Does not sound like a good idea to me. Have looked at a few PK 2 and new Bachmann with sound that have belt drive. Is it a gemmick belt like I have on my GMC 6-71 Supercharge with teeth? Or just a rubber band like the old Athearn?
Cuda Ken
I hate Rust
Kuda Ken,
The belt has square cogs on it, but not all the way across like the one driving that roots blower. If you have ever looked at prototype steam engines you will notice that there is nothing between the boiler and the chassis, such as a drive shaft and a worm and worm gear. There may be a few linkages, and the leaf springs above the chassis, but that is about it. It looks like a 62 Falcon with spring shackels in the back. Lots of air and not much else. This is especially evident on a engine with small drivers. The belt drive makes this visual cue that there is really an electric motor in the firebox that much less evident. I have a couple that have many smiles on them and have never had a problem with one. Replacement belts are available, and I did get spare ones just in case, because parts availability may be questionable. Not that think that they will be, but insurance is nice to have. I am guessing the belt is about 1/4" wide with the cog holes about 3/16 wide, and it is made out of some sort of nylon kind of stuff.
I believe the belt on your supercharger is a Gilmer not gemmick, although the normally aspirated crowd would probably call it a gimmick.
Jon
cudaken wrote: Does not sound like a good idea to me. Have looked at a few PK 2 and new Bachmann with sound that have belt drive. Is it a gemmick belt like I have on my GMC 6-71 Supercharge with teeth? Or just a rubber band like the old Athearn?
The "gimmick" that Bachmann's using on their drive belts is that they'll outlive your car! They're sattelite-grade drive servo belts.
Ray Breyer
Modeling the NKP's Peoria Division, circa 1943
From the far, far reaches of the wild, wild west I am: rtpoteet
R.T., if you look at the belt that goes to the top gear you will see theeth in the belt and gear. Keeps the belt from slipping.
Thanks for the answer folks, as normal you guys are great.
Cuda Ken, thinking about Mopar again.
cudaken wrote: R.T., if you look at the belt that goes to the top gear you will see theeth in the belt and gear. Keeps the belt from slipping. Thanks for the answer folks, as normal you guys are great. Cuda Ken, thinking about Mopar again.
cudaken wrote:Does not sound like a good idea to me. Have looked at a few PK 2 and new Bachmann with sound that have belt drive. Is it a gemmick belt like I have on my GMC 6-71 Supercharge with teeth? Or just a rubber band like the old Athearn?
Like the other members have said, it is a cogged neoprene belt, similar to what's used by NASA. I've never heard of a belt failing in a Spectrum steamer, and the only things that would ever cause the belt to fail are oil and cutting tools. I have a Bachmann 2-8-0, and it is the quietest, smoothest running steam engine I own.
P.S. Nice car.
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R. T. POTEET wrote: cudaken wrote: R.T., if you look at the belt that goes to the top gear you will see theeth in the belt and gear. Keeps the belt from slipping. Thanks for the answer folks, as normal you guys are great. Cuda Ken, thinking about Mopar again. cudaken, I understand about belts and I understand about teeth and I understand about friction; one of the early computers on which I worked had a belt and pulley drum drive; this drum had to move in excess of two hundred and fifty thousand revolutions per hour; that is seventy revolutions per second. The diameter of that drum was approximately twenty six inches. The surface speed of that drum was very close to three hundred and twenty-five miles per hour. Not as fast as a bullet, perhaps, but definitely faster than your R/T.I am experiencing difficulty understanding the relationship between belts and Bachmann (steam) locomotives!!!
I think the main question was along the lines of "why is bachmann going BACK to belt-drives?!". Athearn used belt drives on old locos (OK, rubber bands) and they were really bad, and since the worm drives/gear towers are so good, it would appear that belt drives are a couple of steps backwards...
