Londontram

Can anybody tell me where I might be able to get very small coil springs of the size you get in 3 link coupling sets - that sort of size or even smaller. I've searched google and ebay with no results so any suggestions would be helpfull Thankyou for any help you can give Steve

What about these boxes you see people carry snooker cue in, there about that long with a full length hinged lid you just need to see if you can get one deep enough!

I got one of these sets a few years back and get on very well with it the open slot in the punch lets you carefully push out any disks made in card or plasticard. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/6-x-HOLLOW-PUNCH-Belt-Leather-Hole-Gasket-Card-Wad-Material-Circle-Cutting-Tool-/283499028618?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l6249&mkrid=710-127635-2958-0

Hello Simon There is a dedecated London underground section on RMweb who might be able to help you with your wheel question but it might be worth looking and asking on the Tram section and checking out some of the Tram suppliers as 9mm I believe is a fairly common size on some Tram models. Hope this helps Steve

No not me I'm afraid I've just been insired as you say by previous Trolleybus layouts but as you can tell by the name and avitar I've long held an interest in public service street vehicles especially in London.

Just to add a little bit heres something I'm playing around with which is an N20 driving a in this case a Corgi Q class London Trolleybus axle via plastic Bevel gears. The second axle has had its up and down movement extended and runs by friction on the road surface so all the Trolleybuses weight is sat on the driven axle. The Trolleybus will pick up the power from the overhead and be steered by an adaption of the Faller road systems. This was the lowest geared N20 and although the steering is yet to be done the bus runs up and down the work bench quite happily with the weight of the die cast body fitted. I did have some video of it running but its telling me the file size is to large to down load but its very quiet in operation.

Can I ask you kind people what you think is a comfortable turning circle radius for trams fitted with Bec type Motor bogies. A typical first radius curve has an approximate 38cm diameter would it be feasible to bring this down to say 20cm to 30cm what are you thoughts and experiences. Thank you Steve

If you have cut the web's between the sleepers I believe those wooden coffee stirring sticks give about the right gap so every time I take the kids to a fast food burger place or get a coffee I grab a handfull of them. When cut in half you have enough to do a substantial length of track in one go and you can see if the sleepers are straight and in line before your favored method of fixing sets.

Bec still make there later type tram bogies with the mabuchi motor in each bogies and the press stud mounting. There available in either equal wheel (all axles 9mm wheels as fitted to the HR2 type London Trams) or the maximum traction bogies with one axle with 9mm and one with 7mm wheels as fitted to the E1 or E3 cars. No connection just a satisfied customer

Oh great guru's of far greater knowledge than me can any one recognise this tiny motor that's come out a very old Bec tram kit. There in a bit of a state but seem to turn by hand free enough and the corrosion is mainly on the outer frame. Unfortunately they've lost all but one of the carbon brushes but I'd like to get some to see if the motors are any good as there nicely matched to the white metal bogies. So do you know the motor make and does any body know where I can get brushes for it? Here's a couple of photos in the first zoomed in and in the second along side two possible options if they can't be saved. A Mitsumi (middle) and an N20 (top) this will help to give you the relative size. Thanks for any help Steve

Ok I know it's not railway but it's sort of on the fringe of LT modelling. Simple question I want to motorise two or three of the Corgi Q1 trolley buses using a Faller style steering set up but powered off the overhead but I've got stuck at the first hurdle. Does any one know how to take the Corgi Q1 model apart I've drilled out the rivet under the rear platform but it won't budge, I can see looking through the glazing two chrome pins running top to bottom but can see no sign on the base plate or roof to suggest how/if they help hold it together. So sorry if it's a bit off topic but just wondering being LT someone might have come across this before. Thanks Steve

That's got a lovely balance to it Sophia it just looks so right can't wait to see it painted. Steve

Thanks Andy bloody well done we appreciate all the hard work you must have put into it. Steve

Thanks chaps there's some cracking ideas to explore on here and it's going to take me a while to think things through. I've ordered a Faller front axle of that auction site its one for a Faller 7.5 ton truck so must be somewhere near the buses axle but like Red Devil I'll clone this and make the rest my self. I had thought of the torque wind up on the axle and had gone back to a single axle drive and with a small simple circuit (this is only a side project my main one is my Scottish 1900 model which is on a shelf around the room. This will only be a table top model with a basic road plan with left turn then a second left then a right turning circle then two rights to take it back off scene so 1) its only short and 2) the directions of the turn cancel each other out. I was only interested in the RC for the bus as the Trolley buses will be controlled by a standard controller and will only be one trolley bus running at a time so won't need complicated electronics to move lots of vehicles simultaneously. I actually want the Trolly buses to work off the over head rather than it be just for show which is why I'm not considering the Faller drive for all of them just a single bus that's not connected to the overhead. Anyway all fun and games. Here's the victims of my intended butchery lined up ready the only other addition will be the Corgi Diddler Trolly bus of which I have one on order Ding Ding any more fairs please - move on down the bus, plenty of room up stairs, all change! The Diddler - still in the post Thanks again for all the help and ideas. Steve

