times.

Oddly enough, Captain Kangaroo was Commodore of the Long Island Yacht Club when my dad was President of the Great South Bay Yacht Racing Association, so I got to meet Bob Keeshan as a kid too!

Jon

That's awesome. I never met Mr Rogers, but I did meet Sherri Lewis when I was a little feller. My moms best friend lives like 4 doors from Jerry Mathers, and I worked for Craig Ferguson for a while, keeping his robot sidekick operable. I think my #1 most memorable, besides Dale Earnhardt, and the amazing Betty White, was when I was at Circus Circus in Vegas as a kid, and shared an elevator ride with the recently departed Dan Gadgetry. Is David Newell still around? I'd love to get his autograph but can't find anything except eBay listings. 

The article for the HO trolley was in a 1988 MR issue. I have it somewhere. The trolley is a cut down model of the Bachmann Brill Trolley. The fishline was used to pull the trolley during the opening sequence so there wouldnt be any electrical "Breakdown" and because the trolley can be moved super slow which could not be accomplished with a motorized version.

The G scale trolley was actually an RC Chain driven Model. I saw photos of it years ago in another magazine. It was a can motor with sprockets and a small bicycle chain to power the G scale version.

Wow! Someone who actually KNOWS about the trolley, instead of spitting off crap like they know. I actually never knew it was chain driven until I saw it on Netflix last week. I literally spent years trying to find out exactly what it was built with. Found nothing. Then, I see it on Netflix, fast forward to him bringing it out, and son of a..... He actually picked it up just to show the drive system. I'm just going to use the motor the Bachmann came with. The power trucks, floor, and roof are all I'm saving. Everything else will be mostly balsa wood, with a few structural reinforcements. I just can't quite decide what I want to try using to make the bumpers now that I hated what I was using..... I know what I want, just doubt I'll find anything around this dump town. 

Well today wasn't the relaxed day I expected, so I didn't get very much done. I'm also running into a little trouble cutting the bench ends and making them look good. Got the end curves done, mocked up the "headlights" and installed the "wall" pieces for the end rows of seats. In pic two, the side skirt piece is only taped on, and I set the body and roof back on for the photos only. Mounting comes after paint 

Update: all that remains is paint and final assembly, however the heat wave is over and there is much moisture in the air. May be a few days or so before I can paint. 

nearing completion. 

Looking to have this thing finished in about 12-13 hours. All that will be left after paint and final, permanent assembly, will be to find a Daniel Tiger trolley to sacrifice the bell mechanism. Then, hopefully in the next few weeks, I will begin building the bench Mr Rogers sat on to bring his out. Already ordered parts to make the controls like he had. Thoughts? Critiques? Please remember I'm not a professional and the last train set I had, I believed to have come from the north pole. The yellow "Neighborhood Trolley" signs for the roof aren't in the shots because their yellow paint is still drying. 

Awesome job Mike. I think you nailed it.

Thank you. It honestly makes me happy to hear some praises. Although I noticed after the pic that I forgot to glue the handrails in. Some of them bent due to the softness if the wire, but I chose this wire for the gold tone, just in case paint doesn't stick to it. I'm also not gonna bother with covering the windows on the roof. Not worth it to me. 

  I never really stopped watching; always wanted to see Trolley.

I spent years wishing he would do a show on just Trolley and his track

   With the popularity of Daniel Tiger today, I could only think the Thomas deals may rule the playground sternly

Looks great

Did you keep enough measurements for some plans?

To be totally honest I just eyeballed it. One nice thing is that the outer bench rows are exactly 10 inches apart and there's 5 posts. Math was easy. I did mock-ups before gluing everything up. Other than that I didn't really do much measuring 

https://youtu.be/ppAuC67CLVY

Threw it on the tracks to test it out. I'm going to begin paining very shortly. 

Nice work. That trolley can "dance" !!

Drum roll please? I gave the paint extra time to dry out and then put it in my shed with a heater to help bake the paint on. There's a few very minor paint imperfections, but the weather today wasn't ideal, and I got ZERO drips! So, now here it is! I'm going to go get dinner with the wife, and then come home and piece it together. Oh, I just now noticed I used the wrong green paint on the benches. I have the correct, darker one, just used the wrong one. I will take care of that, and then clear coat the benches. (Will take an hour) and then I glue it all together, screw the motor in, write on the yellow signs, and DONE!!!!! The whole thing is very significantly lighter than I anticipated so I may slap a couple pinewood derby weights on the belly where you'll never see them. 

Why didn't Mr Rogers put some passengers on his big red trolley? All those empty seats.

If you're referring to that real trolley he's sitting on, that was at a trolley junkyard that also restores them. He did an episode there. 

Done! Although I may replace the signs with longer and slightly less tall ones 

https://youtu.be/-aVvob8mri0

You know I had to lay the track out and play with it for a moment. However, I've forced myself to put it up on the shelf for now. If I get carried away, with my luck it will get trashed going off the track. Although, it's not easy to resist playing with. It is now locked safely away in my man cave on a piece of track on a shelf next to my desk. I must say, I'm actually REALLY pleased with it. This concludes my build updates. Sorry again for going G gauge on y'all. 

You did a superb job of it.  No apology needed for going G gauge.  

   Now that the basics of how to build a prototype are licked, you can relax a bit before starting your O version .

Here is a photo of Mr. Roger's Trolley.  We acquired it 40- 50 years ago when our children were very young. No, it is not on O gauge trucks.

