I recently aquired a GEM brass Reading 0-4-0 camelback.
Its a very cute little loco and once its moving actually runns very well but as usual with brass loco’s from the 70’s the slow speed performance is pretty poor.
Here comes my problem…
All my previous remotoring exploits have been of traditional arrangements but this one has the motor mounted vertically and directly driving the axle.
I would like to remotor it but I was wondering if any of you have had any experience of this arrangment?
Setups like these are actually pretty easy to repower. A medium/small motor should fit in the space fine (be sure to measure!), and the old worm can be mounted directly to the motor. If needed, NWSL makes shaft adapter bushings so you can mount parts made for larger shafts on smaller shafts. If the motor can’t be mounted with screws, you can use a silicon sealant from the hardware store. A silicon mount will help dampen some motor noise and vibration, but it’s still firm enough to hold the motor to the proper gear mesh.
I have a similar 0-6-0. The problem is that most of the can motors have a drive shaft that is fairly short and getting the motor to clear the axle gear and still have the worm engage the axle gear is tough. I have not found a motor/bushing combination that will do it.
As long as you have the right materials, it’s pretty easy to extend a shaft. Some tube with the proper inner diameter, some stock shaft, and a little fine tuning are all you need.[:D]
You may wish to change to a horizontally-mounted motor if there’s room available. You could then add a NWSL gearbox, which should dramatically improve the low speed performance.
You might not need to remotor. Try replacing the motor magnet with neodymium or other rare-earth magnets… Cheaper, and a bunch easier. more torque, lower current draw, better slow-speed operation…
MicroMark also carries the rare earth magnets–20 to a package. I’ve just replaced the magnets in the open-frame motors of about 4 of my older brass articulateds, and the difference in performance is absolutely amazing. Low torque, marvelous low-speed control and low ampereage. Takes either 4 or 5 of the magnets, depending on the size of the motor.
does anyone know what effect there is if the magnets aren’t an exact fit?
Here’s a link showing neodymium magnets that are smaller than the original, while magnets in the link in my previous post seem to be a bit too large. I’ve read that neodymium magnets are 10x regular magnets of the same size, so if the don’t fit exactly, they should still be better than before. But i’m wondering if they are oversized, if anything extending past the iron frame is wasted.
An exact fit really isn’t necessary, and the guy who stuffed them in to the point of having no room for the screw that holds the pole pieces in place was committing serious overkill.
There are a few things that you must keep in mind when buying these super magnets. Be aware of the direction the magnets are polarized. Some are polarized across the smallest dimension, some otherwise. On a rectangular block, I’ve seen them polarized along the length, across the width, and through the thickness. The latter may be the easiest to deal with when you have multiple magnets, but if your dimensions allow it, you can use them in about any orientation, as long as you keep the N/S poles at the pole pieces the same as in the original magnet…