New York Street Scene

[LesTindall]

No brakes on the bike!!!!

Perhaps a bit of fine wire is required, used very fine plastic rod on a 1/35th Diopark bike kit (which came with etched spokes)

Les

[finescalerr]

A single speed bike of that era might have a foot brake that operates when you apply back pressure on the pedals. -- Russ

[Design-HSB]

Even early bikes have always had a brake on the front wheel see here.

Nevertheless, a simple great bike.

[Ray Dunakin]

Helmut, in the USA "coaster" brakes were most common on bikes until relatively recently. These are the type that Russ mentioned. From the page you linked:

"In 1898, after the advent of freewheel coasting mechanisms, the first internal coaster brakes were introduced for the rear wheel. The coaster brake was contained in the rear wheel hub, and was engaged and controlled by backpedaling, thus eliminating the issue of tire wear. In the United States, the coaster brake was the most commonly fitted brake throughout the first half of the 20th century, often comprising the only braking system on the bicycle."

I haven't paid much attention to bicycles lately but used to ride regularly up until the early 1980s, and even at that time the coaster brake was still common on single-speed bikes.

[Design-HSB]

Hello Ray,

of course, the bikes have always had a coaster brake, only the rear brake alone the bike turns when braking with the rear wheel forward.
Can you better not try a car for smoothness once briefly and strongly pulled the hand brake and already spun the car.
Therefore, bicycles also have a brake which acts on the front wheel.



This service bike a mine overseer is over 80 years old and has the back-pedaling brake for the rear wheel and the second brake for the front wheel.

[billmart]

Helmut - What you say about brakes might be true in Europe, Asia, and Africa, but not in the USA.  The typical single speed bicycle in the USA has a coaster brake on the rear wheel and no brake on the front wheel.

Bill Martinsen

[jim s-w]

I dunno about the coaster brake preventing tyre wear. I had one in the 80s that was decidedly binary in it's operation, ie the wheel was moving forward or completely stopped.  Great fun as a kid, not sure my dad was so amused replacing the tyre every other month

Cheers

Jim

[Joel Freedman]

Well still trying to figure out the brick work. I built a second bike and this one has hand brakes. When I was a kid my bike didn't have any hand brakes I just put back pressure on the the pedals and that was that. Still nice to have variety. I also started the Street car. The weathering isn't done yet but I thought I'd do a mock up of the scene to give me an idea of proportions. I'm not one for pencils and paper so I sketch with styrofoam and toothpicks and some printed pictures of buildings.

If nothing else I can see there are many months of modelling ahead of me.

[Joel Freedman]

Spent some time painting the passengers. I'm not really great at this but they will mostly be behind dirty windows.
Still waiting to do the brickwork and firescapes until parts arrive.

[Joel Freedman]

Spent the last 5 days working on the cobblestone road. i made a mold and made 4 copies of the plastic cobblestone road from the kit. Then I put one down and cut the two others to fit like a puzzle. I then filled in all the gaps with individual "cobblestones" broken off of the scraps. I used some spackle to fill in a few air bubbles. Still a ways to go but I think it's a solid start.

[Ray Dunakin]

Cool. Are the trolley tracks part of the castings?

[Joel Freedman]

Yes Ray the tracks are part of the casting so I had to break the castings apart (except one central one) to create what you see.
Now on to the sidewalks before painting/staining.

[Joel Freedman]

I made a styrene rectangle to use as a mold to make the sidewalk pieces. I placed the mold on some 220 grit sandpaper to give the surface some texture. I find that using old used sandpaper with plaster dust still caked on gives even more texture. I then glued some cloth to the back and cracked a few.

[Ray Dunakin]

Nice!

[TRAINS1941]

Joel thanks for the update.  Your doing some really nice work here.

Jerry