Entry posted by Fen End Pit
1,135 views
After thinking about this for sometime i had a rummage through the bits box and found an old Exactoscale 2:1 reduction box. I'd already thought that the 36:1 gearbox might be a bit low geared given the size of the wheels and DonW's comment on putting a spur gear drive to take the shaft to a more convenient height seemed sensible too.
The Exactoscale box took a bit of work to get back up a reasonable state, but fits nicely between the frames of the tender chassis. I've also modified the chassis to take some decent 2mm horn blocks rather than just a tiny etch piece as per the kit. At the first attempt this was all terrible noisy but this was tracked down to the rather old Gaugemaster feedback controller which seemed to dislike a number of Mashima motors I tried, when we swapped the controller things grumbled much less. There is room at the back for a flywheel which I'll fit later.
Moving on to the loco the gearbox needed some kit of mechanism to control the rotary movement which comes with the torque applied to the axle. Obviously any tendency to rotate will mean that the universal joints will move vertically and probably rub on the bodywork. I found a bit of scrap etch and sawed a slot in it wide enough to take a small L shaped length of wire stuck onto the gear box. This allows the gearbox to continue to float vertically but not to rotate.
Putting the tender and loco together and running for the trailing wires meant we were able to watch the loco move along the table last night! In a furious bout of maths we calculated the top speed of about 50mph. Probably a little on the low side, but then Empire Basis is on a pretty tight curve! The universal joint is formed from polypropylene tube that I had from a Bill Bedford DMU chassis.
Today saw a trip to Trains4U in Peterborough (thoroughly recommended - nice people, decent stock etc..) and the purchase of a TCS decoder. Next step is some pickups on the tender and something to connect the tender and loco together other than the universal joint!
On a completely different topic I was very pleased with the way the pictures of my Simplex came out in N&IRMR!
David
-
1
1 Comment
Recommended Comments
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now