I’ve been following this thread, but I didn’t have anything to offer,until now… I’m still hung up with how to have people going up and empty chairs coming down… Anyway, I don’t know what your fabricating skills are, but if I may make a suggestion, I would not use wheels from train parts, I would make my own…I you have a art supply store near you or drafting supply,that would be your beat bet… Find a tinplate of all diameter circles, they come in clear see thru or colored see thru thin bendable acetate,from 1/16,to 21/4 all on the same sheet. I would then choose the diameter on the pulley I wanted, draw to tow circles of it,on a piece of plastic sheet of the thickness of your choice, 1/16, sounds about right, then draw a square around them, like a circle in a box. Now decide how deep your proposed cable is going to be, draw one or two more circles, that will depend upon the size of your cable… Put all the squares together, clap them if you can. Now drill a hole through all the circles in the center, drill press would be ideal here, but it can be done without… once your holes are drilled, separate the circles and trim away the squares. They don’t have to be perfect, the key is that all the holes you drilled
As a side note, I you do want to use a wheel set. make a plastic circle, drill hole through the center, put a spacer in between the wheel and circle and glue together…
You’ve mentioned using styrene for hte axles. Rather than that, I’d suggest brass rod. It’s available from hardware stores. Metal wheels or pulleys rotating on a brass axle, or a brass axle rotating in a metal housing, will have much less friction than any combination using styrene. You’ll have a number of these wheels, so the friction effect will be additive.
These are the bogies I made for my “pit-bash” of an Atlas deck turntable into one with “true pit.”
The unit on the left side started as an ordinary HO-scale truck. I removed the wheels from the axle, turned them inside out so the flanges were on the outside, and pushed them both to the center of the axle. This gave me a pulley-like arrangement with outer flanges.
You mentioned styrene in more than one post. I would not make something like this lift from styrene. I would use brass all the way. Styrene is going to be OK if you want a static model only, but brass would be better for an operating model. Been there and done that.
What if I made this with the sides close to the flanges ( Not extending out ) and glued the assembled piece to the crossbar? Do you think that would hold?
And, I’m going to vote for as much brass as possible, too. Styrene towers are going to flex too much. For the tower poles, though, you could use a simple piece of brass tubing rather than building up a girder-like structure. That would also be more prototypical.
ok a good answer, maybe. Firstly you need a pulley and not a train wheel. The groove will keep the cable from sliding across the wheel. Secondly you should make a “keeper” for the pulley. This can be attached to the axel, run up the side of the pully and ultimately across the top. this will keep the cable on the pully.
Hello If you are going to use ho wheels. Find some old tyco/mantua drive wheels they have a groove in them already. I think n scale wheels would look better. But not sure if they have traction tires for n-scale? You could put the axle end in a drill and cut your own groove with a file. Hope this Helps Frank
Lets put some of the ideas together. 2 HO train wheels reversed so the flange is on the outside. A center groove was created by the taper in the wheels.
The tower is made of PVC so I don’t think it wil be a problem.
I was thinking if I took a small metal washer with an inside diameter hole a hair larger than the shaft it could be glued to the outside of the brace. The end of the cross brace has a hole 1/16 sq for the shaft to enter.
I’m still concerned about 2 things after seeing the pictures. First, the shaft really needs to rotate freely, or the wheel needs to rotate on the shaft. I would go with a single round brass shaft or tube all the way across. The wheels would be drilled out so they rotate freely, but with little play. Then, the ends would be capped with a small piece of brass tubing of a larger diameter.
The second problem is that plastic cross-bar. If the gondolas have any weight at all, the bar is going to flex. It’s just not stiff enough. For a few dollars, you can get square brass tubing. The brass axle from the first paragraph could slip through it, too, simplifying that construction.
"You mention a pulley system would be best. The lift will have a Bull wheel an idler wheel and is powered by a printer motor with the wheels on the towers to allow the cable to roll over.
I am confused. Isn’t this a pulley system?"
This reply now out of sequence in order to get it to this new thread. Yes, it is a pulley “system”. But by pulley I meant the single component part, which I suppose I should have called a pulley wheel. I was suggesting this rather than the railroad wheel idea, which I think you may now have abandoned.
I was thinking the same thing about making the wheels free. That way I only need one axle completely across. I think I will take your advices and switch to brass. One question. What adhesive do you use to connect BRASS to PVC?
I may be getting in on this a little late but, on page 493 of the 2012 copy of Walthers catalog there is an operating cableway/lift advertised by Brawa. It supposedly can be extended to several feet. just thought you might like to know. If you knew about it already then kindly disregard this. I know they are pricey. I would not even attempt to build something like this, My eyes just won’t stay focused on stuff like that for very long anymore. LOL I like a challenge but gotta stick with something I can start and finish.
Check out this site; i use to use their parts when I worked in a model/prototype shop in NY years ago. Their stuff is Top Notch but expensive. They have small precision pulleys and hardware as well as gears and other drive systems. Go to page 38 on this PDF catalog link.
The cable car built and sold my BRAWA do not use wheels on the towers. The cable just slides in a slot type of shoe. The shoe pivots and is designed to lift the car over the shoe.
If I’m reading this correctly, you want to use train wheels as your wire rollers. If this is the case I would suggest you cut the axle and either glue the two wheels together flanges out or use one wheel and groove it so the wire sits in the groove. I’ve made sheaves in the past for similar applications using solid stock round plastic (rod). I put the rod in a drill chuck, grooved the rod 1st then cut it. drilled a whole in the centre and ran an axle through it. not easy but it did the trick.