Hidden Motor trick?

Well, I'll take a whack at this even though I'm not scale..ok, I am but my trains aren't.

You would need to find a power truck with the same wheelbase or axle spacing as the intended non-powered truck you wish to swap out...close might work depending on just how close it is, or your opinion of the viewing.

  You'd have to reuse the old truck side frame over the new powered truck to make it look right...that's why the axle spacing is important.

So I guess my real question should be - where can I get a 3 rail powered truck that has the same approximate spacing as a freight truck?

Thanks for your input Bob.  If i found something even close I glue freight car truck sides to the powered unit and that would look just fine.

Finding a power truck with freight truck wheel spacing is gonna be difficult at best, but take a stroll over to nwsl.com and look under power trucks/motors{I think}, scroll down till you hit the carpet drives. Maybe some day soon they'll let out the Flee drives again with an added gearbox and connector like they had long ago.

Protocraft.com has gear drives too but you'd supply the motor.

I don't know what steamer you had in mind, but if you were thinking one with a 6 wheels tender truck you'd have an easier time finding a regular power truck to tuck in there...it depends on what your wanting to mess with.

Hope this helps.

I don't know if this would be any help to you, since I'm speaking of a 2 rail powered truck, but I've seen large scale freight trucks converted by pressing a pinion gear onto an axle and mounting a motor to the truck.

Hardest part is bashing a mount for the motor.  Power supplied from pick-up wheel set as the other wheel set on the truck.

Hidden inside a tender, boxcar, etc, it shouldn't be an insurmountable scratch build.

Dave

That's an interesting thought.  I noticed that RMT sells the motors and gear parts for their Beep diesels separately. This may be the best way the go. 

Thanks for all the help everybody.

I once had a PEMCO 4-8-2 Mountain that was tender-driven.  Seemed to work OK in HO, but the engine was plastic and light, an O-scale die-cast loco might be a bit tougher on the gearing and traction, maybe not.  I would think you'd need a long tender if all the electronics were put inside it, but maybe it would be better to put the main electronics such as sound in the engine (where it belongs).

I have a number of models where the firebox is too narrow to contain a decent size motor.  I simply put the motor in the tender, connect it to the locomotive drive shaft with a NWSL "horney ball" and a short hunk of Toyota # 0 hose, and live happily thereafter.

Here's how one large-scale-r did it--just by co-incidence I ran across the linked posts on a forum discussing Japanese model railroading. The person in question builds locomotives, coaches and even electric MU's out of paper.

The thread was the first with clear photos I found after sifting through several translations and even a trip through the Internet Archive. Even though the process is for large scale, I'm pretty sure there are motors somewhere that could do the same in 'O' (though not necessarily for heavy-haul service). 

---PCJ

RailRide,

thanks for your info.  The truck mounted motor/gear on axle is basically prototype design, minus all the suspension bits.  If i could find something small enough to do that in O gauge it would definitely be the way to go. 

  I have avoided the idea of carpet-drive products because of negative reviews by almost everyone who has mentioned them on the forum.  I am a conventional toy train guy mostly so frankly, I want to build something that can generate a respectable amount of speed with a dozen cars being it.

As to controls, for initial construction forward only operation would work fine so a trip to radio shack and $20 bucks with of parts should get me going. 

I appreciate everyone's input.

Attached is an example of a hidden drive (well mostly).  What you don't see is the rest of the motor mount that holds the motor in the boiler.

Jay

Here's another.  Re-power & re-gear of an SP 0-8-0.  First motor (small Maxon w/flywheel) wasn't powerful enough so I changed the motor to a small Pittman 8000.

Jay

Jay, where'd those belt drive pulleys come from...those could be used in this and other projects!

Bob,

I make my own.  Only way to get the ratios & size I need. 

Jay

Very nice looking work Jay!

I was about to ask where the motor came from until I noticed the web address on the label.  Do you buy direct from Penn Engineering/Pittman or do the motors need to come through a distributor?

-John Z

John, with a short enough motor you could hang one over a freight truck with the lower pulley on the axle! That's what I'm thinking...oh, yeah, for your needs too.

John,

Sometimes we buy direct.  I believe it's actually Amtek/Pittman now.  The small Pittman shown in the photo came from somewhere on ebay.  I've had them for 4 or 5 years now and I really don't remember who was selling them.  They are a little smaller than the normal Pittman 8000.  I also seem to remember sending one to Bob Turner for some kind of replacement on a newer loco.  Maybe he remembers.

Jay

Thanks Jay.

And for what its worth I apologize to all for not giving any more info on the project but its one of things I'm not sure I can pull off just yet.  I don't want to but the cart before the horse.

I've said this before but the forum is great - you all are a tremendous resource and I sincerely appreciate the input.

JHZ

John,

Don't apologize for anything!  Half the fun of doing this is the experimentation, failures, and hopefully, success in the end.  Doesn't always work out but please take note, we rarely post our failures.  Doesn't mean we don't have them.....we just don't brag about them.

Jay

See how he is jay...keeps it all undercover till its done.

BTW John, somedays you "do" want the cart before the horse...just depends on what the house ate the day before!!!!

Here's a  link to the railbus bash that has the truck rebuilt into a powered truck.

Scroll down through the thread and the pictures of the construction are there.

http://www.forum.gscalecentral...Railbus-m251993.aspx

Dave