As fun as it is to watch an industrial switcher go 400 MPH, I thought I'd try my hand at making it useful at something a little more mundane, say, switching.
I tried the Ernst gears but didn't like it. (long time ago, can't remember why). Having seen a setup on this forum where the worms were put on a motor and then driving the axle gears, I liked that idea. Well I tried the Ernst worms on a Sagami can and Athearn axle gears, it was rather rough and noisy. Then I got to wondering if them good ol' slippery Atlas loco gears could work? Ever heard gear noise out of an Atlas?
That's gonna take some doing, long story short, Atlas gears were bored out and mounted on axles made from acetal (Delrin, available at plastics supply houses). I used a Sherline lathe to turn and bore the axles.
Oops! I blew some tubes down at Photobucket AGAIN trying to load multiple pictures. Am I the only one or is it getting extremely difficult for everyone?
OK Got it back...Heres an early shot. Note them red gears. Also note the Ernst flywheels, tapered to fit at this point.
Bearings in hustler frame were sloppy, so new ones were turned. (This project was greatly aided by a Sherline lathe and vertical mill) More room was needed for bigger flywheels, so the ends of the inside of the frame were milled out a full 1/8 inch on both ends. I turned as large of flywheels as could be fit in there from brass.The diff between these and the originals is dramatic. Close tollerances, but nothing touches that shouldn't. The mechanism runs smoothly enough at this point. The motor is held in by applying 2 layers of mounting tape to each side. It wedges in there just right. Then regular old Scotch tape laid over the whole top keeps it from sliding fore or aft. The motor can still shift upward at this point, more on that in a bit. Everything assembled, still pretty light. Fill 'em full of lead! A stack of sheet lead weights were carefully cut and fit and GOOed together. Note weight on the scale. After considerable fitting and recutting for all internal clearances, the stack was ready to install. See that little strip of mounting tape on the lead weight? That keeps pressure on the motor to hold it down in the frame, and keeps the lead weight tight up in the shell. It's removable still too. Final weight: Just over 12 oz. Three Quarters of a pound! My obsession with weight isn't necessarily about traction. It's about current pick up. And it works. However, traction is obviously aided by all that expired uranium. It has no problem hauling this 18 car test train around the layout. I didn't feel like seeing how many more it will pull, it moved this much with all authority. And SMOOTH!!!! Nice and SLOW. Oh it can still break all reasonable speed limits, (not like before!) but the main point is it can do it's real intended job now, without stalling or jerking around. (I use all powered frogs, this helps the critters) It's in the long line of paint projects, but I look forward to running it in regular service before and after that. One final note: Kadee Whiskers and their boxes were used, cuz you can cut off the draft gear boxes just past the pivot for a shorter box. That's gonna be handy in tight spaced locomotives. Dan
Bearings in hustler frame were sloppy, so new ones were turned. (This project was greatly aided by a Sherline lathe and vertical mill)
More room was needed for bigger flywheels, so the ends of the inside of the frame were milled out a full 1/8 inch on both ends. I turned as large of flywheels as could be fit in there from brass.The diff between these and the originals is dramatic. Close tollerances, but nothing touches that shouldn't. The mechanism runs smoothly enough at this point. The motor is held in by applying 2 layers of mounting tape to each side. It wedges in there just right. Then regular old Scotch tape laid over the whole top keeps it from sliding fore or aft. The motor can still shift upward at this point, more on that in a bit. Everything assembled, still pretty light. Fill 'em full of lead! A stack of sheet lead weights were carefully cut and fit and GOOed together. Note weight on the scale. After considerable fitting and recutting for all internal clearances, the stack was ready to install. See that little strip of mounting tape on the lead weight? That keeps pressure on the motor to hold it down in the frame, and keeps the lead weight tight up in the shell. It's removable still too. Final weight: Just over 12 oz. Three Quarters of a pound! My obsession with weight isn't necessarily about traction. It's about current pick up. And it works. However, traction is obviously aided by all that expired uranium. It has no problem hauling this 18 car test train around the layout. I didn't feel like seeing how many more it will pull, it moved this much with all authority. And SMOOTH!!!! Nice and SLOW. Oh it can still break all reasonable speed limits, (not like before!) but the main point is it can do it's real intended job now, without stalling or jerking around. (I use all powered frogs, this helps the critters) It's in the long line of paint projects, but I look forward to running it in regular service before and after that. One final note: Kadee Whiskers and their boxes were used, cuz you can cut off the draft gear boxes just past the pivot for a shorter box. That's gonna be handy in tight spaced locomotives. Dan
More room was needed for bigger flywheels, so the ends of the inside of the frame were milled out a full 1/8 inch on both ends.
