Spent last night trying to get some smaller locomotives running that have been sitting around. I really don’t even remember where I got them, only that the’ve been sitting around.
Many of them are Bachmann 0-6-0’s and variants. I opened up 2 doa’s, one with a pancake motor that was lubricated with an automotive greasegun (that’s what it looks like) and cleaned it up. It runs now, but it’s a screamer. No surprises there.
The second one (2-6-2) had a can motor in it. I pulled the motor and spun it. It was like a wash machine full of bricks. No hopes there. I happened to see a can motor that’s been sitting on a ledge for years and noticed it was the exact same dimensions. Great! I can have one with a new motor!
After getting the worm pulled and the insulator caps installed, it was track time!
After turning on the power, I started turning up the throttle. It went from 0 to 200mph in a flash. That thing went rocketing down the track so fast it blew the siderods off, which then caused wheels to start going wrong directions, causing a dramatic derail.
I talked to my brother this morning, and it turns out HE brought that motor over for me. He got it for a racing slot car and it didn’t fit, so he thought I could use it. NOPE!!
I got a good laugh reading your post. When I was a kid, my buddy Chris and I would strip the armature windings of our slot car motors, rewind them to 2V. and use them in our drag racing slot cars. Sounds like what what happened to your locomotive was a similarly rated motor was used. Train racing anyone? On a serious note, Jameco Electronics sells lots of 12VDC motors and they list (among other parameters) the torque value for each at a specific rpm. You can pick 'em based on that and avoid such nasty, albeit entertaining, results.
That reminds me of the time “Tim the tool man Taylor” put a Dust Buster motor in his slot car so he could beat his opponent. The result was quite comical.
Years ago probably in the April issue MR had an article about how someone tried to replicate the NYC jet engine equipped RDC using an Athearn dummy and rocket engines.
You CAN do the opposite, as well - rewind the motor for lower spped and more torque. Not too many people do that any more though. We talk about scratchbuilding going the way of the dodo, what about some of the more esoteric things like motor rewinding? Back in the early days, it was quite a common topic. Not only rewinding motors, but building your own complete motor, especially during WWII when those great Pittman motors were not available
Do you remember when MR ran an article on winding your own power transformer? Seven secondaries, each rated about 100VA! Right as the article ran, the Korean War started and the EI19 core laminations became strategic materials!
I salvaged some motors from a couple of expired printers. Still haven’t tested them, and now I’ll approach the tests with due caution. (I want to use them to power some ‘moving scenery’ that hasn’t been installed yet.)
I only ‘remember’ or ‘know’ about any of this from having the 75 year DVD collection - and I started reading a Vol1 #1 when I got it and read evey single issue up to the ones I have (or had, I gave them all away) full year paper collections of.
Some will say, stuff from the 40’s and 50’s is completely useless today. I say, hogwash. No, I would not use absestos cement to build my scenery today. As a kid I did use a technique from old books, and dyed fine sawdust for ground cover. My Mom wasn;t too happy, though I really didn;t make a mess, I had plenty of newspaper spread out to keep the green off the floor, and it turned out pretty nice, a huge improvement fromt he green felt we used on our family room layout. What I DID discover in those old magazines were plans and information on many thing local to me, in and around the Reading railroad. The materials and techniques used in scratchbuilding some of these structures isn;t really that different from how you’d do it today, so I have those all marked out as things to build. The lumber yard with the siding up above and the retail area down below the track grade is particualrly interesting, though the lineside shanties are a better option for a first try at scratchbuilding.
Are they stepper motors? They could be pretty handy if you have a means of controlling them.
I try to salvage items myself, and am now a little nervous to try the motor I pulled from a vcr tape rewinder to drive my turntable. I don’t know if plastic locomotives can handle blender speeds.
There are times when the older MRs come in handy. I have an MR from 1969 (which is older than I am!) that I reference quite frequently. For the era I model, (the mid-70s to early 80s), one needs the “dreaded” ACI plates. The particular issue I have shows the location of the plates in general. There are plenty of times that I have needed to use it to make an educated guess to locate those plates. I even keep my ACI plate decals at the article covering ACIs!