Emerald Night MOD

[Fingolfin]

On 4/12/2023 at 5:04 AM, Toxic43 said:

No problem. Tore it apart on my lunch break and got the following for you:

Thanks for the detailed pics, really appreciate it. One follow up question... how are you anchoring the motors? I'm not seeing any pins above or below. Are they just loose fit in their spaces?

[Toxic43]

On 4/14/2023 at 6:06 PM, Fingolfin said:

Thanks for the detailed pics, really appreciate it. One follow up question... how are you anchoring the motors? I'm not seeing any pins above or below. Are they just loose fit in their spaces?

Oh, yeah, sorry about that.
They have technic half pins in the pin holes which are then connected into the underside of technic plates to hold them. Each motor has two pins, one at the front and one at the back, both on the same side. This is because there is a gap in the plates along one side of the loco near the front into which I have pushed a coil of motor cable. There isn't that much space to work in there with the motors mounted flat like I have them. I may have to rework it with them rotated 90 degrees. Then I'll bet I could actually fully build the side plates as right now they are two separate pieces and have some big gaps.

Thanks for asking a question. It has inspired me to work some more on the loco. I'd like to take it to a show one day but I'm lazy so it'll probably just be for my own self gratification!

When I get home later I'll see about getting pictures of my ghetto motor mounting solution.

[Duq]

On 4/12/2023 at 1:04 PM, Toxic43 said:

No problem. Tore it apart on my lunch break and got the following for you:

So, first off... it's 4wd not 6wd as I remembered it. The blind drivers are just held in place with 2L axles and pins connecting to the coupling rods for as little friction as possible.

 

You can simplify that a lot by powering the blind drivers from the motor. All wheels are connected with the connecting rods so you'll still get traction on all wheels but it saves a few gears.

Another tip: take the rubber bands off on one side of the engine. Makes it go around curves much better.

[Toxic43]

18 hours ago, Duq said:

You can simplify that a lot by powering the blind drivers from the motor. All wheels are connected with the connecting rods so you'll still get traction on all wheels but it saves a few gears.

Another tip: take the rubber bands off on one side of the engine. Makes it go around curves much better.

It took me a minute to realise how to power the blinds and leave either the front or rear unpowered. I got it though. I may give that a shot. The loco is due a tear down anyway as its been stored for so long now without a good run. I also took it apart recently for the photos above and I can see now how I can improve the design internally. I may even drop to a single motor for economy's sake. This thing eats batteries. Sure it's cool, but I'm the only one that knows the motors are in there.

Thanks for the feedback and suggestions!

[Roadmonkeytj]

On 3/24/2023 at 12:21 AM, Fingolfin said:

Apologies for necroing this thread. I would have messaged @Roadmonkeytj directly, but it seem that I'm not allowed to send messages yet.

I'm very interested in doing something similar with my EN, only using a PU Large motor instead. By any chance, do you have a parts list/diagram or a stud.io file that shows the mods you made to the interior of the boiler? I'm struggling to piece it together from your pics.

Great job, btw!

The difficulties in the PU motor will be creating one more stud worth of length to fit it, and the cable length.  I had to use a cable extender to get to the front of boiler from the tender.  As of right now as far as I know there is no extenders available unless you source your own connections and wire to make one.  I don't know if I still have the LDD (stud.io wasn't even released yet when I built this). I lost a hard drive a few years ago and lost 2 years worth of designs.  So I'll check the old jump drive and see if I still have it as there's several changes I made.  Admittedly the Flickr pics aren't the best either for reverse engineering.  

On 4/17/2023 at 1:08 PM, Duq said:

You can simplify that a lot by powering the blind drivers from the motor. All wheels are connected with the connecting rods so you'll still get traction on all wheels but it saves a few gears.

I've found on several engines this can cause binding.  It's actually better to gear all of the wheels if possible to keep them in sync

[Duq]

On 5/24/2023 at 6:28 PM, Roadmonkeytj said:

I've found on several engines this can cause binding.  It's actually better to gear all of the wheels if possible to keep them in sync

Then your wheels are not quartered. If the connection points on one side of the engine are at 12 o'clock, then on the other side they must be at 3 o'clock or 9 o'clock, NOT 6 o'clock, if you know what I mean.

BR55 Drive train by Duq, on Flickr

This setup has been running for hours on end at shows without ever binding. As you can see, only the front axle is directly driven from the motor.

[Roadmonkeytj]

On 6/6/2023 at 6:23 PM, Duq said:

Then your wheels are not quartered. If the connection points on one side of the engine are at 12 o'clock, then on the other side they must be at 3 o'clock or 9 o'clock, NOT 6 o'clock, if you know what I mean.

BR55 Drive train by Duq, on Flickr

This setup has been running for hours on end at shows without ever binding. As you can see, only the front axle is directly driven from the motor.

I've had both versions running at shows.  The little bit of slop can cause issues even when quartered.  I have one engine that is connected by gears and another that is powered similar to your example.  While different engines the geared handles uneven track better but prefers larger curves (battery drain).  I have a 0-4-2 that binds all the time ... Then I gave to reposition the wheels because it's gotten the valvegear out of sync