Birney Project ~ Installing the Seats

Now comes the question "which direction is the trolley going?". Almost all trolleys are double ended. When they reach the end of the line the conductor simply walks down the isle and flops over the seat backs so that the seats are now facing the other direction, no need to turn the trolley.

But thats impractical on a model like this. If I permanently attach the seats to the trolley, then the car will have a definite forward / back. I'm going to try to mount the seats into an assembly that can be reversed from time to time, to help the motor maintain even wear. So I soldiered the seats to a bar of brass.

Notches are filed in the bar to clear the motor bolsters mentioned in the previous post. Also, a notch was carved behind the motorman's seat to clear the screw. These notches also help keep the seat assembly in place and prevents it from sliding around inside the car.

Because the floor of the model is higher than on the prototype, there isn't room enough for the legs of the seats. (Or for the passengers for that matter!!! Preiser actually offers plenty of legless passenger figures because this is a common occurrence with models!). So mounting the seats to a bar works out just fine.


I tried snapping an interior shot so that you can see how the seats fit around the motor. Difficult shot to get. I tried.

Here is how the seats look from the outside. Each seat will have a figure or two riding in them, filling the window and hopefully, distracting from the big ol' motor inside. Works for me! Yessir! Works for me!

Dandy