I turned as large of flywheels as could be fit in there from brass.The diff between these and the originals is dramatic. Close tollerances, but nothing touches that shouldn't. The mechanism runs smoothly enough at this point. The motor is held in by applying 2 layers of mounting tape to each side. It wedges in there just right. Then regular old Scotch tape laid over the whole top keeps it from sliding fore or aft. The motor can still shift upward at this point, more on that in a bit. Everything assembled, still pretty light. Fill 'em full of lead! A stack of sheet lead weights were carefully cut and fit and GOOed together. Note weight on the scale. After considerable fitting and recutting for all internal clearances, the stack was ready to install. See that little strip of mounting tape on the lead weight? That keeps pressure on the motor to hold it down in the frame, and keeps the lead weight tight up in the shell. It's removable still too. Final weight: Just over 12 oz. Three Quarters of a pound! My obsession with weight isn't necessarily about traction. It's about current pick up. And it works. However, traction is obviously aided by all that expired uranium. It has no problem hauling this 18 car test train around the layout. I didn't feel like seeing how many more it will pull, it moved this much with all authority. And SMOOTH!!!! Nice and SLOW. Oh it can still break all reasonable speed limits, (not like before!) but the main point is it can do it's real intended job now, without stalling or jerking around. (I use all powered frogs, this helps the critters) It's in the long line of paint projects, but I look forward to running it in regular service before and after that. One final note: Kadee Whiskers and their boxes were used, cuz you can cut off the draft gear boxes just past the pivot for a shorter box. That's gonna be handy in tight spaced locomotives. Dan
I turned as large of flywheels as could be fit in there from brass.The diff between these and the originals is dramatic.
Close tollerances, but nothing touches that shouldn't. The mechanism runs smoothly enough at this point. The motor is held in by applying 2 layers of mounting tape to each side. It wedges in there just right. Then regular old Scotch tape laid over the whole top keeps it from sliding fore or aft. The motor can still shift upward at this point, more on that in a bit. Everything assembled, still pretty light. Fill 'em full of lead! A stack of sheet lead weights were carefully cut and fit and GOOed together. Note weight on the scale. After considerable fitting and recutting for all internal clearances, the stack was ready to install. See that little strip of mounting tape on the lead weight? That keeps pressure on the motor to hold it down in the frame, and keeps the lead weight tight up in the shell. It's removable still too. Final weight: Just over 12 oz. Three Quarters of a pound! My obsession with weight isn't necessarily about traction. It's about current pick up. And it works. However, traction is obviously aided by all that expired uranium. It has no problem hauling this 18 car test train around the layout. I didn't feel like seeing how many more it will pull, it moved this much with all authority. And SMOOTH!!!! Nice and SLOW. Oh it can still break all reasonable speed limits, (not like before!) but the main point is it can do it's real intended job now, without stalling or jerking around. (I use all powered frogs, this helps the critters) It's in the long line of paint projects, but I look forward to running it in regular service before and after that. One final note: Kadee Whiskers and their boxes were used, cuz you can cut off the draft gear boxes just past the pivot for a shorter box. That's gonna be handy in tight spaced locomotives. Dan
Close tollerances, but nothing touches that shouldn't.
The mechanism runs smoothly enough at this point. The motor is held in by applying 2 layers of mounting tape to each side. It wedges in there just right. Then regular old Scotch tape laid over the whole top keeps it from sliding fore or aft. The motor can still shift upward at this point, more on that in a bit. Everything assembled, still pretty light. Fill 'em full of lead! A stack of sheet lead weights were carefully cut and fit and GOOed together. Note weight on the scale. After considerable fitting and recutting for all internal clearances, the stack was ready to install. See that little strip of mounting tape on the lead weight? That keeps pressure on the motor to hold it down in the frame, and keeps the lead weight tight up in the shell. It's removable still too. Final weight: Just over 12 oz. Three Quarters of a pound! My obsession with weight isn't necessarily about traction. It's about current pick up. And it works. However, traction is obviously aided by all that expired uranium. It has no problem hauling this 18 car test train around the layout. I didn't feel like seeing how many more it will pull, it moved this much with all authority. And SMOOTH!!!! Nice and SLOW. Oh it can still break all reasonable speed limits, (not like before!) but the main point is it can do it's real intended job now, without stalling or jerking around. (I use all powered frogs, this helps the critters) It's in the long line of paint projects, but I look forward to running it in regular service before and after that. One final note: Kadee Whiskers and their boxes were used, cuz you can cut off the draft gear boxes just past the pivot for a shorter box. That's gonna be handy in tight spaced locomotives. Dan
The mechanism runs smoothly enough at this point. The motor is held in by applying 2 layers of mounting tape to each side. It wedges in there just right. Then regular old Scotch tape laid over the whole top keeps it from sliding fore or aft. The motor can still shift upward at this point, more on that in a bit.
