Hello- Someone was offering repowering kits for old Hobbytown HO diesels on EBay a few months ago. These had a can motor and maybe a flywheel. Can anyone give me a lead to the manufacturer? He hasn’t been on EBay in quite a while. Thanks- Richard W.
Hobbytown drives have a flywheel already. It is a turned brass one. The motor was a Pittman DC-91 which was a real powerhouse. The DC-91 had a high power draw but as far I know there isn’t a motor to replace the Pittman DC-91. A hobbytown drive would pull lots of cars. The bodyshell is a lead-zink alloy so has weight to it.
The kits were sold by the owner of Hobbytown. Hobbytown is now out of business, and if the repower kits haven’t been showing up, he may have run out. You can still get all of the parts you need from around the web. Cheap, high quality motors can be bought from the motorman on eBay (http://shop.ebay.com/merchant/microlocomotion_W0QQ_nkwZQQ_armrsZ1QQ_fromZQQ_mdoZ), and NWSL makes good driveshafts/universals and flywheels. The only thing you’re on your own with is the motor mounting, which could be anything from glue to foam mounting tape.
Mr. SP, earlier Hobbyown drives didn’t have flywheels. I think they were in business for around 15 years before they started adding flywheels, so that’s a lot of kits that could use them.
NOTE ON CHOOSING A MOTOR:
For Hobbytown kits, you’ll want a motor that runs from 8 to 10,000RPM at 12 volts. Torque should be a minimum of, I’d say, 1.5 oz. inches. If you have a really, really heavy unit, or a multidrive setup, you may want 2 to 3 oz. in. of torque.
Try this guy:
http://shop.ebay.com/merchant/cv-backshop_W0QQ_nkwZQQ_armrsZ1QQ_fromZQQ_mdoZ
He doesn’t have one listed right now, but I bought one from him before. It was a Canon motor with a flywheel. Can’t remember the price, but it was very reasonable.
If the link doesn’t work right, the guys name is cv-backshop
I repowered a Hobbytown E-7 drive with a Johnson can motor from and old HP inkjet printer (I think it was the print head motor). With the Hobbytown high-speed gearing, it does about 70smph top end. Still got the gear whine, but the thing will pull the walls down.[swg]
Here’s what I did with a TigerValleyModels ALCo RS-36, (same type of drive except it used a chain and sprocket), I also did the same with a Hobbytown RS-3. It’s a lot more work, but it’s a lot smoother and can be easily MU’ed with other modern drives, (and it sills pulls great because of the weight):