My First Completely Satisfactory Tractor Trailer: Converted Ertl Model that proved easy

Looks like you have another winner there!

Nice job Lee.....very well done!  Just wish you had better lighting so that the images would come out better.  Anyway, as it turns out, I have the same Ertl tractor/trailer I purchased years ago on sale at K-Mart for $7.00!!

Alan

"75mph"...somebody's been messing with the engines govenor!...what's the posted speed limit on that stretch of tarmac and where's a cop when ya need one!{really- a police car with the lights on right behind him would be funny}

Neat build Lee... I have to look up your D30 conversion

Funny thing too, I vaguely remember someone saying that we should try something new once...it might just work...or something along those lines- he'd be proud of you.  

Looks great! Cool truck!

Great job, Lee! You definitely nailed this one.

There's no end to your skills! Another great running vehicle! Terry

Lee, you always amaze me with your vehicles.

Doug

Lee, can you run "traffic"?  I'd like to see a video of all your vehicles running at the same time.

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Dennis

Lee,

If you need something to chase down that speeding tractor trailer, we've got a '57 Chevy Bel Air generic 'black & white', with a "bubble gum" roof light in the store.

Very impressive!  Nice job, Lee!    

George

Once again a fantastic job. Have you ever thought about adding headlights!!!

As usual.. Thats neat..Thanks for sharing..

Dennis - I guess it depends what you mean by traffic.

I will answer your question and provide a lot of other info since I have had several e-mails with detailed questions. 

If traffic means no more than ten or eleven at once then, yes, I can do "traffic":

I have six 'Streets loops, all two-lane streets/roads with a 'Streets lane each direction, and blended into city streets (gutters and sidewalks) or country road (gravel shoulders) and the  landscapes.  Each loops has its separate power supply.

• Four so short - 8 to 14 ft around, that I can run only one vehicle at a time: so that's four vehicles. 
• My downtown Main St loop  is 48 feet around and even though it has no isolation blocks/relaying to stop vehicles bunching together, I routinely run two or three city buses, etc., at one time.   The big-motor/reduction-geared drivetrains I use on my city streets run at nearly identical speeds at any voltage, so if I space two buses at equal distances it takes about forty minutes for the faster to catch the slower. I often run two buses and a delivery truck on it.  So that is three more.
• I built my country road with provision for two relay-able isolation blocks that would hold up traffic so it won't bunch up, but currently run it as one electrical loop.  But it's 85 feet around, and so far the only two of the new drivetrains I have built to run on it (Greyhound bus, the Ertl Whole Foods tractor trailer I posted yesterday) run at nearly identical speeds - I imagine I will be able to put three buses or tractor trailers at a time on this road for a good half hour before anybody meets anyone, maybe four.  So say that is four.

Four plus three plus four: I can run eleven vehicles at once.  I plan to and to take videos once I get the whole country road and my tractor trailers made and sorted out.

As to the traffic, this is a quick inventory of the vehicles I currently have:

• About two-dozen NIB stock 'Streets vehicle of various types/manufacturers, for parts/bashing.  By far, the best vehicle to bash is the new WBB Van.  The rest are basically there to harvest wheels & axles only, etc. (only the vintage truck has wheels that are "car" size, etc. 
• On all vehicles I run - I remove the rectifier and run them on DC, so they will back up on reverse polarity.  The only exceptions are my first-year issue, metal chassis K-Line vans, which have F-N-R e-units that will run on AC or DC.  These retain their rectifier.
• I have about eight otherwise stock vehicles - one of each type from the all-metal chassis early K-line ones through to the current WBB Vans, etc. 
• I have about twenty bashed vehicles with stock drivetrains but bashed bodies or new 1:43 car or light truck bodies grafted on them.
• None of the stock or stock drivetrain vehicles above is really satisfactory: stock 'streets vehicles run smoothly only at speeds higher than I want to run them.  Theire tiny size, limited number of wheels (only four tiny ones, one a traction tire) and cheesy center pickups (Lionel ones anyway) mean they get marginal electrical connectivity and with small motors with no flywheels, they tend to stutter and stall at low speeds.  If them just had a flywheel . . .
• I have numerous experimental buses, trucks, and tractor trailers with all manner of attempts at various types of different designs and drive trains, none of which is satisfactory.  These were successes as ways to learn what does or does not work, but none is completely satisifactory and a few are disasterous failures.  I don;'t run any of these.
• I have three buses and a delivery truck with oversize flywheel motors (which alone gives about a 2:1 reduction in running speed because it turns slower) and 3:1 reduction gearing, that are entirely satisfactory in city streets - running smoothly and dependable at "downtown speeds of 8 - 15 mph. This is a final design I don't think I can improve.
• I have completed only two countyr-road drive trains (Greyhound bus, Ertl Whole Foods tractor-trailer) but these are entirely satisfactory for that use the big flywheel motor but no reduction gearing, and that are entirely satisfactory at country speeds of 25-75 mph.  I plan two more buses (Corgi Trailways and Lionel Lines) wmr a full size Bartoletti race car transporter (basically those were converted cross-country buses), and about half a dozen tractor trailers all with this drive train. This is a final design I don't think I can improve.
• I plan a set of floats for a Thanksgiving Da/Christmas season opening parade through downtown, with double reduction gearing (9:1) for very slow speed. 

When I get further along I will post a video of everything running: three trains, a boat on lake, and eleven vehciles - movement everywhere!

WOW Need to incorporate this into my layout plans!!!!

I was thinking about the long country loop where you maybe could run several vehicles around it.

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Dennis

Interesting conversion, sounds like a lot of lessons learned along the way.  It looks like you learned them well, it runs great.