I'm curious. Would it be possible to model a trolleybus system in MSTS if one can modify street shapes and wires into track pieces? I ask since a trolley bus is streetcar without rails (and to a great extent are treated like rail vehicles)...to a degree. They still have wires to obey.
A 40 foot version would be do-able, by building the coach, and make the wheels rotate when the vehicle moves. To an extent this would be easy to model.
A 60-foot articulated coach (as seen above) would be a bit tricky...however, like with LRVs in MSTS, being built in multiple sections that pivot to one another would make this model do-able, but tricky.
With that being said...is (or would) there be any interest in this?
What if the track pieces were buried below the road surface, then the trackless trolley models built as engines but with their origin set so they "floated" above the track with their wheels contacting the road surface? Then you could use standard track sections.
Otherwise you could create custom "track" sections but then would need a special global tsection.dat which would be incompatible with standard routes.
In either case, one drawback is that you couldn't steer to the curb to make stops the way the real TT's can. The "track" would have to jog over to the curb where you wanted stops. Probably a minor issue. Would be cool to be driving one of these intermixed with animated cars from a car spawner, although when you stopped the cars woul keep going and pass through the TT
There are some dual guage tracks that exist. When you put wires over the track, I think 2 wires show up. Might be a starting point for the route if some one makes the bus
I have been working on a way to do this using already existing MSTS tracks. I am creating a simple route for trolley busses. I started using dual narrow/standard track to get the 2 wires. I have found you can get the same effect by placing 2 standard tracks over laping each other. Make the overlap such that the wires are about .75 meters appart. I will still use the dual track to keep the spacing.
The screen shot uses a static trolley bus I found at UK train sim. Maybe I can make it drivable. The last shot shows what is under the street. I found that I can get a 25 meter curve using dynamic track, but I need a 4 lane to 4 lane road intersection. I will post more as I work. BTW can some one put trolley poles on one of the flexable flyer buses.
I now have a working loop demo route. I need to get permission from the authors of the trolley bus and the eng file I am usng to distribute. Once that is done I will upload a package here. Sterring wheel and tires do not turn, but I am sure someone else can put a woking animated trolley bus together. I will post pictures from theparially completed sections later.
It shouldn't be too difficult to make a trolleybus the same way that you'd build a tram or loco. If you like, I'd be happy to try to build a trolleybus which has rotating/steerable wheels and trolley poles which swivel.
If I could get some decent side-on and end-on shots of the desired trolleybus, I'd be happy to whip up a test model.
Trackless Trolleys
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