I went looking for these gears for my 44 tonners, found none at Bachmann's parts list. googled "Bachmann 44 ton gears" and Shapeways came up. 2 versions; original, and a finer tooth, that shouldn't need as much wearing in...
Has anyone here used these, and what do you think of them? Thanks. Dan
Dan,
Wasn't aware of them, but it's good to know. The original gear ones may also fit the 70-tonner???
I suspect the finer gear item may be for some sort of repowering project someone did, but I haven't seen any documentation on that.
Back to Bachman...did they happen to offer the truck as a complete part, including the geared axles, perchance?
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
3D printed gears. Scary.
I would first check out NWSL. They've got a lot of gears. I bought some to repair two brass diesels from 30 years ago.
But I am interested to hear about anyone's experience.
Ed
7j43k3D printed gears. Scary.
Or maybe not, considering the experience of many with P2K and Bachmann gears. The 3D process and materials may actually result in a longer lasting plastic gear.
NWSL used to offer half-axles to convert the 70-tonner to HOn3. The trucks are the same as with the new single motor 44-tonner so they should work with that too. NWSL dropped them from what I heard, although I've got 4 sets. I may just be interested in the "original" gears presuming they fit the new single motor 44-tonner, because I have some bad ones.
AFAIK, NWSL doesn't offer the plastic gears. Someone tell me I'm wrong or the 3D ones fit, please.
There's a tendency to associate 3D printed items with 'fragile' or 'brittle' or 'not very precise' but that's ebcause the materials used by 'affordable' home model printers are just that - although the X-Y axes on some of the low cost models are QUITE accurate. Bu PLA and ABS are't the only materials that are 3D printable. You just need a much more expensive commercial printer to handle them. Which is where Shapeways comes in, they have the printers you probably couldn;t afford to buy for yourself and charge for the material and machine time.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
Remember the millitary is starting to use them, definatly not the home use version!
I took a look at Sahpeways now that I've had a chance. Both these gears are for the older two-motor version of the 44-tonner. The finer tooth one is a new version of the original. It's designed to need less breaking in, but the designer hasn't tested them yet. They're pricved right to encourage testing, a tree of 4 for $1.99. The originals are $3.50 for 4. Looks like this material, while somewhat lower quality, is actually a better material for a gear, as the designer indicates WSF used at that price is less prone to cracking than the more expensive FUD.
Would be good to get gears to fit the new single-motor model also.
There are 3 generations of 44 tonners and presumably 70 tonners, which have always shared mechanical components.
First gen: 2 motors, large worms.
Second gen: one motor, but same type gears as 1st gen. Worm gears are large like the 1st gen but mount in chassis.
Some drive axle gears are white, they for sure are prone to splitting. Some are black, and I don't know for sure, but I haven't seen any split on mine. At least yet. Bachmann doesnt show either in their parts dept.
Third gen: One motor also, but looks completely different, much smaller diameter worm gear, that mounts in the new truck. My first opinion about that would be favorable, but I havent seen one in person or seen one run, so no official comment
Shapeways says the gears are white nylon, and may need some break in time. The 2nd set available is same material, slightly smaller tooth to hopefully reduce break in time, but as mentioned, are untested...
I have some deadlined 1st gen 44s. I grabbed the shell that was set-up as a dual gauge switcher on one of those when the 3rd gen ones came out and swapped with it's shell. It's a higher quality drive and is basically the 70-tonner chassis shortened to fit the 44-tonner shell. The old 44-tonner shell fits the new 3rd gen chassis just fine, completely bolt-on, takes about 2 minutes if you're in no hurry.
Like I said, the 3rd gen chassis LOOKS like the 70-tonner's. I can't imagine it's much different except for shorter, because that makes no sense in terms of the supply chain. I haven't yet tried swapping parts, because I need my dual gauge switcher sometimes on SG-only track. It's still SG, but have considered narrowing it. I'm down to three running 70-tonners that have been narrowgauged, so have an extra set of the NWSL HOn3 half-axles. Until I do that, I can't really confirm everything is the same between the two chassis except for the metal frame and the dogbones, but I would say it probably is. If anyone can confirm by actually doing the work to swap things around, that would be great.