Nice! Looks like it's running well! Those made to scale small steam engines don't give you much room to work, so sometimes you have to make compromises with the motor location for it to run well. Even the ones that are a little over-sized (like my Ken Kidder 2-6-0) can be pretty limited.
I should try to find that water tower you mentioned in Eureka sometime since I work about 4 miles away from there.
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Now for two more videos. The first finishes the run to Crater Lake, in part because of the derailment of the RPO exiting the wye there.
The second part of our run travels down the Silverton Branch from Silverton to Durango.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
After pasing through the mountains (really, the wall) at the top of the grade, our little train - affectionately called "the Shorty" by local travelers - arrives in Purgatory, then departs across the Lime Creek Gulch bridge to head further into the mountains.
Next, this part of the ride stretches from Camp 10 to the Outlaw Mine complex after passing through Black Cat Junction and its friendly suburb of Beartown.
I adjusted wipers, valve gear, and added lots of weight. In the midst of that, amystery developed. How did this loco even run?
The gear cover underneath that the wipers attach to is attached by 2 screws. The back one is just that, a. simple holddown. The front one does that, plus acts as a pivot for the long arm that the front truck pivots on. So far, so good. But to tighten the front part of the cover down enough to keep the worm gear engaged with the round gear on the middle axle that powers the drivers. Tighten it enough to get the gear cover snug and the truck won't freely pivot.
The screw that is involved has a shoulder that should allow it to stand proud of the hole enough to allow the front truck to freely pivot. It's a special screw because of that shoulder, so don't happen to have another. Fortunately, it was a 1.4 mm screw with the correct thread to match screw in my NWSL screw packs I had on hand.
I was able to cut a small bit of brass tubing that would act to raise the tightended positiion of the screw enough to aloow the frint truck to pivot freely while holding the cover tight. I also added back in the cab weights I'd taken out earlier to balance the added weight front to back. With that, the loco will pretty reliably haul 2 passenger cars.
I traversed most of the system to test its abilities and reliability and it was perfect the first time around. Then I decided to video it and it only went lame once on the somewhat rough track of the wye at Crater Lake. I'll present this series of videos over the next few hours here. I'll also note that I used my Zhiyun gyro-stabilized powered camera mount for this, which means these are much better quality videos than the ones I've taken previously on this prioject.
Here we go, starting with the familiar run from Silverton up the ruling grade of the Cascade Branch where it splits off at Tefft to Purgatory.
Ok, this pic of the underside seems like not much to look at at first glance. Close inspection show the sliders I installed. There a pair on each truck of the tender on the right/+ side (the tender trucks typically connect to the track on the left/- side only) On the loco, the wipers pick up on the black/- side (locos typically pick-up on the right/+ side only.)
The wipers are made from a small bit of circuit board tie material. One side is epoxied or soldered in place. The other side has a short piece of Tichy 0.010" phosphor bronze wire and a short piece of insulated wire. This is hooked up by crossing to the other half of the coupled pair, i.e. the tender wipers hook up the chassis on the loco and the loco wipers hook up to the tender chassis.
This gives all-wheel (except the lead truck) pickup and performance that approaches Blackstone quality. It can be somewhat fussy when you first set it up, but the relaibaility imporvement is much welcomed in a lightweight, shor wheelbase loco.
#7 is in service now, but here's a few earlier pics to catch things up now that pics seem to bbe working again.
I flush DNS every once in a while. Seems to help with many issues.
Mike.
My You Tube
Well, pics are back right now...keep your fingers crossed.
Not really saying it's MR, either, just that there seemed to be some correlation. Our ISP is also having DNS issues lately. I get half the internet and no email sometimes, so there are lots of potential fault points in making pics work,
Mike, I see the 2 pictures of your truck nose to nose with the loco.
I have problems too, sometimes I post a picture, from PB, and everyone can see it but me.
Go figure.
mlehmanUlrich, Nice loco and she runs well, just not very far.
She still has the original open frame motor, which draws a heck of amps - too much for any decoder.
I have not yet found a source for HOn3 track here to give her a little more freedom!
Mike, I am using Imgur and have no issue whatsoever posting pictures here.
Happy times!
Ulrich (aka The Tin Man)
"You´re never too old for a happy childhood!"
Ulrich, Nice loco and she runs well, just not very far.