-Dan
Builder of Bowser steam! Railimages Site
Athearn used belt drives on old locos (OK, rubber bands) and they were really bad, and since the worm drives/gear towers are so good, it would appear that belt drives are a couple of steps backwards...
Athearn used rubber bands instead of gears. Very bad....
Bachmann used a cogged belt drive to elevate the worm shaft out of sight. Very good......
Distant and ancient memory is that Lindberg used a belt drive, using a metal tubular belt that looked sort of like a spring, in a pulley-like wheel, to power their SW switcher. Back in the day -- and I mean before my day -- lots of O gauge trolley and interurban cars used a belt drive mechanism, sometimes a chain and gear rather like a bicycle chain, so there would be no splip. I also recall someone coming out with similar chain and sprocket made of tough plastic. Sometimes in O scale one axle would be geared and the power transferred to the other axle by chain or belt.
Similarly distant and ancient memory is that someone wrote an article for MR about how to create a working booster unit in a tender (in HO) that used belt drive.
Dave Nelson
Ozone is lethal to many petroleum and rubber products. Your motor, being nearby, produces ozone as a result of its operation using electricity. So, your rubber, or petroleum derivative, belt is always in a somewhat hostile environment when your locomotive is performing. Also, as we most know, your drivers are arcing with the tracks from time-to-time, and the tiny sparks also produce copious quantities of ozone. It is no wonder that some belts succumb to the ozone at some point.
I believe it might be a wise idea to secure a small supply of them for one's favourite locos that use them. Even then, seal them away from oxygen, UV, and ozone.
selector wrote: Ozone is lethal to many petroleum and rubber products. Your motor, being nearby, produces ozone as a result of its operation using electricity. So, your rubber, or petroleum derivative, belt is always in a somewhat hostile environment when your locomotive is performing. Also, as we most know, your drivers are arcing with the tracks from time-to-time, and the tiny sparks also produce copious quantities of ozone. It is no wonder that some belts succumb to the ozone at some point.I believe it might be a wise idea to secure a small supply of them for one's favourite locos that use them. Even then, seal them away from oxygen, UV, and ozone.
I had read the belts can cause drive problems if they are stored for long periods of time without being rotated. I had purchased one of their models and was not happy with the running qualities of the belt drive and junked the model.
Some O scale models had sort of the same arrangement with a chain type of drive that really did work well.
Apropos of nothing, we have been changing out a lot of "silent chain" type drives at work in favor of timing belt drives. Quieter, wear less and create less wear, suck less power, and transmit less vibration to the bearings, resulting in longer trouble free drive train wear. I would think the benefits would be the same with 0.0001 horsepower motors like our models or 100 horsepower units like at work. I suspect a lot of our old brush motors generate a lot of ozone too, but it does not appear to be eating our timing belts. Gotta plug that hole over Antarctica don't you know.
Feel free to prefer the old gear towers, but don't try to make out like there is something inherently wrong with these belt drives.
As my Spectrum 2-8-0s are quickly closing in on their tenth anniversery on my layout, the only failure having to do with the belt drive even remotely, occured when I noticed the pulling power of one of the units seemed to suddenly drop off considerably.
running light no problems, but pulling load, would stop at bottom of the grade.
I thought to myself, it's that *** belt drive is slipping!, I wonder how much that's going to cost to fix!!
opened the loco and the belt was perfect, the glue for the flywheel had let go, and under load the motor shaft was slipping inside the flywheel.
a little stupid glue on the shaft and right back into service, no further problems.
Thanks for the answers folks. Guess I take a try with the new Bachmann's with sound.
As far as the hard drive being faster than my Charger, OK 325 MPH is fast. But can the hard drive rip the rear tires in 3rd gear at 30 MPH?
cudaken wrote: Thanks for the answers folks. Guess I take a try with the new Bachmann's with sound. As far as the hard drive being faster than my Charger, OK 325 MPH is fast. But can the hard drive rip the rear tires in 3rd gear at 30 MPH? Cuda Ken