Actually, the water does go down counterclockwise, and then gets shot back out again when one of us yanks flushes up here on top of the world. You know how water pressure works. Everything runs down hill, Thats why there’s so much water down there.[;)]
It goes clockwise you dofus
Actually it goes counterclockwise in the Northern hemisphere and clockwise in the southern hemisphere. So what’s it do at the equator?
I’ve seen the little Tenshodo SPUDs (it stands for Self Propelled Universal Drive), but these are powered trucks with a motor driving both axles through a worm drive system - If anyone’s seen the old Tri-Ang mechanisms the design is very similar. SPUDs are handy when you want to motorize something without intruding into the bodywork - in the UK they’re often used to power diesel and electric multiple units as they allow you to fit an interior. However, SPUDs have no flywheel and I suspect they wouldn’t last long before burning out if you added the amount of ballast you would need to haul a decent length train!
Hey Railroading_Brit I’ve been looking for them, where do you get them?
Well, I know of a few suppliers in the UK, but I’m not sure if they’ll ship to the States. there’s a supplier named Branchlines (email sales@branchlines.com), who also offer the Black Beetle units which are very similar (these offer different wheelbases/wheel sizes to the SPUDs). There’s also www.dckits.co.uk (Their main speciality is plastic kits for multiple units, but they also sell SPUDs/Black Beetles). I’d advise trying the latter first as they have a website - Branchlines only appear to have an email address!
It is true, AC motors run at essentially one speed, determined by the number of electrical poles ususally on the stator, but this is true only for three phase synchronous motors. Straight poly phase induction motor’s rpm will vary as the load is increased, difference in RPM called “slip”. A commercial DC motor’s speed is varied by changing the armature (ususally the rotating part) current, i.e., the magnetic field. Any wave form other than DC (none) is AC, even a lighting strike (fast time rise). AC locomotives generate AC which is rectified to DC and then “reconverted” to AC usually using a PWM (pulse width modulating) system quit similar to DCC systems. The motor RPM is controlled by the width (therefore the number of "pulses/second) of the pulses. The “frequency” of the number of cycles creates the singing noise heard in the earlier DCC systems. To be authentic, you’d need three phase on your “track” to use a straight AC motor (or a convertor in the loco).
i stand corrected…thats what i get for answering questions when im half asleep…99% of my experience was in 3 phase repair and that is what my answer was based on but FLEE pointed out my error…sorry for the bogus answer i see there are several people that have more elec. engineering knowledge than me and i will leave this to them…scott