Mid (19th) Century Models on Shapeways

[Specter3]

Could you include the first coach in the “ lashup” and run some small wire forward over a permanently attached (drawbar?) connection? Gives you two more axles.

[mmagliaro]

I'm thinking that as long as all the wheels are live, you've got 4 wheels live on each side, which should enough as long as it slugged with weight as much as possible.  I watched some review videos of the Hornby HO version.  While their model is gorgeous, it only weighs about 48 grams, which is really REALLY light for an HO (er, "OO") version.

The wheels, to me, are still going to be the big issue here.  Rehashed drivers and wheelsets that just happen to be the right diameter will never do.

[peteski]

I'm pretty sure they mean a coreless motor when they say "bell shaped"... If you think of the shape of a coreless motor's armature, it's like a cup, and is also sometimes called a bell.

Yes,   German translation of what we call "coreless" is "bell shaped" in the motor description.  I see that often in German -> English translations of model's features. (like on DM-Toys website).

[fcnrwy23]

It kills me to see it all running on code 180 rail!

Someone ship that guy a bundle of ME Code 40.

Wouldn't that be "slab of iron" on a wooden rail...??
Forgot what they called it...

Jerry G.

[ncbqguy]

Strap rail. Original stretch of the Galena & Chicago Union, (C&NW), Aurora Branch (CB&Q) and many other railroads.
CB&Q was relaid with %u201CWinslow%u2019s Compound Rail%u201D which was split down the center T Rail bolted together offset to create essentially
continuous rail.  Being Iron, wore like crazy, expanded and kinked breaking the bolts, was soon replaced with conventional T Rail with joints.  Iron rail lasted maybe a couple of years before having to be rerolled and relaid.  Steel solved the problem.
Charlie Vlk

[brokemoto]

Depending on the size, perhaps this could be a basis for bashing a late nineteenth century pumper:






I did this several years past using a steam donkey, toy wheels and a chassis of something that I cut up/cut down.  The horsies are either B-mann or Preiser, or maybe even MP.  I forget.

[mmagliaro]

I've got several options going at once on the wheels - a combination of available N Scale commercial wagon wheels and some Shapeways products where I requested a different configuration (radius, number of spokes, materials, and so on). 

That "Rocket" boiler arrived here yesterday.  Hoo boy.  This thing is small and pretty nicely done, considering all the detail has to be done in a single part.  Putting the motor in the boiler will require a 4mm diameter, 8mm  long motor.  That would leave just enough room for a little worm to mesh with a gear on one of the axles. There are coreless pager motors that small, but I'm not optimistic about how those would run.

When the tender arrives soon, I'll see of the options are better there.

[randgust]

When you get stuck enough on certain spots, remember that Mark Graulty (narrowminded) has done some absurdly precise machine work with the tools he has - unlike me with a dremel and a needle file.

My failed attempt to come up with cocentric and properly aligned spoked drivers, with reduced flanges, on my PRR D16 was only solved by working with him.   

He's got running mine car equipment in Nn3 on Code 40 rail that pretty much blew me away down at Altoona.

[peteski]

I've got several options going at once on the wheels - a combination of available N Scale commercial wagon wheels and some Shapeways products where I requested a different configuration (radius, number of spokes, materials, and so on). 

That "Rocket" boiler arrived here yesterday.  Hoo boy.  This thing is small and pretty nicely done, considering all the detail has to be done in a single part.  Putting the motor in the boiler will require a 4mm diameter, 8mm  long motor.  That would leave just enough room for a little worm to mesh with a gear on one of the axles. There are coreless pager motors that small, but I'm not optimistic about how those would run.

When the tender arrives soon, I'll see of the options are better there.

I suspected as much. My  Minitrix Der Adler loco's boiler is also very very small - no realistic way to install a motor and a high-ratio gearhead there (because small motors have very high RPMs and very little torque).  That is why Minitrix left it a dummy (mechanically and electrically) and put the motor in the enclosed coach.  They also designed all the coaches in the train to pick up power. That gives it very reliable electric pickup.

[mmagliaro]

I'm still tinkering to see if I can get a 6mm motor in there.  I can get a 5mm diameter right now, although everything seems to be 4 or 6.  But a 6mm would open up the possibilities to lower-revving more powerful motors.

[Chris333]

So you are just going to buy a motor? 

[peteski]

So you are just going to buy a motor? 

Now that's funny!

[mmagliaro]

So you are just going to buy a motor? 

Don't be ridiculous!  I'm refining my own copper into stranded wire as we speak, which I will coat with the saliva of
the rare South American spider armateuris rotatus.  Then I will wind it onto a 2mm diameter hollow reed collected
from a swamp near my house.

[Lemosteam]

Don't be ridiculous!  I'm refining my own copper into stranded wire as we speak, which I will coat with the saliva of
the rare South American spider armateuris rotatus.  Then I will wind it onto a 2mm diameter hollow reed collected
from a swamp near my house.

Sometimes you frighten me Max. 

[mmagliaro]

Got my first of many candidate motors to try out  - a 4mm x 8mm 3v.  It isn't too fast - about 14,000 RPM, and it will start reliably at 0.25 volt, so that gives it a good speed range.  But I'm not sure about the torque.  My measurements indicate that I can get a 50:1 gear ratio in there.  That may not be enough.   As other motors trickle in and I try them, I'll accumulate what I find and do one post.  It will probably be a couple of weeks.