City of Detroit

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Jerry Poniatowski's "City of Detroit" Trolley

Here's the photo of the Putt trolley that Jerry has had for about two years. He originally got it as an unpainted kit in hi-rail configuration, but recently put scale sized wheels on it. They can be ordered either way from the company, and they run as nice on AC as DC (but only in one direction). The lights are constant brightness, and non-directional in either AC or DC.

He did a bit of research on the trolley at the Michigan Transportation Museum in Port Huron, and discovered that these Birney style trolleys were actually used in Detroit in the late 'teens and early twenties by the Detroit Street Railway system. The colors are approximations of the colors used as no color chips were available. The paint scheme was derived from black and white photos of the actual trolleys of that period. It took Jarry about an hour to just do the masking, and about five minutes to airbrush the paint. The route sign says "Fort" (as in Fort Street) and the car number is the year of his hot rod.

The picture with the buildings was taken on a quickly constructed diorama in Jerry's backyard and has the trolley in hi-rail configuration. The others were taken inside with the scale wheels installed so it could run on the local club's scale modular layout. One of the members has a module with a trolleyline below mainline track level, and he had no trolley to run on it. The Putt trolley runs great, and is a big hit with the public, especially the kids. The trolley run for hours on end, and the motor barely gets warm. Jerry said he has been tempted to put a coupler on it, and see how many cars it could pull!

Jerry Poniatowski NASG #99R0046C

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