Aquarium or similar cars

Both MTH and Lionel made electric motor based aquarium cars. From the factory they had fixed output voltage regulators- so yes, one "could" replace them with an adjustable regulator module and adjust them- but from the factory no car was made to my knowledge with an adjustable regulator from the factory.

Caveat- there are a few very limited specific Lionel TMCC specialized aquarium cars with TMCC controlled speed of the belt. Great topic on them here https://ogrforum.com/...c/tmcc-aquarium-cars

Again, here is the problem- Lionel made tons and tons and tons of aquarium cars over the years. Some are traditional mechanical mechanism that is not motorized. Other later were motorized. The belts and cars are different, so while in some cases you might be able to swap shells and belts, in a few cases that simply does not work- the mechanisms and dimensions are just not compatible.

To my knowledge, the MTH aquarium cars are all motorized. That said, again, factory it is a fixed voltage regulator. To adjust to speed for your custom liking, you might have to replace with a variable voltage regulator module.

FWIW, the TMCC Shark car is hands down one of the most fun cars to run with the sound effects. Lionel 6-19868 Command Control Shark Aquarium Car

Also, here is a fun video of a bunch of the different Lionel cars- might help you pick which ones you are trying to find.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AN6ACfRzWjY

Thank you for your reply and the link to all those Aquarium type cars. I recently purchased the Lionel Gil Finns trout Farm car but I was disappointed because it needed to be pulled along the track in order for the fish "to swim". I need a car where it can sit on a section of track that has current applied to it and....when power is applied to that track section...the film on which the fish or other characters are printed on, will turn. That Halloween car really stood out because that 's exactly what I was going to do to one of the motorized cars. I was going to apply a slightly adhesive film that would cover the existing graphics and apply ghosts, witches and bats so that when a button a button is pushed, the ghosts, bats etc will move around the car. I will have to look at that video again to see if I can track down that Halloween car with the bats. I am presently a volunteer at the Morris Museum located in Morristown, NJ where along with two other volunteers, I help maintain an operating O gauge train display that is 12'x24'. The display has 6 active tracks, scenery and 45 buttons located around the perimeter of the display which activate building lights and some animated items. I have been involved with this display since 2012 at the Museum and helped design and build it when it was owned by Nabisco and Kraft Foods back in the late 1990's and through 2011. It was gifted to the Morris Museum by Mondelez International when it acquired former Nabisco/Kraft in 2012. If you go the Morris Museum's website, you can catch a glimpse of the Mega Model Train display when you click on that title. Thanks again for your reply.

@Vernon Barry posted:

Lionel made tons and tons and tons of aquarium cars over the years. Some are traditional mechanical mechanism that is not motorized. Other later were motorized. The belts and cars are different, so while in some cases you might be able to swap shells and belts, in a few cases that simply does not work- the mechanisms and dimensions are just not compatible.

The original 3435 Travelling Aquarium Car (1959-1962) had a universal motor driving the belt. According to Tandem Associates, it was reintroduced during the MPC era in 1981. Since the reintroduction some have been made with a mechanical geared drive, requiring car movement for the belt to move and others have a can motor with an on/off switch. The can motor version is supposed to be much quieter than the original universal motor, and with the apparent exception of the TMCC command version, the speed cannot be adjusted. Here's more information about the various aquarium cars.

If you are purchasing a new aquarium car, make sure that it says that it has a motor on the box. At least one Christmas aquarium car, the 2016 Santa's Sleigh 6-83175, was described as motorized in the catalog, but was produced as the mechanical version.

Aside: The original Animated Gondola 3444 (hobo and cop chase) was motorized. It uses a vibrating motor that can be exceeding loud. I believe that all modern versions are made with a mechanical geared drive instead.

Thank you for your reply and the information about the motorized units.

Yes, that MPC era remake (No. 9308) of the Postwar car is loud. The newer motorized cars with can motors are much quieter, as Matt notes. Sometimes I park them and just keep them powered and running on a siding, which visitors and kids enjoy watching. To convert some non-motorized gear-driven versions to motorized I've swapped shells, and on a few, when I wanted a different group of fish, swapped the belts.

Here's a special issue Shedd Aquarium car, originally a non-motorized gear-driven car. I converted it to motorized by swapping the shell with no. 36731 Postwar Celebration aquarium car chassis, which is powered by a can motor.

As Vernon mentioned, there are some dissimilarities in some Lionel aquarium cars that may prevent interchanges (some changes were made from earlier cars), but there wasn't with these two cars. I seem to vaguely remember there was some "tweaking" I did with this conversion, but I don't recall what it was. In any case, whatever the issue was got resolved, and the car works great. It may have just been something like getting the right tension on the belt, don't recall.

swapping shells with