January, 2005, CTT cover story

[lionelsoni]

The January CTT cover story leaves out some details of the evolution of the Lionel vertical motor that I find interesting.

The first version, as used in the NW2, GG1, and Alcos, had the center bearing (the pivot for the truck) cast into the motor in the form of a nub that fit into a hole in a plate attached to the cast frame. The motor shaft, whose end was the worm, required a substantial open space through the frame so that the truck could swivel, much like the situation in the horizontal-motor F3s. The worm wheel was located on one of the drive axles, with a sump in the truck casting that comes perilously close to the center rail.

The Trainmaster's motors introduced the revolutionary idea of combining the drive train with the suspension by putting the motor shaft through the enlarged center bearing. The vertical motors for the F3s represented the pinnacle of the evolution of the concept, with the final improvement of moving the worm wheel off the axle to a shaft intermediate between the wheels. Lionel was free to raise this shaft somewhat above the level of the axles, solving the problem of the sump.

This final design also included the perfected Magnetraction, a magnet enclosed in a fat, hollow stainless steel axle, simpler than the separate magnets used previously with simple stainless steel axles and longer lasting than the hard-iron axles used on the original 622.

A further crucial refinement was to move the center bearing from a point near the outboard end of the truck to one near the inboard end. This reduced the overhang at the middle of the locomotive so that F3s could get through O27 switches without colliding with the switch machines. The one-motor O27 F3s were an exception to the generalization in the article that vertical-motor-powered units all had a single pickup on each truck. They carried the same double pickup as the dummy units, on the front truck.

Neil B., please consider publication of this as a letter to the editor.

[cnw1995]

I liked that article - this is pretty interesting stuff.

[Anonymous]

Will do, Bob.

Neil Besougloff
editor, CTT