Everything assembled, still pretty light. Fill 'em full of lead! A stack of sheet lead weights were carefully cut and fit and GOOed together. Note weight on the scale. After considerable fitting and recutting for all internal clearances, the stack was ready to install. See that little strip of mounting tape on the lead weight? That keeps pressure on the motor to hold it down in the frame, and keeps the lead weight tight up in the shell. It's removable still too. Final weight: Just over 12 oz. Three Quarters of a pound! My obsession with weight isn't necessarily about traction. It's about current pick up. And it works. However, traction is obviously aided by all that expired uranium. It has no problem hauling this 18 car test train around the layout. I didn't feel like seeing how many more it will pull, it moved this much with all authority. And SMOOTH!!!! Nice and SLOW. Oh it can still break all reasonable speed limits, (not like before!) but the main point is it can do it's real intended job now, without stalling or jerking around. (I use all powered frogs, this helps the critters) It's in the long line of paint projects, but I look forward to running it in regular service before and after that. One final note: Kadee Whiskers and their boxes were used, cuz you can cut off the draft gear boxes just past the pivot for a shorter box. That's gonna be handy in tight spaced locomotives. Dan
Everything assembled, still pretty light.
Fill 'em full of lead! A stack of sheet lead weights were carefully cut and fit and GOOed together. Note weight on the scale. After considerable fitting and recutting for all internal clearances, the stack was ready to install. See that little strip of mounting tape on the lead weight? That keeps pressure on the motor to hold it down in the frame, and keeps the lead weight tight up in the shell. It's removable still too. Final weight: Just over 12 oz. Three Quarters of a pound! My obsession with weight isn't necessarily about traction. It's about current pick up. And it works. However, traction is obviously aided by all that expired uranium. It has no problem hauling this 18 car test train around the layout. I didn't feel like seeing how many more it will pull, it moved this much with all authority. And SMOOTH!!!! Nice and SLOW. Oh it can still break all reasonable speed limits, (not like before!) but the main point is it can do it's real intended job now, without stalling or jerking around. (I use all powered frogs, this helps the critters) It's in the long line of paint projects, but I look forward to running it in regular service before and after that. One final note: Kadee Whiskers and their boxes were used, cuz you can cut off the draft gear boxes just past the pivot for a shorter box. That's gonna be handy in tight spaced locomotives. Dan
Fill 'em full of lead!
A stack of sheet lead weights were carefully cut and fit and GOOed together. Note weight on the scale.
After considerable fitting and recutting for all internal clearances, the stack was ready to install. See that little strip of mounting tape on the lead weight? That keeps pressure on the motor to hold it down in the frame, and keeps the lead weight tight up in the shell. It's removable still too. Final weight: Just over 12 oz. Three Quarters of a pound! My obsession with weight isn't necessarily about traction. It's about current pick up. And it works. However, traction is obviously aided by all that expired uranium. It has no problem hauling this 18 car test train around the layout. I didn't feel like seeing how many more it will pull, it moved this much with all authority. And SMOOTH!!!! Nice and SLOW. Oh it can still break all reasonable speed limits, (not like before!) but the main point is it can do it's real intended job now, without stalling or jerking around. (I use all powered frogs, this helps the critters) It's in the long line of paint projects, but I look forward to running it in regular service before and after that. One final note: Kadee Whiskers and their boxes were used, cuz you can cut off the draft gear boxes just past the pivot for a shorter box. That's gonna be handy in tight spaced locomotives. Dan
After considerable fitting and recutting for all internal clearances, the stack was ready to install. See that little strip of mounting tape on the lead weight? That keeps pressure on the motor to hold it down in the frame, and keeps the lead weight tight up in the shell. It's removable still too.
