Was just wondering about the possibility of using small motors, like from pagers or something, to power very small locomotives or rail-vehicles? Or are there better motors to use?
John
My guess would be that motors such as you have asked about do not have sufficent “torque” to power most anything, why not use an N Scale motor??
Buy yourself a “junker” N Scale engine at a train show or where ever and try one of those, after all they are already powering a small lcomotive.
Mark
There’s a guy inEngland who is doing just that. He manufactures and sells a line of HOn30/OO9 industrial locomotives and cars, and he uses a 6mm x 10mm 6v motor with a dropping resistor to power the locos.
http://www.nigellawton009.com/6V6mmx10mmMicroMotors.html
They still don’t provide a huge amount of torque, so they are best suited to small locos or hi-rail vehicles. There are a few intrepid modelers that have used them as traction motors in self-propelled passenger cars, though.
[url]http://www.clag.org.uk/axle-hung.html[url]
And here:
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/gray.hickson/traction-motor.html
You could also simply buy a Z scale motor.
Some of the stuff those British guys do it just amazing. The second set of axle-hung motors link to the original page, with it mounted on a self-propelled coach, is amazing, no extra ‘junk’ showing up on the model in the form of gear trains and drive shafts. Low-torque they may be, but what about if all 4 axles of a car are powered? Now what we need is a way to remotely monitor the load - use these motors to power all 4 axles of a diesel, if the load is too high, you need to add another unit. If the load runs too high for too long, you’ll burn somethign out, just like the prototype. Maybe since the motors are all on the trucks and the space inside is freed up, small fuses could be used to protect the motors and decoder. Burn one out, you might still have enough power to limp to the next station.
–Randy
This is why I like to model HOn30. You can use N gauge mechanisms and motors. Peter Smith, Memphis 
I have often contemplated whether it would be possible to build in HO scale a model of a Geep, say a GP38-2 with detailed interior components (the diesel engine with its plumbing, radiators and other interior equipment) and making it runable by use of small motors in the trucks The frame and as many components as possible would have to be diecast and even if it wasn’t a great puller it would be fun to see it running with some of the access doors open and seeing the interior through the radiator screens.