Lew

That's the one made by Ideal. That and the Holgate one I have are the only two "replicas" ever produced. I'm going to be looking for a child to pass my Holgate one onto now. 

Trolley Mike posted:

If you're referring to that real trolley he's sitting on, that was at a trolley junkyard that also restores them. He did an episode there. 

The Arden Trolley Museum, now PA Trolley Museum, is far from a "junkyard". While they have always had numerous "restoration projects", they have quite a fine fleet of vehicles in pristine condition.

Episode 1531 is the show in question, and is available on Amazon. Not only does Fred visit the museum, but he demonstrates the control panel built into the window bench. There may be rc controls  for other times, but Mr Rogers usually reached down to the control panel when sending trolley to the land of make believe.

The next challenge is to make the "Grandparents Express" trolley appearing in the same episode. 

Fred Rogers also addresses the desire of many to have their own trolley like his in this episode. He even shows how to make your own.

That's the one made by Ideal. That and the Holgate one I have are the only two "replicas" ever produced. I'm going to be looking for a child to pass my Holgate one onto now. 

Greg Nagy posted:

Trolley Mike posted:

If you're referring to that real trolley he's sitting on, that was at a trolley junkyard that also restores them. He did an episode there. 

The Arden Trolley Museum, now PA Trolley Museum, is far from a "junkyard". While they have always had numerous "restoration projects", they have quite a fine fleet of vehicles in pristine condition.

Episode 1531 is the show in question, and is available on Amazon. Not only does Fred visit the museum, but he demonstrates the control panel built into the window bench. There may be rc controls  for other times, but Mr Rogers usually reached down to the control panel when sending trolley to the land of make believe.

The next challenge is to make the "Grandparents Express" trolley appearing in the same episode. 

Fred Rogers also addresses the desire of many to have their own trolley like his in this episode. He even shows how to make your own.

Out of?

Drawing it on a milk carton or little box 

The "Express de Grandparents" looks pretty........ interesting.

"Only a Grandparent, or Grandchild may ride it"

It transports some human characters into the Neighborhood of Make Believe.

    I wish I could have found more and/or better pictures on it. This unofficial Mr Rogers archive site has some photos, and the episode link for 1531 has a few more. 

Looks like the Space Race collided with The Great Race, landed on the tracks, got hit by the Toonerville, and the whole mess was sent to Dick Van Dyke for repair ....

It's on Netflix now and Amazon has ALL the episodes for free on prime.

 Pay to watch Mr Rogers?...a PBS show? Sans-commercials, or not, it doesn't seem right somehow .

 I don't even watch enough TV to want the basic cable I pay for; it just comes with the cheapest bundle. I moved the TV months ago (feb?), and never hooked it it up again .. Oops! When I do, it's usually broadcast tv news and/or a "Rerun channel". 

I'll just have to wait for the right YouTube "review" .

I never would have Netflix for me. The wife on the other hand.... The only TV I really care about is my NASCAR races 

I know the man that was Producer on the Mr Rogers show. He has a train Fred gave him at the end of the show.

No, it was never on the show, Fred liked trains and so did my friend.

He has told me they did eventually power the smaller trolley for the trip across the screen but it was indeed pulled by a string for a long time.

Khayden93 posted:

I remember a article about the trolley in model railroader ill see if I can find it in my notebook I have full of articles

I was the television director/writer for Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood, 1981-1990, and built the HO scale version of the trolley seen at the beginning of every program. We used fish line to pull it across as the camera zoomed into Fred's house. I wrote a feature on it for Model Railroad, and to my joy, they accepted it. 

Fred was a kind, gentle, funny, man who celebrated life, and showed kids how to do the same. 

Including a big kid: me.

.

OMG! This is amazing! When I was little I tried to make a replica of the HO set. I was just too young to know what I was doing. I always wanted to come out and see the set and get autographs from everyone that worked on the show. I sincerely thank you for your work. You guys deserve more credit than you've been given. My trolley build is a tribute to all of you. 

Trolley Mike posted:

OMG! This is amazing! When I was little I tried to make a replica of the HO set. I was just too young to know what I was doing. I always wanted to come out and see the set and get autographs from everyone that worked on the show. I sincerely thank you for your work. You guys deserve more credit than you've been given. My trolley build is a tribute to all of you. 

We had a lot of fun producing the program. Here I am on the left with our two cameramen, Bobby Vaughn, and Art Vogel, just before the opening music started and we moved the trolley... 

Then after each take, we'd look at playback on the monitor. Happy days...

That's amazing. You honestly just made my whole day! I wish to sincerely thank you for your work on the show. If not for that program, I would not be who I am today. Mister Rogers was the closest thing I had to a parental figure, and the one whom inspired me to play music and be creative, instead of following in my families footsteps. Yourself, and everyone on the crew deserve equal credit, as well. Without you guys, the show wouldn't have been possible. I genuinely hope one day I may have the sincere honor of shaking your hand. You ALL are equally responsible for making the world a better place, and I am very grateful that I was able to introduce my daughter to the program. 

"What's wrong with kids these days?"

That's easy, they didn't know Mister Rogers. 

If I may ask, do you happen to know where the real trolley is today? I've always dreamed of seeing that thing. 

I also hope you like the replica I made. I'm not as skilled as I would like to be, but it's just my way of paying respect to the program, while reminding myself to be a better person than I sometimes choose to be. 

So on behalf of the entire world, thank you for a job done perfectly!