I'll try a couple of more size comparison pics comparing it to the K-27:
Darn, very strange. All the complaints about posting pics lately seem to indicate that it's changes at the phioto server end that's the cause. I'm unaware of any changes at my host (photobucket) and my pics post just fine elsewhere. This makes me wonder if it's something at the Kalmbach end of things that has changed? It's also intermittent, as my pics have disappeared and returned several times since I started this thread. The ones that I was able to post are now back again, but current posting isn't working, again. Videos seem unaffected, though. Very strange, indeed.
Mike,
I really enjoy this thread! The little Mogul is cute! It is quite a bit smaller than my D&RGW T-12 Tenwheeler!
I only wish I had an oval of HOn3 track to see her run! All I am able to do is run her back and forth on a foot length of track!
Needless to say, I hope pics get sorted out before WPF starts...otherwise, might be a bummer...
Ulrich, Thanks for your comments, too. This is strictly 1960s tech until the can motor and decoder are stired in, so it's something I'm sure you would enjoy.
Pics seem to have come back, I think. Here's a couple more in the "How small is it really? " category, a side by side compariosn to a relatively small loco, a K-27.
And since it looks like pics may still be futile, I'll try the F250 comparison again...
Yeah, even newer motors would have a hard time fitting in that tiny boiler.
Boone passed away a year or so ago, IIRC. His wisdom is certainly missed. He wrote a few articles for MR, too, in addition to the Gazette. He'd switched to On3, then got busy and not much heard from him, but his illness likely accounted for that. The fellow had class, was willing to share, and was down to earth. RIP, Boone.
Nice work and explanation but ... wow that is tiny. Hard to see how anything other than tender drive would be practical.
This is the first I knew that Boone Morrison was deceased.
Dave Nelson
Dan, Thanks for the kind comments.
I'm having issues with pics in this thread. I couldn't get the one to post yesterday and now I see that other pics have actually disappeared from the thread...very strange. Will deal with it later so patience for a little while before I can get back to this later today.
The video helped me to get the size proportions. Thanks. Nice layout too! Dan
Not sure why I can't get it to appear in the previous post but here is the #7 vs F250 pic, one more try anyway.
Bah, it's a Ford anyway...
I was able to capture #7 crawling up the grade with the two car train I didn't think it could handle.
NBW2carsupTefftGrade from Mike Lehman on Vimeo.
With a slightly different consist, the train continiues on to Crater Lake.
NBW2carsonTefftBranch2 from Mike Lehman on Vimeo.
Dan,
Didn't have a quarter close at hand, but these should help. The screw in the foreground is 1 5/8" long in this tabletop pic.
Overall length is just over 6".
And here it is, not too much larger than an F-250.
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1024x768q90/923/rQ3ryK.jpg
Yeah, not much sound on that one video. Here's one I posted in WPF that I spend lots of time commenting on the loco's size that also addresses Dan's question of how big to a certain extent.
NBWonDCCatSilvertonPartII from Mike Lehman on Vimeo.
I sort of express doubt that #7 will be able to handle to handle the 2-car train that sits behind #3 in the video. But testing this morning proved #7 can handle that passenger train up the 4% leaving Tefft on the Cascade Branch. There's a few spots where the track needs a little worrk, mainly a few dips that the longer driver wheelbase C-19s just run right through, while the six-coupled #7 tends to drop in that hole. However, careful attention to wheel slip gets you up the grade.
Looking great Mike! I like following your builds.
I couldn't get the sound up loud enough to hear much on the video, but it looks like it runs good.
So far, so good, Mike.
Since this is HOn3, could you help me with my sense of proportion by laying a quarter or something of recognizable size near the tender to compare to? I'm having a little trouble getting a real fix on the size of things here. My eyes want to make the trucks HO standard gauge. Dan
Here's a view of the front of the tender. The general idea is to get the driveshaft centered.
After I got everything together, it was time for some DC testing. I got out my Blackstone ProTraxx HOn3 test loop (think Kato track in HOn3, b/c that's exactly what it is), which is where this video came from in WPF.
NewBerlinAndWinfieldHOn3MogulLocoDocMashimaFlywheeled from Mike Lehman on Vimeo.