I believe it might be about 3v but I don't know much about the Faller motor because to keep costs down I am building the first test Trolley bus with a small Mitsumi motor fitted with a fly wheel driving through 11mm plastic bevel gears onto the front of the two rear axles the second axle will just float and be turned by friction. No doubt just using the Faller system might be easier but it's not prototypical and having previously built Tram overhead I'm rather enjoying the challenge but the Trolley buses are not the issue I'm looking if a simple RC speed control can be fitted to a Faller vehicle. Is there a small RC toy that the speed control gear can be lifted off? The Faller system does use a steel wire set into the road and on a tutorial on YouTube shows a chap who built a simple set of points by making a pizza shaped wedge in ply and set an old hacksaw blade into it held by a screw under the base board at the pointed end so it can swing from side to side to line up the blade on the wedge with one or another of the continuing wires. Some times the simple solutions work best. All great fun and the problem solving is a major part of the enjoyment for me.

See this is all new to me I'm an old school DC annalog man but where as the Trolley as such don't present to much of a major problem as the two wires work in the same way as the rails do and the Faller system for steering is well proven technology. But RC is all another level for me an evil a very old set in his ways dog and any new tricks need to be fairly basic and simple. I'm also not looking at a large number of RC buses as its only going to be a small 3ft x 18 inches table top experiment so more than likely just the one or two max.

A restricted location doesn't seemed to have stopped Bachmann from producing the Caledonian 812 class also seem mainly in Scotland but one would think not as well spread into the eastern regions than the 2-10-0 might have been.

The title says it all I'm looking at going back to my London transport modeling roots but not trams as before but Trolley buses. Basically they will be guided by the Faller hidden wire system but powered by the overhead instead of the Faller internal rechargeable batterys. But with the trolley buses it might be interesting to have the odd diesel bus running too these would share the same hidden wire for there steering. The trouble is when ever I've seen Faller vehicles at show they all travel at unrealistically high speeds and stop and start in about 1 second flat. So is there a way a real electrical technphobe like me could add a simple stop start speed radio control to a Faller chassis? One advantage is being a double decker bus theres a fair amount of room to work with. Any help and advice would be gratefully excepted Thanks Steve OO scale bus and trolley bus together, these Corgi models would be the bases for the conversions.

There's at least 4 livery options WD green WD blue BR early cycling lion BR late lion and dart board It would be a very popular loco as could be seen all over during its working life.

I am going to think about a permanent live switchable frog on the over head and go for a fly wheel as well. Do you or anybody knows of any one who does fly wheels

There is room for a nose suspended motor with enough room for fly wheel up to 15mm by changing to a different motor like the Mitsumi as seen in the picture here laid roughly where it would go in relation to the body. Suspending the motor means I would also be able to drive both axles but there's no gear box. Having no experiance with fly wheels how far would a fly wheel be expected to move a vehicle of this size and weight - I'm looking at 3 or 4 mm max, would that be a feasible amount to expect. The other thought would be to have the frog totally live and isolated with a switch to change the polarity. Would welcome your views and any ideas please chaps

Thank you Russ I'd thought that about DCC and there's an on going thread on there about it with the same question. Well you could fit a fly wheel but not with that motor gearbox option as there's no secondary shaft but there's enough room for a bigger motor if needs be. It's only got to bridge a 2mm gap 3mm at most not keep running for 4 or 5 inches. The drawing below shows the problem points that would need bridging

I should have said it's for a proposed Trolly bus layout, the busses would be steered by the Faller road system but instead of using the Faller motors and rechargeable batterys I'd like to power it off the overhead in prototypical fashion that way you don't get the Faller 0 to 60 one second starts and the same with the stops along with the fixed top speed. Building the over head is no problem as I'm a Tram modeller of old but with just the single trolley pole pick up for both wires it would stall on the slightest gap in the over head wire which would be the frogs on points. With a loco there's usually at least two or more sets of wheels providing pick up points so they can "bridge" the gap but the trolley boom hasn't got that option. As there buses they will only be running forward and no situation built into the layout that will require any reversing. The buses will be the Corge London Q type Trolly bus as seen in these photos fitted with one of the motors shown with bevel gears as seen here with hand built Trolly booms with the components also seen here. I've ordered a spare Faller front axle but for future vehicles will most likely clone it. As you can see from the photos there's absolutely loads of room for and electronic gubbins

Can you get a small single one directional stay alive unit for 12V DC just to stop stallingn on point frogs or just any bad pick up spots, something that gives a couple of seconds? Thanks for any help and advice Steve

All food for thought thank you I shall reread it a few times to get my head round it and look into it further