Prop driven rail car experiment

[pennytrains]

Pretty sure it was CTT.  But then, what did I do this morning....??? 

I like this idea.  It's very "AirPunk" to coin a phrase! 

[Flintlock76]

Art Young

There's an 0 gauge wind-up (Shuco?) of the real-life prewar German "Zeppellin" train. It was reproduced a few years ago.

Yes, I've got one!  It's a Lionel reproduction made about 20 years ago. I don't use it often but it's a riot to watch!  

Someone did an article on converting it to an electric motored version suitable to run on three-rail O Gauge track but that was written years ago, I don't remember if it was in CTT or another magazine.

[Flintlock76]

philo426

Or perhaps a 5,blade Spitfire prop!

 

Yes!  And with the Rolls-Royce Griffon engine!

[philo426]

Or perhaps a 5,blade Spitfire prop!

[Flintlock76]

You know, it might work better if you replace that Focke-Wulf FW-190 BMW radial and three-blade prop with a P-51's Rolls-Royce Merlin engine with a four-blade prop!

[8ntruck]

Interesting project.  My initial thoughts:

Start with a brushless motor that the RC guys are using nowadays.

At first cut, mount a motor, prop, motor controller, Lipo battery pack and a RC receiver on a flat car and run it with the RC transmitter.

If the performance is OK, then move on to figuring out how to use track power.  18vac into a magic conversion box (sorry folks, I'm a retired mechanical engineer - dangerous around electronics) to replace the lipo battery, then hack into LionChief or TMMC, or Legacy to talk to the motor controller?

Lionelsony - think this is possible?

[philo426]

Sounds interesting!

[Art Young]

There's an 0 gauge wind-up (Shuco?) of the real-life prewar German "Zeppellin" train. It was reproduced a few years ago. You can also get the LGB propeller powered toy in G - looks like a crashed airplane mounted on a flatcar, kids think it's cute.

[philo426]

Tried to see if this concept is valid...when tehered to a 18 volt power supply it did move when I added an on board 9 volt not so much.pretty cool though .