It ran prerrty well because of previous finetuning, but I did my best to get it running well on DC. Next up, the decoder, shown here with the wiring ready to get stuffed.
I decided on a Soundtraxx DCC Mobile Decoder. It has a lot of the drive control features found found on Soundtraxx sound decoders, but in a very compact and economical package. This one is a Model MC1Z102SQ.
I cocooned the yellow wire in case it was every needed for a backuop light, with the decoder and much of the wiring being stuffable in the rear of the tender.
While we're on the topic of parts, here is a link to the Locodoc Mashima motor page:
http://roundbell.com/MashimaCanMotors.html
Mashima was one of the companies affected several years back by a cutoff of export of certain rare earth resources by China, which were used in making the magnets Mashima used. Locodoc stocked up on these motors and can also supply custom flywheels to suit your application, as well as offer sage advice on improving loco performance. The flywheels just slides onto a friction fit on the driveshaft that's good enough to run as it is. He's not fast, but he's good.
I want to comment on my soldering. There's some sketchy stuff in various places. It will all be hidden, so not too concerned. I did a good job on the farme I added, but just couldn't get it soldered to the front bolster like I planned. The other end was held with epoxy because you couldn't reach it with the solder tip. I eneded up epoxying the front end, too. The main thing you want to avoid is spontaneous disassembly, which can happen if you get things hot enough in the right places. Just remember that epoxy won't provide you an electrical connection if that is needed.
Next was a test fit for the motor and flywheel. Testing fitting is good guidance, so do it as frequently as possible.
Then I cut a big hole in the top of the tender - Yikes!
After lots more cuttings filing and smoothing, the sheel fit well without intefering with the flywheel.
Next step was build a frame to hold the motor. Mine is shaped like a capital I with the top and bottom resting on the tender truck bolsters.
Some folks keep it simple and just use a spot of RTV to hold a motor in place. I considered doing that, but found I could use a piece of phosphor bronze sheet bent to form a U-shaped motor holder that made it easily removable.
The small bit of brass towards the left/back bottom of the circular motor mount is designed to tilt the motor and driveshaft downward towards the front of the loco. This tends to align it with the downward-sloping drive gear that the tender drive engages.
I picked up this tip and a lot of other useful info from the late Boone Morrision, who I had the pleasure of meeting in person over dinner with others from the old HOn3 Yahoo group at the 1998 (IIRC) Colorado Springs National Narrow Gauge Convention. His series "Route to the Redwoods: The HOn3 North Coast Narrow Gauge Line and Its Subsidiary, the Buckhorn Logging Co." [now that's a title and a half!] ran in the Narrow Gauge and Short Line Gazette begining in 1997 for a number of years. Specifically, he begins discussing such tender drive conversions starting in the Sept./Oct 1998 issue and continued the discussion in Part 11 in the next issue. He relied on old Far East Distibutors 4-4-0s for the majority of his motive power needs.
Eventually, Boone discussed how he changed from using the typical silicone tubing flex drive to the loco over to using a much more discrete spring wire for this driveshaft. This may have been discussed in the HOn3 group, rather than in a published article, as I haven't located that info yet. For now, I simply replaced the existing silicone with new after I created an adapter to enlarge the motor drivehsaft from a couple of piecess of tubing that were carefully ACCed to the shaft.
I introduced my remotored Gem Models HOn3 New berlin & Winfield 2-6-9 in this weeks Weekend Photo Fun, but I wanted to treat the conversion a little more in-depth since I took quite a few pics along the way. I'll start with a recent video taken once what I now cakl Silverton RR #7 got it's chip and paint, but before I added wipers to improve performance,
New Berlin & Winfield HOn3 Remotored Mogul IMG_3522 from Mike Lehman on Vimeo.
With some research, you can find older brass locos, particualrly tender-drive ones, at fairly reasonable price nowadays. While the price reflects the fact that they don't have all the modern features many consumers now expect, these types of loco models are pretty easy conversions and DCC is easy to update them with. Sound can be more of a challenge, largely because of the limited space available in a tender-drive loco. This little Mogul may yet get sound, but for know it's just gear noise.
Here's what you'll have once the tender frame is stripped down.
The L-shaped upright bracket formerly held the 5-pole old school motor that originally powered this loco. I left it in place, because it was useful for me. It's just soldered on, so can be removed if that works better for you.