2 rail O scale E.O.T. devices

Yeah seems like there should be a Ring Engineering equivalent out there in O Scale.   Back in 2014, I quickly converted some of the MTH oversized EOT's to 2R, just to have some stand-ins.  One I did with battery, the other one I took the Atlas caboose truck electrical pickups and adapted them to the Atlas roller bearing trucks and used the EOT from MTH.   The MTH EOT doesn't have a typical flash pattern for most EOT's I've seen, so about 6 months after doing this, I got around to replacing the MTH circuit with a function only decoder and more accurate simple flash pattern.  From there I later installed a Tsunami Soundcar decoder to add a little more visual and audio interest for the end of the train.  

The photo below is from back in 2014 as well as the attached video

Maybe someone has tackled this and has a more prototypically sized EOT device available?  Definitely interested. 

You did a nice job. I recall seeing an article on the subject when the MTH EOT's came out. I've been thinking about getting a couple to convert to 2-rail. The plan was to take the EOT trucks and replace the wheels with Intermountain single-insulated wheel sets and add wipers to the insulated side.

No problem powering from the rails with 2-rail, add a bridge rectifier and you have DC for the unit.  If you like the HO size better, grab one of those.

Looks to be about 2 feet high, 1/2" in O-gauge.  That would be about the size of an HO unit.

gunrunnerjohn posted:

Looks to be about 2 feet high, 1/2" in O-gauge.  That would be about the size of an HO unit.

John,

I'm a crusty old transition era guy, so it's not a big deal to me personally (give me a caboose) , but I'm wondering if there is any kind of 'standard' for those things?

Seems like the kind of thing that might be made up by the RR's shops, but then, I don't know how sophisticated they are.

Simon

Mike DeBerg posted:

Yeah seems like there should be a Ring Engineering equivalent out there in O Scale.   Back in 2014, I quickly converted some of the MTH oversized EOT's to 2R, just to have some stand-ins.  One I did with battery, the other one I took the Atlas caboose truck electrical pickups and adapted them to the Atlas roller bearing trucks and used the EOT from MTH.   The MTH EOT doesn't have a typical flash pattern for most EOT's I've seen, so about 6 months after doing this, I got around to replacing the MTH circuit with a function only decoder and more accurate simple flash pattern.  From there I later installed a Tsunami Soundcar decoder to add a little more visual and audio interest for the end of the train.  

The photo below is from back in 2014 as well as the attached video

Maybe someone has tackled this and has a more prototypically sized EOT device available?  Definitely interested. 

Nice mod, Mike!

John

Simon Winter posted:

John,

I'm a crusty old transition era guy, so it's not a big deal to me personally (give me a caboose) , but I'm wondering if there is any kind of 'standard' for those things?

Seems like the kind of thing that might be made up by the RR's shops, but then, I don't know how sophisticated they are.

Simon

I don't know if there's truly a "standard", though I suspect there is of some kind.  I've seen them in a number of shapes, I saw one laying on the ground in a photo that was considerably larger than that one I posted.

The big thing they do, besides the flashing light, is monitor the brake line and report back to the engineer the status of the brake pressure.  Some of them can also report other data and the ones with two-way communication can be used to apply the brake.  I get the idea that they range from the "stupid" ones with just a flashing light all the way up to units with GPS, remote brake control, and two-way communication.

I dealt with these from the time they first appeared and replaced our cabooses. The earliest versions were the "dumb" kind that only had an air gauge for brake pipe pressure and a flashing light. Some of these were built in house by the company. This type had a rod that fit down in the hole in the knuckle. The later ones were built by Pulse or Union Switch & Signal. They were more advanced with telemetry and later GPS. These fit on the side of the coupler head. The earliest "smart" ones were battery powered. We had a shed that had several chargers to keep up with demand. Most newer EOTs have a small turbine that was activated by the air in the trainline. Over the years they have been built to be lighter for ease of handling. There is a variety of shapes as improvements have been made.  Doug

Some interesting posts! Thanks guys! Nice to know even if it is not my exact area of interest.

Simon

21" tall.  Must be lots more brochures around!

http://s7d2.scene7.com/is/cont...20170915-61218-14794

Jason

What we really need is a FRED that is self-contained, and can be moved from car to car, like the real thing.....

There's something about a unit that's two feet tall and about 6-8" square that offers more space for batteries than the 1:48 version of it.  A true scale model of the FRED would be half an inch tall and about 1/8" square.  Try fitting a battery into that one.

I suppose the battery is the problem.  How small do they go?  Or maybe a non-prototypical 'bracket' that could hold the battery that kinda nestled under the coupler shank or in the coupler pocket (coupler doesn't need to swing) would do ... hmmm....

Jason 

A battery that would fit would run the LED about 10-20 minutes.

What we have here is a mechanical design issue.  However, trying to make one portable isn't worth the effort, at least to me.  You'd need to do injection molding to make any quantity of them.

Richmond Controls has working ones.  I looked at some at Trainfest this weekend.  Thought about getting some to make as dummy ones easily moved from car to car, but as these are designed to mount via the Kadee trip pin, they would be hard to make as a hang off the coupler like the prototype do.  Plus, at $25 a crack, I did not want to bung one up.....

R Nelson posted:

Richmond Controls has working ones.  I looked at some at Trainfest this weekend.  Thought about getting some to make as dummy ones easily moved from car to car, but as these are designed to mount via the Kadee trip pin, they would be hard to make as a hang off the coupler like the prototype do.  Plus, at $25 a crack, I did not want to bung one up.....

I wish they showed a picture of their actual model

http://www.richmondcontrols.com/

I see they sell the control without the physical FRED casting, I wonder if you can buy the FRED casting separately?

The $25 price I quoted was the base casting and LED, without the controls.  With the control, it was $40.   If he would have sold the base unit for say $10 or less, I'd have grabbed 2 to play with.    Maybe Scale City Designs will do one!   Are you reading this Marty...LOL!