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The trolley board is a fabricated "C" channel made from 1/2" brass strip and 1/8" brass angle on each side for stiffness. I used 3' lengths of brass strip and 12" lengths of brass angle. The joints of the brass angle are staggered from left to right side. The length of the trolley board is slightly less than the length of the carbarn.
Here you see the trolley board installed over Track 5. The LVT car operates back and forth on this track and the four blocks are operational.
The trolley board is soldered to each of the cross pieces using a resistance soldering unit and heat sinks to prevent unsoldering the overhead.
Here you see the trolley board installed over Track 4 of the North Bay of the Carbarn.
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The locations of the cross pieces is marked on the trolley board to avoid locating a hanger there. Pantograph hangers are located approximately every 5 inches. A hole is drilled on the centerline that will accept the casting stub on the top of the hanger. The hangers are soldered to the trolley board. Overhead wire is then strung along the trolley board leaving about a 1 foot length of wire beyond each end of the board.
Here you see the trolley shoe riding on the wire hung from the trolley board. Pantograph hangers are soldered to the board and the wire is strung tightly between the hangers. With straight overhead that is free of solder blobs and other defects, de-wirements are virtually non-existent.
Here you can see the overhead and the hangers on the underside of the trolley board. I had used this technique before in HO scale and prefer it to using an inverted trough that just guides the pole with no overhead. Once the overhead is finished, shop lights will be hung from the cross pieces.
Another view of the two trolley boards. You can see the resistance soldering unit used to solder the trolley board to the cross members.
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