Improving Trolley Poles: Part 2

Just a quick update really on the progress I'm making in rebuilding the PSC trolley pole that I showed last time. The first thing I did was to remove the springs and unsolder the two parts, which shows how I did the initial conversion.



I then rebuilt the main body casting and shortened the pole, which I had made too long (note to self this is 3.5mm to the foot modelling, not 4mm) as so, and here are the two rebuilt parts together.

Here is a picture with a Suydam pole for size comparison. As you can see this is quite tiny.

Finally I reassemble the pivot joint. Had a problem with soldering it solid, so a bit of a panic to disassemble, clean up the excess solder,  and then reassemble using Loctite to secure the pivot points.

And finally with three of the other poles I showed before, for a size comparison. Left to right; Suydam original, Eaton Custom Engineering PCC pole, MTS Imports pole and my rebuilt PSC/Kemtron pole.

All I have to do now is make another five of these. Well first off just make another and see how they work as a pair with both poles tied off on one end, which is the purpose of this exercise after all. Pole still looks a little bit long here, but it measures between the furniture at both ends as the same as the MTS pole.

As a Note. I found out that the GE steeple cabs never operated with two poles up as such. Anytime you see one with two poles up it is suggestive that the crew are doing some switching manoeuvre that requires a change of poles. So for instance when switching back and forth at low speed a wheel is more convenient for the crew, or when going from a main line to a spur line where you don't want to stall if the pole comes off on the frog, or to prevent arcing as one pole is taken down and the other put up.

Fascinating what you can find out on the web.