Lionel n&w J 606 converted to 4 chuffs per revolution

How about a tutorial about how you did it?

I would also love to know how you did it too!

Looks like you just saved yourself some money for and upgraded J. I changed mine back to 2 chuff per , Didnt  sound right at speed. What do you think?

Thank you!

Nice job!  I did a similar upgrade to my N&W 611, but I did it by building up the lobes on the cam with JB Weld.  I'm working on my NKP 779 now, but the 611 is a much easier engine to take apart, etc...

Here's a quick video of my finished product.  The difficulty is trying to get it in time...takes a lot of sanding and rebuilding of the lobes to get it close/right.  Mine isn't perfect, but it's close enough for me.  Hope you guys don't mind me jumping in on this one. 

AWESOME WORK GUYS.

I DID A LOT OF LIONEL 4 CHUFF AND SMOKE UPGRADES, HERE'S A HOW TOO ON THE METHODS I USED.

LINK

https://ogrforum.com/d...ent/7906207229853027

ALEX

They do!  Just get some JB Weld and a Dremel and you have the kit.  Easy upgrade but can be a little time consuming.  The other thing one could do would be to buy the 612 undercarriage/frame when the parts are available...or a legacy frame for a Berk in my case of the NKP 779. 

I'm confused, why would the reed switch triggering chuffs sound any different than a cam activating a microswitch?

If you don't have the magnets at a perfect 1/4 distance on the drive wheels, or half distance apart using the tender wheels, ( I believe Alex mentioned this as the most difficult part) the timing of the  chuffs can vary, a bit closer and a bit farther. Nothing against Aaron, bit if you listen closely to the video in the first post, the chuffs are more like 1,2....3...4, 1,2...3...4. Its still an improvement, and I'm not saying I could do any better, nor have I tried.

Well, if you do it with the cam lobes, if you don't make them perfectly, you'll have the same issue.

True, I'm not sure exactly what Larry was referring to, however it sounds like he spent a ton of time on his "lobes".

Could be true, but I think I can pretty accurately position magnets too.

I'm actually thinking of trying to put a single magnet on the flywheel and counting revs, that would be pretty precise.

I shouldn't have used the word "sound."  I should have said the timing.  Several of the guys I talked to said, for whatever reason, it was hard to quarter (I hope that is the correct term) the magnets.  This obviously affects the timing.  If I would want to set mine back to 2-chuffs, 30 seconds with the dremel and it's done.  

Yes, I spent a good bit of time on mine; it's not perfect either, but I think it's pretty close.  

With the reed switch method...does that activate the smoke unit as well?  I'm not a tech nor do I pretend to be.  Just trying to find out an answer.

Thanks.

The reed switch would activate whatever the microswitch you're replacing with the reed switch.  I know that for my Cruise Commander conversion the reed switch will also control the smoke unit fan to have synchronized chuffing.

I agree if you don't get the timing right, it would sound wrong.  That applies to any mechanical method of generating the switch closures.  That's one reason I'm thinking of using flywheel revs to trigger it, turns out I get exactly 24 revs for one turn of the drivers, which conveniently divides into 4 chuffs exactly.

THIS  particular engine dosnt sound right to me at speed.Even with perfectly spaced timing or other IMHO.  So if your going to do this engine(606) you may want to hear it before you make it permanant.First one  ,(not that ive done dozens but have a few)i ran into this.

Hi John,

 I've been reading what you guys are talking about, I just went down to my shop and tried what you said. If I spin the flywheel 24 times it divides into 4 chuffs, but if you mount one magnet to the flywheel isn't it going to pass the reed switch 24 times. I think that would make 24 chuffs per rev. Please tell me what I'm missing, because it's driving me crazy. LOL

ALEX

Alan, I'm going to put a digital divider circuit on the incoming pulses to get to the 4 chuffs per rev.

Patrick, if I do it using the flywheel, I can easily change my divider circuit to vary the number of chuffs if I don't like the sound of what I get.

sounds like a plan Gunner. Are you doing the 606 with this method?

606?  I'm going to do my MTH GS-4 Daylight first, it originally was PS/1, and I'm installing an ERR Cruise Commander, RailSounds Commander, and doing the chuff.  I'm actually considering trying to program my Arduino that I'm going to use to do a couple of things.  I figure I should have the cab lights come on when it's stopped and go off when it moves.  Since I'd be sensing the motor running, I already have what I need to make that happen.

Another thing I'm thinking on is adjusting the duration of the chuffs depending on speed.  I may be able to cure some of the ills of a simple switch by adding some intelligence to the process.

Instead of a magnet, I may also use an encoder strip on the flywheel and a sensor to read it.  I have a couple of the MTH sensors, I'll have to see if I can figure what I need to use that with my uP.