My neighbor has an athearn snow blower/plow or what ever it is called. He recently powered it and has trouble keeping it on the track. It has the old rubber band drive and they keep a twisting tension on the truck making it turn. How can this be corrected?[?]
If I remember correctly, Athearn’s “rotary plow” had a lot of empty space inside. It would take some work, but it would be possible to install a motor, and run it off a battery or maybe even track power. The problem with track power is the blades really should turn at constant speed, independent of the speed of the train. On the other hand a train pushing a plow shouldn’t be moving very fast anyway, at least not if you are trying to be realistic.
I suppose if you really want to get fancy, and you had a DCC layout, you could put a decoder in the plow. Now THAT would be COOL!!! [swg]
If you just want to stick with the rubber band drive, try adding some weight to the plow, and use a fresh rubber band.
Fixing this is a bit involved. BUt here is what I did with my “Rotary Snow Plow”
First is discard the rubberband. entirely. then replace the wheels in the front trucks with metal wheels that are insulated on one side. If you notice the rear three axal truck, one side has metal wheels and the other side has plastic wheels arrange the wheels in the front truck so the insulated wheels are opposite the platic wheels of the rear truck when the car is sitting on the track.
Then replace the front truck mounting pin with a piece of threadded rod so you can put the front truck on and hold it on with a nut. An appropriet sized screw would work as well. Now add power pickups to the trucks. and secure them to the floor. Contact LHS and manufactures instructions for specific power pickups instructions
Inside mount a motor rated for 12V DCto the shaft of the plow blades. Fabricate motor mounts so that the motor shaft is inline with the blade shaft.
If using standard DC, run a wire from front truck to positive side of the motor if the non insulated wheels are on the right rail. If they are on the left wire it to the negative. Then run a wire from the rear truck to a Single Pole Double Throw switch and then from the switch to the other motor contact. Mount the switch so It can easily be manipulated. (I chose the back end) Reassembe and you are good to go. The SPDT switch will control fan direction. When sittitting on the track, run up the track power and the fan will turn.
If Wiring for DCC. Use a standard DCC locomotive decoder. Solder the Red Wire to the Right hand Rail and the black wire from the left hand rail. Run the plue wire to the positive side of the motor, and the white and yellow wire to negitive side of the motor. Set the plow on programming track. and give the decoder an address. When in operation the plow should rotate one way when the direction is set for foward and then turn the other way when set the other way. And you have the option of
I know nothing about these rotorys. From the replies I have gotten on this it appears they are not self propelled. Is this correct?
Right - they would have been pushed by an engine. Steam rotaries like the Athearn model would also have a coal tender behind them.
Later models were diesel powered, but were still pushed by several diesels.
Walthers makes (or used to make) a smaller rotary plow that came with an electric motor that turned the wheel. It was in a constant lighting circuit, meaning it would run at the same speed no matter how much power was on the track. I have one and several Athearn models.
Bob Boudreau
Yes that is correct. If you are not wanting to go to a lot of work here is what I did with my Great Northern rotary. I went to my local NAPA store and bought a box of .5 ounce tire weights. This is the cheapest weight material that I have found. I then had to put in about 6 or 7 ounces to make it operate properly. This is ok because you won’t be pulling a long train behind the snow clearing train. It now works fine, but the one drawback is the one already mentioned and that is when the locomotive pushing stops, the blower stops too. When I take the plunge and convert to DCC I will probably power it, but it is totally up to you in your case.
Good luck and happy railroading!
Randy Johnson
Mine just sits behind the engine house waiting for winter, lol.
I modified my Athearn rotary snowplow about 12 years ago. It has a 1.5 volt motor and a AA battery holder, along with a SPDT direction switch. The switch is mounted through the floor and looks like a piece of mechanical equipment hanging underneath. The neat thing is that if I position it in exactly in the center position, it is OFF! The motor is connected to the plow shaft by a small piece of Tygon tubing, which acts as a flexible joint, since the alignment is not perfect. The blade rotates at a prototypical constant speed, and I can set the direction of rotation and the exhaust chute to coincide with the side of the track I want the throw the “snow” to.
I think the 1.5 volt motor was from a small toy of some sort. I scavenge all kings of neat stuff for later use. I have several tiny 12 V DC motors from old radios / CD players that I disassembled. One day . . . .
Mark C.