N Scale powered North Shore Electroliner

[Jim Starbuck]

I’ve been working on building a powered chassis for @Sokramiketes’ custom painted (I believe by Randy Stahl) North Shore Electroliner. It uses a Bandai 4 geared truck at the front turned by a 7x16 coreless motor with a homemade flywheel. The motor is set in a milled slot in the Shapeways chassis. The Shapeways trucks were milled and fitted with modified Atlas axle cup pickups so the four non powered trucks all collect track power. The powered truck collects from three wheels with a traction tire on the remaining wheel.
It’s got a Loksound v5 Nano decoder, a 9x16 speaker and a TCS KA-N1 powerkeeper. The lights are 0201 LEDs.
It runs nicely.

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[bbussey]

Awesome.

[Jim Starbuck]

Here are a few more details about the build.

The inside of the Shapeways trucks were milled wider to make room for shortened Atlas axle cup pickups. The pickups are hardwired to the decoder.



The powered truck is from a Bandai 4 mechanism which has the correct axle spacing. I cut the bolster portion from the donor mech and inlaid it into the Shapeways chassis. This allowed the truck to mount as stock and also utilize the stock pickup tabs for that truck. The brass worm is from the Bandai mech and was a direct fit onto the new coreless motor.



I cut the bolster out of one of the Shapeways trucks leaving just the side frames which fit down over the Bandai truck nicely.

[Sdynamo]

Awesome build.  Did you have any issues programming the ESU decoder using the TCS KA?

[Jim Starbuck]

Awesome build.  Did you have any issues programming the ESU decoder using the TCS KA?

Thanks,
I’ve used several of the KA-N1 with LokSound and Lokpilot decoders with zero problems.
The Lokprogrammer sees through the powerkeeper just fine. I’ve only used a Lokprogrammer though and have no experience with other systems.

[thomasjmdavis]

Jim- Brilliant job on this. Runs very smooth.

I do have a question....since the axles do not extend through the wheels (that is, no axle points), why did you opt for "cupped" pickups over a flat strip of brass (which would have more contact surface)? I am thinking perhaps to minimize friction, but I thought I would ask, so I don't miss some detail in case I ever venture into a project like this myself.

Thanks for showing us this little masterpiece.

[sd45elect2000]

I have a couple of these, now I can finally power them !

I’ll prepare a shopping list and duplicate what you did.

I did custom paint them a while back.

 I was sure it was only a matter of time until someone powered one. Actually powering it is pretty easy, I was looking for a solution to provide power pickup on all the axles.

Randy Stahl

[Jim Starbuck]

Only the powered truck has wheel back wipers which worked nicely to fit the printed sideframe over after cutting out the bolster portion.
The rest of the trucks were modified to use axle point pickup. I cut the axles of 16 Tangent 36” wheelsets to make half axles using just the non insulated side from each wheelset. I then made styrene axle tubes for the half axles.
The Shapeways trucks needed to be milled wider on the inside to accommodate the thickness of the pickup strip.
Since the trucks aren’t flexible I made the axle tubes and half axles short enough that they could be crowded together enough to drop into the truck then spread apart to engage the axle points in the cups and gain proper gauging. There was probably an easier way of doing this but all the stuff was on hand.

To make the necessary eight pickup strips all the same I made a jig by drilling holes in an aluminum block and pressing pieces of Tangent axles in with just the points sticking up. I could then set the axle cup pieces over them filing and fitting until they were the right length and soldered them together in the middle. The strips were then glued into the trucks.
Here’s a couple photos that may help clarify. The stock pickup is Atlas p/n 480306.

[Jim Starbuck]

@sd45elect2000 ,

I thought I’ve seen video of yours running before?

[sd45elect2000]

@sd45elect2000 ,

I thought I’ve seen video of yours running before?

Yes, it runs but power pickup is poor. I’m unsatisfied with the way it runs .

Randy

[Sokramiketes]

Such excellent work from both of you on this project.  Can't wait to see it roam the rails at StL RPM in a couple weeks.

[sd45elect2000]

The powered truck has wheel back wipers which worked nicely to fit the printed sideframe over after cutting out the bolster portion.
The rest of the trucks were modified to use axle point pickup. I cut the axles of Tangent 36” wheelsets to make half axles using just the non insulated side from each wheelset. I then made styrene axle tubes for the half axles.
The Shapeways trucks needed to be milled wider on the inside to accommodate the thickness of the pickup strip.
Since the trucks aren’t flexible I made the axle tubes and half axles short enough that they could be crowded together enough to drop into the truck then spread apart to engage the axle points in the cups and gain proper gauging. There was probably an easier way of doing this but all the stuff was on hand.

To make the necessary eight pickup strips all the same I made a jig by drilling holes in an aluminum block and pressing pieces of Tangent axles in with just the points sticking up. I could then set the axle cup pieces over them filing and fitting until they were the right length and soldered them together in the middle. The strips were then glued into the trucks.
Here’s a couple photos that may help clarify. The stock pickup is Atlas p/n 480306.

 I think I supplied Intermountain 34 inch wheelsets, are these unsatisfactory for this project?

Randy

[Sokramiketes]

The intermountain wheels are single side insulated, so the whole axle is live.  That's why Jim is cutting apart axles and inserting into plastic axle tubes like Kato's design. 

[Jim Starbuck]

What Mike said.
I cut up 16 wheelsets to get the non insulated side that would conduct from the wheel tread to the axle point.
I used Tangents because I had enough of them on hand. I think the Intermountains could be used the same way.

Jim