Final weight: Just over 12 oz. Three Quarters of a pound! My obsession with weight isn't necessarily about traction. It's about current pick up. And it works. However, traction is obviously aided by all that expired uranium. It has no problem hauling this 18 car test train around the layout. I didn't feel like seeing how many more it will pull, it moved this much with all authority. And SMOOTH!!!! Nice and SLOW. Oh it can still break all reasonable speed limits, (not like before!) but the main point is it can do it's real intended job now, without stalling or jerking around. (I use all powered frogs, this helps the critters) It's in the long line of paint projects, but I look forward to running it in regular service before and after that. One final note: Kadee Whiskers and their boxes were used, cuz you can cut off the draft gear boxes just past the pivot for a shorter box. That's gonna be handy in tight spaced locomotives. Dan
Final weight: Just over 12 oz. Three Quarters of a pound!
My obsession with weight isn't necessarily about traction. It's about current pick up. And it works. However, traction is obviously aided by all that expired uranium. It has no problem hauling this 18 car test train around the layout. I didn't feel like seeing how many more it will pull, it moved this much with all authority. And SMOOTH!!!! Nice and SLOW. Oh it can still break all reasonable speed limits, (not like before!) but the main point is it can do it's real intended job now, without stalling or jerking around. (I use all powered frogs, this helps the critters) It's in the long line of paint projects, but I look forward to running it in regular service before and after that. One final note: Kadee Whiskers and their boxes were used, cuz you can cut off the draft gear boxes just past the pivot for a shorter box. That's gonna be handy in tight spaced locomotives. Dan
My obsession with weight isn't necessarily about traction. It's about current pick up. And it works. However, traction is obviously aided by all that expired uranium. It has no problem hauling this 18 car test train around the layout. I didn't feel like seeing how many more it will pull, it moved this much with all authority. And SMOOTH!!!! Nice and SLOW.
Oh it can still break all reasonable speed limits, (not like before!) but the main point is it can do it's real intended job now, without stalling or jerking around. (I use all powered frogs, this helps the critters) It's in the long line of paint projects, but I look forward to running it in regular service before and after that. One final note: Kadee Whiskers and their boxes were used, cuz you can cut off the draft gear boxes just past the pivot for a shorter box. That's gonna be handy in tight spaced locomotives. Dan
Oh it can still break all reasonable speed limits, (not like before!) but the main point is it can do it's real intended job now, without stalling or jerking around. (I use all powered frogs, this helps the critters) It's in the long line of paint projects, but I look forward to running it in regular service before and after that.
One final note: Kadee Whiskers and their boxes were used, cuz you can cut off the draft gear boxes just past the pivot for a shorter box. That's gonna be handy in tight spaced locomotives. Dan
Cheers, the Bear.
"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."
Awesome Job!
Karl
NCE über alles!
I still have fond memories of my little Athern Hustler from the 60's scooting around the layout. I do believe it could go faster than any HO loco ever made. 0-60 in 0.4 seconds. In the right hands, remotored and with the right custom rubber band, it could probably reach orbital escape velocity!
Nice work on the rework! You crippled a real Cheeta.
Richard
If I can't fix it, I can fix it so it can't be fixed
The proverbial Silk Purse out of a Sow's Ear.
Now, About this Keystone Shay kit I have....
Have fun with your trains
Think of all the money we (taxpayers) could save if Amtrak had one of those to pull it's fast commuter trains!
Cedarwoodron
Have you thought of making more flywheels a nd stuff and selling them as an upgrade kit? We don't all have lathes, you know.
Dave
Just be glad you don't have to press "2" for English.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQ_ALEdDUB8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hqFS1GZL4s
http://s73.photobucket.com/user/steemtrayn/media/MovingcoalontheDCM.mp4.html?sort=3&o=27
Thanks for the comments!
JaBear, This is easy stuff compared to Darth's work. I dare not compare myself to him!
Dave, Making flywheels can be kinda tricky, almost like one off work sometimes. Ya gotta have the shaft you're fitting it on present, cuz being off by a couple 10 thousandths can make the diff between slipping and not going on the shaft. Or at least know exactly what size shaft you're working with. Sagami, Athearn, all those should be uniform enough to work with. Even on this project, I had to put the flywheels back on the lathe repeatedly to adjust them to final clearances. Especially to avoid interference with the loco's wheels. (Maybe I'm admitting my limitations here. Always a learning process.) Then some flywheels have different size input and output holes...Not a one size fits all thing.