Now for something completely different - traction!

My Milton and Dorchester RR is a combination of the New Haven RR MIlton Branch and the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) Mattapan - Ashmont High Speed trolley line. It is a U shaped 4' x 12' that uses half of the spare "hobby" room of our apartment in Lewiston ME. The setting is the late 1950's which allows the NH orange and black "McGinnis" diesels intermixed with PCC trolleys and the occasional "type 5" in its last year of operation.

The layout runs from Mattapan where there is a terminal and yard for the trolleys, to Ashmont where the trolleys interchange with the (off layout) subway to downtown Boston. In between is Milton where the Baker Chocolate complex is switched by the New Haven. t is somewhat freelanced - to make things more interesting I use common trackage through Milton which is shared by the NH and the MTA (In real life they used parallel tracks). 

Above is a ex-Dallas double end PCC car laying over in Mattapan Yard, one of the few scenicked spots on the layout. 

The trolleys will operate from live overhead, which I am scratch building and is very time consuming, especially on curves. I hope to have a picture of some overhead soon. The trolley poles you see in the background are 1/8" copper clad steel TIG welding wire cut to length, which has the advantage of being very easy to solder to.

Because the trolley like the prototype uses both rails for the return, but the Railroad portion uses regular 2 rail, the common section in Milton has to be switchable between the two.

I use Digitrax DCC via a Zephyr command station/throttle. The Dallas car above has one of the new TCS decoders with the keep alive function which is very good for trolley operation as with only 1 point of contact, can stall out easily. The decoder also supports a brake light feature which comes on when the trolley comes to a stop.

I hope to have more pictures soon. Stay tuned.

Jon