The engine and gearbox are below the cabin, connecting to a chain drive on both axles. Actually, the tractor operated similar to a tractor/trailer rig, using the weight of the car to increase the tractive effort. A 10 hp motor was sufficient to move a load of up to 175,000 lbs.
I gotta build me one of those!! Makes my critters look huge.
Dave
The Hornby/Rivarossi ones even have a socket for a decoder.
The model with the fully enclosed cab was the big one - 5.8 metric tons! The really small original one with the 10HP motor was - really small. Just an open platform on 4 wheels, way smaller than Conrail’s little movers - they had a name for those, slips my mind at the moment, or at least one of them had a name.
–Randy
Buy one?!? Are you kidding? That would take all the fun out of it and Darth Santa Fe would be ashamed of me!!![swg][(-D][(-D]
Seriously, he gave me the information to build this drive for a Mack switcher. Building a drive to fit the upright switcher wouldn’t be much different although it might end up being a bit taller than the Rivarrosi model because of the size of the gears.
Thanks for the supplier lead Ulrich. Who knows? By the time I buy all the bits and pieces I could be pretty close to the cost of the German model.
What’s the current exchange rate with the Canadian dollar?
Dave
1 Euro = 1,45 Can. Dollar
And 1.45 Canadian dollar currently equals 1.10 U.S. dollar.
Rich
Thanks for your interesting postings Tinplate Toddler.
Found a few more videos on modified Trackmobiles,…
Brian,
Sorry for hijacking your thread.
Too bad that the last two YouTube videos weren’t done better. I think the second one has a wealth of information in it but it is extremely difficult to understand.
Dave
Dave,
No problem hi-jacking, interesting stuff. BTW does that drive mechanism you pictured have 1 or 2 axel drive?
Yes, that second video was very poorly done. I didn’t review it thoroughly before I posted that link. Just looking at the beginning i thought it might offer interesting material on installation.
Amazing that guy got decoder, multiple lights AND sound into that little critter. I don’t need the sound, but I like the flashing lights,…at lest 2.
Hey Dave,
I was shuffling thru some old cut-outs I had today, and ran across this article that appeared in a May 1985 issue of Model Railroader. Its about 4 pages long, and I’m sure you know how to find it in their archives,…
Building a 23-ton Trackmobile
…just to tempt you…
Hi Brian,
Both axles are driven. It isn’t a whole lot different from a power truck with idler gears. Getting the gears to mesh smoothly was the biggest challenge. I burned out the first motor because the gears were too tight.[D)][|(]
Thanks for the lead on the Trackmobile build. I just read through it. Excellent modelling! The author used styrene for the body and frame. I’d be inclined to use brass to make the unit heavier.
Dave
Dave,
I take it you were able to find the whole article??
Hi Brian,
Yes, the article was easy to find in the archives, although I believe you have to subscribe to the archives to gain access to it.
Building the Trackmobile is actually simpler than first impressions might suggest. The whole thing starts with a NWSL Flea drive and an auxiliary axle set. The Flea drive is basically a motor, gearbox and one driven axle. Unfortunately, the Flea drive is not currently available. The NWSL catalogue says that it is undergoing a re-design. No estimates of an available date are given.
The rest of the model is made from styrene and various castings and bits like the wheels from a grader that are used as the road wheels. The design is very clever in that it allows the road wheels to be raised or lowered depending on where the model is positioned. Making the various styrene cab and frame parts will require some accuracy. but styrene is cheap so it won’t cost much if you make a few mistakes. The MR plan can be printed out and used for templates. The only trick there is to make sure that your printer is printing at the right scale. You might want to place a ruler on the printer screen when you are copying the plans so that you can verify that the drawings are the right size.
I think the biggest challenge will be getting enough weight into the model to give it enough traction to pull a car or two. For that reason, I would personally consider building the body out of brass although the amount of work involved would be considerably greater. Another option would be to add some sheet lead anywhere it will fit. In fact I would do that with the brass body too, like this:
I would raise a challenge to any modellers who would love to do this sort of modelling but don’t think they can. Prove yourselves wrong! Give it a s
Not sure, but I think I have one of those floating around in my misc box(s).
Well then Brian, let’s dig that little beast up and get started!
NWSL does have their Stanton drives available but the longest wheelbase is only 10’. The Trackmobile requires 13’. I’m not sure if a Stanton drive could be modified to extend it to 13’, but it might be possible to just cut the wheels off of one axle and then build a frame to support an axle set at the 13’ mark. If I was going to do that, I would likely start with a much shorter Stanton wheelbase so there would be more space to add the second axle. Just speculation.
Dave