Hi,
I have a Athearn Union Pacific Rotary snowplow with crappy drive bands, and no retainer, and the motor of a bachmann 2-8-0 locomotive (vintage). Is there any way to put this motor into the snowplow, and motorize it?
Any advice thanks in advance.
"Your never too old to play with trains" Liam
I don't see why it wouldn't work. I know nothing about the Bachmann motor you have, but I do know there is a lot of info out there.
If it already is a RTR that has a working blade, it should be easy enough to improve it.
I found lots of pics and info doing a search, with links to other forums for doing this, just follow some of the links that show up. You could even try searching this community, on the right side of the page, the box that says: Search the Community. I don't what you'll find in here.
I don't remember if anyone in here has done it.
Post some pics of your project.
Mike.
My You Tube
I powered my plow rotary blade with a small sealed motor and a length of flexible RC fuel line tubing connected to the shaft. U recall using wipers for electrical pickup for the rotary plow, but put a powered F7 B unit behind it for moving it on the track. (As per the way GN and now BNSF do in the full sized world).
Cedarwoodron
I have a RTR motorized version but added a decoder to the motor to control the speed of the blade on DCC. Plus I added a light inside the plow that I now can turn off and on.
CN Charlie
Hi Liam,
Adding a motor is easy. The trickiest part is getting the motor shaft and the rotary blade shaft lined up as well as possible, but all that is really involved there is using some styrene shims to get the motor in the right position.
Using RC fuel line works great, and using a decoder to slow the blade down to realistic speeds is a great suggestion.
Power pick up on the plow itself can be done with Kadee coupler box springs or phosphor bronze wire mounted on the trucks. There was a recent thread which discussed how to make your own power pickups for trucks:
http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/88/t/273450.aspx
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
mbinsewi I don't see why it wouldn't work. I know nothing about the Bachmann motor you have, but I do know there is a lot of info out there. If it already is a RTR that has a working blade, it should be easy enough to improve it. I found lots of pics and info doing a search, with links to other forums for doing this, just follow some of the links that show up. You could even try searching this community, on the right side of the page, the box that says: Search the Community. I don't what you'll find in here. I don't remember if anyone in here has done it. Post some pics of your project. Mike.
It was a drive band drive, there are no electrical pickups, and the motor has a worm gear fixed on it. I was thinking of putting some wheels from a spotlight car on the spot were the drive wheels were, and putting some insulating wire going to motor.
pictures coming next week, I'm going on Vacation for three days, and I cant get a picture until tuesday (Jan. 22).
-Liam
I like Mel's plan. I am working on doing that for my rotary plows.
As for F7B units: The prototype ones (Southern Pacific) which I have studied used the prime mover (engine) to supply power to the rotary plow blade, not to move the unit. The B unit's traction motors were removed and installed sideways inside the rotary plow to turn the blade. The rotary plow and it's mated B unit still had to be pushed around by a group of modern locomotives.
Lone Wolf and Santa Fe As for F7B units: The prototype ones (Southern Pacific) which I have studied used the prime mover (engine) to supply power to the rotary plow blade, not to move the unit. The B unit's traction motors were removed and installed sideways inside the rotary plow to turn the blade. The rotary plow and it's mated B unit still had to be pushed around by a group of modern locomotives.
The motor I'm using is out of a Bachmann Union Pacific 2-8-2 mikado DC, vintage.
It has a worm gear, and I'm thinking of drilling a larger hole in the worm gear, to use it as a joiner.
Yes they are, you need to put them in to a host site, like Imgur, Photobucket, flickr, etc., or I think your own web site would work too, or your own blog.
I'm not sure if you can from Facebook, I don't think so.
Couldn't you take the worm gear off, and use a piece of tubing ? like some of the others have done?
I used an old kato motor with flywheels. I removed one of the flywheels and mounted the motor in the body. used fuel tube to connect the motor to the shaft of the wheel. I replaced the front truck and wheels so I could use them for power pickups along with the rear wheels. I added lights, dcc decoder and some extra weight to stay on track. I also added a fuel tank under it so it is Diesel powered. Sold it, should not have, now I am working on another.
alco's forever!!!!! Majoring in HO scale Minorig in O scale:)
These are long wanted pics of my Plow motorization project. (if they dont work then they are not viewable in this page) https://docs.google.com/a/detlakes.k12.mn.us/document/d/e/2PACX-1vRtpgruwAR4uuJlEStJMJI-2rrtFtGvyPL_-4XygXe6h0Il6ElbjlkVK6jO3_C_bkc7YER6fSxqm3Di/pub
I guess we won't see them, as you have to sign in to Google.
mbinsewi I guess we won't see them, as you have to sign in to Google. Mike.
Well as long as whoever want to see them has a google account, they can (probably) veiw them. When I open them they open right away. However, they are dark, low quality pics. they were taken at 6:42am (CNTL Time-Chicago,IL). The bachmann motor is pictured next to the plow blades in pic 3.
OK, never mind, I don't have a Google Drive account.
What Mel said. Your pictures are private, it's not a matter of us having a google account.
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
Hello all,
Well, its been well over a year, and I've finally done it. The plow is motorized. I used a small can motor joined to the blade shaft via some old 12v Primary wire insulation. The motor (for now) will get power from the Bachmann ATSF FT unit behind it, which is pushing it. Here are some photos (I've made sure they are not restricted)
Thanks for following this project!
While I "get" the idea of altering something just to see if it can be done, motorising a rotary plow seems to me to be more in the vein of a giraffe car, unless you have some sort of Woodland Scenics "snow" to clear from your tracks.
I altered an Athearn plow to be auctioned-off for a fund-raiser, but opted to only detail it. No motor was added, although it could have been easily done.
Wayne