Hi Adrian,

Nice little engines. Clue me in as to what WSM is. Not to swift on abbreviations.

I'm interested in those worm drives. Can you take a couple of pics of the under side and from the side and of the whole truck? I would appreciate it very much. I think I could make some for a future scratch build.

I tried making some universals for a TT chassis. I have some pics if you don't mind me posting in your thread. Here's couple of teasers.

The truck is an HOn3 I picked up at a swap meet. That U-joint is what I started with but didn't work out. I used the HOn3 truck as a template to make a smaller U-joint.



The individual parts next to a TT 33" wheel and axle.



Now here comes the tricky part. Soldering it together without soldering the moving part.



Good luck on your re-motor project. I'll be following along.

Bernd

Hi Adrian, I also have two and will be watching as to what you do . I also have a decoder to stuff in (using N gauge) Tom

Hi Bernd, I'm thinking "Westside Models"; http://www.trainmaster.ch/X-969.htm I too didn't know the abbreviations.

Thanks Louis. Makes sense to me.

Bernd

Louis and Bernd,

That is a very nice web site in Sweden, The owner is very big on Union Pacific.....very interesting........

On first look last night the Mashiama 1020 Motor and a 10mm Flywheel fits in the boiler no problem. Just waiting on the gearbox to get delivered.

Thanks for the universal idea. The ones on the loco are similar at the moment. I think ill leave the truck end as is and make up something for the gearbox end.


Bernd, Louis is correct Westside Models.

You shouldn't have much problem making the trucks with your mill. Didn't see your comment aboout a photo until i got into work this morning. I have looked at having something custom milled before to make a loco using a similar drive line. I would be very interested in talking with you about it more.

The truck is made based on a brass block. Did a little sketch for you. I forgot to note on the base plate the little bit that kicks up is where the actual truck side frame is attached to.

Download Attachment: Truck Diagram.JPG
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Thanks for taking the time to draw up a sketch. I had thought that it would look something like that. I found a picture on BrassTrains.com so no picture is necessary.

I saw that the truck side frames were soldered to the tabs. The drive looks simple enough to duplicate. I just would need a couple of dimensions. E-mail me and will talk. My e-mail should be in my profile.

Bernd

No problem Bernd. Ill grab some dimensions over the weekend. rather busy the next 2 evenings. My first thought when i dismantled one of these trucks years ago was exactly "these are so simple". shame the open gearbox in them let the locos running ability down drastically.

I'm watching with interest.

Didnt get the time last night to measure anything. Or rather i was distracted by the blackstone C-19 that turned up in the mail :-D

Anyway ive been thinking there is a bit of interest in this i may go to the effort to get etched motor mounts and brackets to mount the gear box nicely. I will have to see how many i can fit on an etch sheet and how much but i will be happy to pass them on to others at the cost price to re motor theres (provided i achieve some decent running locos at the end of my rebuild)

Touching base on some old work of mine.

I never got around to mounting the NWSL gearbox in one of these. I looked everywhere for the gearbox and I cant find it.

I went back to the drawing board and decided to persevere with the old gear box but give it a really good clean. I dismantled it and cleaned it in thinners. I then re built it but used a bunch of phosphor bronze washers to reduce some of the slack movement in it.

I made a new motor mount. Ive been looking over CW railmans re motoring projects. Hes on the forum alot and has a very good site. I noted that a lot of his re motor use a silicon bed rather then a solid screwed down motor. So with that in mind i set about making a new cradle for the motor to sit in. I used some brass stock and angle to make up a cradle and soldered it to the chasis of the loco. I used the 1020 Mashiama motor and fitted a flywheel to it. Test runs seemed to be good with the motor held in by an elastic band. Although noisy due to all the brass gears, the fly wheel made a big difference.

While doing this i actually stripped the loco again as i wasn't happy with the floquil paint job. Didn't seem to harden properly. All cleaned i started again using Mr Hobby Paint. Its a lacquer based paint. I did an undercoat and baked it in the oven to harden it.

After that i tried to scratch a little of the undercoat and to my surprise its the hardest paint ive found so far so i painted the rest of the parts. 2 coats primer and 2 coats color then final 2 coats clean. Baked between each coat.

I started to re build the loco last night. I polished and buffed the worm gears on the trucks. this seemed to make a difference. Trucks mounted again i went about installing the motor. A bed of silicon on the motor cradle and an elastic band to hold the motor while it set. Tonight ill continue the re build with doing the wiring and rebuilding the rest. Ill be sure to take photos as i do. My camera was dead last night.

Anyway after a lot of stuffing around with these locos over the year i think this is going to be the best solution to make them reliable.

A bit more on the loco.

Wiring - Rather then soldering pick up wire to the truck screw i soldered them to the bolster. It Avoids one possible point of having a bad conductor.

Test Run of locomotive went well on the 3 foot of track i have. Fly Wheel makes a big difference. Loco will run at a crawl speed. Seems to be a lot quieter then i remember also. There is a bit of a pick up issue as would be expected with this style of loco. I might be able to improve it a little bit.

Photos because everyone likes photos. Sorry not the best quality because i used my phone but you get the idea.

The motor and fly wheel only just fit inside the boiler so i wouldn't go any larger the this.