Mister Rogers Trolley?

It would be interesting, but I don't think it would have enough bang for the buck.

What if it came with an officially licensed sweater? 

I believe the trolley was G gauge.

I'm not sure how well it would do in the market.  However; I would buy one for around the Christmas tree in a heartbeat!

Toys r us sells an almost "O" gauge sized trolley for the spin off show "Daniel tigers neighborhood" on pbs. It's a pull back trolley but it does ding and looks to be correct. Downside is the materials it's made of and its a bit larger than "O"

I believe one of our forum members was responsible for building the neighborhood trolley.

Malcolm

There was a program about Mr. Roger's show and they said the trolley wasn't powered. Were afraid it would malfunction at the wrong time so used a weight and attached string to pull it along. Eddie Murphy did some take offs on the show and they were hilarious.

At least MTH recognized the popularity of Mr. Rogers and his trolley as they did make this Railking box car with a picture of Fred holding the trolley: 30-74506 | MTH ELECTRIC TRAINS

 

It was part of the Latrobe Chamber of Commerce series.

 

Bill

It seems to be pretty simple but with a nice amount of detail. Might be doable on O gauge.

 

Jerry

Fred ("Mr.") Rogers was truly a kind and gentle man who knew how to speak to children! He is greatly missed in today's world!

I thought the Smithsonian had the real one today. As a kid, I clearly recall seeing three rails on the show on the rare times they'd show any downward angle.

I remember a local radio station in Baltimore was out in Vegas doing a huge meet and greet with celebs and they had KISS on and after Kiss Mr. Rogers. Kiss stayed on because they wanted to meet him, talk about polar opposites! They were genuinely excited to meet him.

 

Jerry

I remember a article about the trolley in model railroader ill see if I can find it in my notebook I have full of articles

I think people are confusing two trolleys. At the start of the show, there was a HO representation of the "neighborhood". For some of the seasons, there was a trolley that did cross through the center of the neighborhood. This is the one that was motivated by a thread.
     The main trolley was somewhere in the G to 1 gauge size. I had been on the set and it was indeed a 2 rail setup in the living room.
     You would think it would be a no brainer to reproduce in plastic or tinplate with an underfloor motor. Heck, with ps3, mth would be able to even get it to do trolley's 'conversation' mode where it rocks back and forth and dings.

It's funny that this topic came up. I was just exploring this the other day. I would like to see it happen as well, but it really becomes an issue of the cost to license the trolley from the Fred Rogers Group and then the cost of the set. Could I see this in the G scale battery powered line, maybe.

 

Lets look at the O gauge line though. Let's say you put Lionchief in the trolley. I'm struggling to believe that a parent is going to pay $130-140 for a set that really has no expansion possibilities other than accessories. Think about how much Thomas and Friends plastic trains $140 can buy. No operating couplers on the trolley means no add on cars. Plus you have to tool the whole thing up, pay the Fred Rogers Group, leave margins for the dealers, etc. The pie gets pretty slim quickly.

 

Could I see some folks scratch building this? Absolutely, but I think it's going to be a challenge to get a manufacture to take it on. The Fred Rogers Group has seen a resurgence in the property since launching Daniel Tigers Neighborhood a few years ago and there are larger toy manufactures clearly interested in the space. 

 

Just my two cents.

Was wondering when or if anyone might think of this detail.....

Basic small open seat trolleys have been available in O scale for quite a long time imported in brass in several seat number variations.  Under the floor powering is "entertaining"...

Yeah. My older brother has one. He turned 80 this year and still plays hockey. I'm proud of him.

Fred Rogers was an actor, what you saw on TV was him acting. My late wife dealt with him in her job, I met him and talked to him. What he did was an acting job not his true persona. A good scratch builder could make that trolley in O or G scale but I doubt if a large firm would for reasons stated

Why is it when ever anyone on the forum talks of the possibility if whatever being made someone always has to interject the "licensing rights" issue as if none of us knows? 

 

Jerry

If everyone knows, it would have been brought up sooner. Not everyone understands that many outside products require a licensing agreement. No sense in avoiding the elephant in the room. That license fee dictates much of the conversation, like it or not. 

Why is it every time someone see a train on TV or a movie they think it should be made into a model train and be an instant hit?

 

Rusty

For pure entertainment, I'd rather see the Toonerville trolley... wobbly wheels and all.

Because some do not know of or even think about such concepts and it's part of the reality and equation.  

What do you mean? Isn't everyone working on a model of the 1970's nuclear powered super train like me?

 

 

I'm surprised this one never made it:

 

Although, decades ago I did rework a pair of Athearn HO CP Rail F7's to sorta match...

 

Rusty

Something to do about the "Wide Track" licensing with GM's Pontiac Div. 

The real studio model of Supertrain was sold off in an ad in Model Railroader In the 70's 80's. I totally remember the issue. It was a big model and came with track but not enough to do a loop.

 

As far as future trains I would LOVE a O scale 3 rail Tyco TurboTrain. It doesn't even have to do the loop (but it would be nice).

Mister Rogers has a huge fan base among model railroaders who are now at the age they could afford something like that.

But I do get your point, though.

 

Well, I remembered it being three-rail but these photos don't show that at all. Kind of hard to tell what scale the thing was...

Someone should bring out a "Thomas the Trolley"

There's also a static model of it in one of the concourses in the Pittsburgh Airport at least the last time I was in that airport in May 2014.

 

Bill 

Hi Folks,

 

Perhaps a Mr. Rogers' trolley might be a good product for the new Bluetooth control system by Bachmann, in either 3 rail O gauge, or O n 30 on HO track.

 

(By the time we were able to receive UHF channels, I was almost a teenager, so I never got up to speed on Mr Rogers until my adulthood. Capitan Kangaroo was more my speed, with Mr Moose and Bunny Rabbit, Grandfather Clock, and Mr Green Jeans!)

 

Take care, Joe.

I tried to look up the current location of the real show's trolley. I found nothing (Smithsonian has his sweater, not the trolley, I just found) on where it really is today.

Does anyone have a clue where a real show-used on is now?

I'm going to say it would be a foregone conclusion the studio had more than just one trolley for the show.  It's a moving prop with mechanical parts, the parts can fail, the trolley can get accidentally dropped to the floor by staff or by derailment and get damaged.  If either of those scenarios happen you don't want that to hold up production, so you have a backup or two to roll out while the other gets repaired so filming can continue.  Just like "hero cars" like the BTTF DeLorean time machine; they didn't just have one single DeLorean to film with, they used a few of them for similar reasons.

In the opening sequence it looks like three rails, but the center "rail" is actually the slot for the string that pulled the trolley through the 'neighborhood'. The trolley in the show itself was more or less 'G', powered, RC controlled, and definately two rail.

 

There was an article about the trolleys in either Model Railroader or Railroad Model Craftsman some time back. It explained why the HO trolley in the opening was moved with a string instead of being powered. RC was used on the big trolley so the operator could move around with the control and keep everything in sight, including the director.

Thanks, because even though it's been a really long time, I knew I remembered something between the rails and had always assumed it was 3-rail as I had a three-rail set at the same age and figured then it had been built on some Lionel chassis...

I also recall a 'grinding' sound from the studio mikes whenever Mr Rogers "talked" with the trolley (it'd move back and forth in response to him sometimes) and I always wondered what that was. Now, I bet it was the string you described being pulled through whatever hole it went through...

I would buy one.  But what about the rights....blah ha ha.

Depends on what color the sweater was

http://youtu.be/OTPkh1MGRIA

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