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Oh, what's nice about those Kato trucks I mentioned is that the worm and universal coupling is integral with the truck. So all you need to do is run a driveshaft from the truck to the motor (and the drive shaft might be included with bot types of truck).
Track power or trolley wire?DCC?What are the appoximate inside dimensions?I have what I think is a TM-04....but is the Chinese made version that comes marked KD-25. At any rate, whatever I have measures 3.635" (max length)(92.32mm) could be cut down to about 3.375 without hitting a moving part. Width across the frame is 0.616" (12.65mm)and across the motor mount above the frame is 0.535"(13.57mm). Only one truck is powered. No gear tower to speak of. But given how low the ends are on those little electrics, I can see that it might not fit.I was under the impression that there was a newer Tomix chassis out there of approximately the same size, with both trucks geared.
Might be able to chop this one down to length:https://www.ebay.com/itm/Tommy-Tech-Jiokore-railroad-collection-power-unit-15m-Class-A2-TM19-diorama-supp/193557481594This probably won't work, but there are tons of them available:https://www.ebay.com/itm/Kato-Power-Unit-11-107-for-Small-Train-Commuter-Train-2-N-Gauge-B-train-shorty/273908937979These are plentiful, very low profile, but would need to be shortened:https://www.ebay.com/itm/Tomix-Geocore-Railway-Collection-Power-Unit-19-m-Class-A-TM-12-R/333432093781https://www.ebay.com/itm/Greenmax-No-5713-Coreless-Powered-Motorized-Chassis-18m-Class-N-scale/363000982541More thought food:https://www.ebay.com/itm/Tomytec-TM-ED02-Powered-Motorized-Chassis-N-scale/383619658523
I have a few Peter Witt cars, I had thought about that but the wheels are too small, (the real ones were 36') and they are the wrong truck wheelbase. If I feel the absolute need to make them move I will exercise that option.
I don't know about the street cars, but a lot of the newer Bachmann tracks are interchangeable. The B23-2 and H-16-44 can swap and I think they are compatible with the RS3, GP7, GP40 and others.Would the S4 or NW2 truck fit on the street car?
Rokuhan Z scale shorty mechanism with regauged wheelsets?
Having played with Nn3 for a while, and having converted the Rokuhan SSA's to Climax Nn3 drives, the wheels on those have extremely narrow treads and a near-vertical flange. They are a miniature Kato 11-105 on the trucks (end axle pickups and proper pickup ears), but the worm is not a tower design, pivots at the worm. It's extremely difficult to redesign the drive for a different motor, I designed a conversion frame system to do it for my Climax kits. The stock drive is just rocket fast, and you have to have a special throttle to control the original chassis. I designed my kit to take a 25:1 gearhead, video out on YouTube.Possible but a solid 10 on the difficulty scale, took me about a year to perfect the frame redesign suitable for a kit.The Tomytec parts are easy to work with and modify, and with a truck-mounted worm, you can put any motor to it. Turning the flanges is easy. If you're looking for either a 12mm or 14mm wheelbase on the trucks, it's hard to beat. If you want a 5'6" wheelbase and 27" wheels, use the Kato 11-105 truck. Changing sideframes on the Tomytec is easy, separate part. Kato requires an overlay on a thinned frame.The secret to both of these is that the worm is part of the truck, so you're not messing with that tolerance. That's critical for something that has to negotiate relatively tight curves. Both Kato and Tomytec use these as tram mechanisms. I like the Kato RDC/NW2 design too, as that worm shaft is really, really low in respect to the frame height.