Skip to main content

Closed4 replies

Need advice from someone who's looked inside various locomotives

G gigasaurusOGR Forum Member

I'm a 3-rail enthusiast and also a developer, and I am working on a solution so I can add a circuit board to my old Lionel trains so they'll behave like the command control trains operated by a smartphone.  Things are actually going well, but I'm at the point where I need to do final design on a circuit board and my problem is I'm finding many of the locomotives don't have much room on the inside, and I need to finalize the actual circuit board dimensions.  The size I'm targeting for the board to be is 1.3" x 3.9" x .7" (roughly).  I have a little Lionel 8910 CSX industrial switcher which supports this size, but when I opened up a couple of various standard black Lionel steam locomotives (an 8602 and a 1654) I found very little room on the inside.  SO HERE'S MY QUESTION:  I'm trying to understand if there are certain classes of Lionel compatible 3-rail locomotives that have more space in them than others. For example can I expect the diesel locomotives (either the streamline or the boxy ones) to have more space on the inside? I'm hoping I can find someone (or ones) who has spent some time looking inside various engines that can tell me which locomotives might support the sort of dimension I listed above.  (or is my dimension not realistic?).  Basically - which engines have a large enough hollow space inside them.  Any help or insight would be very much appreciated.

Original Post

Replies sorted oldest to newest

G gigasaurusOGR Forum Member
Originally Posted by Dave Allen:

Why don't you look at installing it in the tender, like everyone else does? Otherwise you won't have much of a market.

Thanks for replying Dave - I am planning on having a tether so it can go in the tender (which should work for the steam engines). I'm guessing the non-steam engine types wouldn't have tenders (although a boxcar would suffice). 

 

Have pretty much all of the solutions you've seen involve putting the board in a separate car?  The tender for my 8602 supports 3.5"x1.9"x.75".

 

Thanks for your reply Dave. I'm pretty excited about this project so I appreciate the help.

LW Lee WillisOGR Forum Member

I've been inside a fair number of Lionel, K-line, and MTH locos.   I can't imagine you will find many, if any, steamers with that much room in them: your stuff will have to go in the tender.  Another reason for the tender is that many of these steamers have metal bodies and signal penetration could be an issue if you are using radio/wireless/whatever.  Plastic tenders and diesel bodies present no problem there. 

 

I've taken apart my share of diesels, too.  Most have a good deal room inside than a diesel, but that board will probably present a challenge sometimes, I'm not sure it would fit in a BEEP, which frankly would be a reasonable market you might get (I'm not sure it  I'd check).  Splitting it into two parts that you could stack or put on opposite ends of an otherwise tight, two-motor diesel, etc., might broaden your market. 

G gigasaurusOGR Forum Member
Originally Posted by Lee Willis:

I've been inside a fair number of Lionel, K-line, and MTH locos.   I can't imagine you will find many, if any, steamers with that much room in them: your stuff will have to go in the tender.  Another reason for the tender is that many of these steamers have metal bodies and signal penetration could be an issue if you are using radio/wireless/whatever.  Plastic tenders and diesel bodies present no problem there. 

 

I've taken apart my share of diesels, too.  Most have a good deal room inside than a diesel, but that board will probably present a challenge sometimes, I'm not sure it would fit in a BEEP, which frankly would be a reasonable market you might get (I'm not sure it  I'd check).  Splitting it into two parts that you could stack or put on opposite ends of an otherwise tight, two-motor diesel, etc., might broaden your market. 

 

Thanks so much Lee. This is great information. As I get this thing working I will report back and let you know how its coming.  Thanks so much for the help.

Views: 709
Post

OGR Publishing, Inc., 1310 Eastside Centre Ct, Ste 6, Mountain Home, AR 72653
800-980-OGRR (6477)
www.ogaugerr.com

Membership Required

We're sorry. You must be signed in to continue. Sign In or Register
×
Are you sure you want to remove from your Block List?
×
Loading...
×
When you block a person, they can no longer invite you to a private message or post to your profile wall. Replies and comments they make will be collapsed/hidden by default. Finally, you'll never receive email notifications about content they create or likes they designate for your content.
Note: if you proceed, you will no longer be following .
×
Link copied to your clipboard.
×

Access to this requires an OGR Forum Supporting Membership

OGR Forum Supporting Membership

Help support this forum with an OGR Forum Supporting Membership.
You will be able to watch the videos in the INSTRUCTIONAL VIDEO FORUM!
A one-year OGR Forum Supporting Membership is only $12 per year, so sign up now!


    OR     


Access the ALL the OGR VIDEO FORUMS AND  over 300 back issues of OGR
with a DIGITAL SUBSCRIPTION!



$12.00 per 12 Months (plus tax if applicable)
×