[MOC] Motorised tiny narrow gauge trains

[scruffulous]

It's been a long time since I've posted a MOC over here on Eurobricks, but I thought some of you might find the narrow gauge trains in this video interesting, given they're based on trains from Leighton Buzzard in the heart of England (built for the OcTRAINber Foreign Challenge). The black loco is a Hudswell Clarke "Ganges" class, with a rake of tilt skips filled with sand. Watch to the end of the video to see how I motorised such tiny trains.

 

 

[Pdaitabird]

Very impressive! That's a brilliant method for motorizing trains that have the small wheels. And playing "This Is My Father's World" at the end was quite appropriate for a layout where the creator's hand is controlling things behind the scenes!

[scruffulous]

Thanks!

[TrainDragon]

This is very nice!  Do you have any close-ups of the magnet setup?

[scruffulous]

Thanks. Here’s an example of the magnets  in the base of the tilt skips:

These are the magnets below for three tilt skips (i.e. one magnet each):

And here’s an example of the magnets for the loco.

 

[Hod Carrier]

I still think this is ruddy genius. True thinking outside of the box to create a unique and innovative solution for motorising tiny trains. Kudos to you, sir. 

[Man with a hat]

Very clever indeed. It looks awesome!

[scruffulous]

Thanks. I'm working on a full layout based on this approach for Brickvention (a LEGO convention here in Melbourne). I've gone even more narrow gauge, with one stud between the rails, which is closer to scale gauge (in O scale, or 1:45). Needless to say, points/switches are tricky!

[Roadmonkeytj]

@scruffulous

This is amazing intuition.   I do have some questions about the implementation...  If you don't want to give all your secrets away publicly I would love to pic your brain in a pm? 

-I'm assuming this is all built on a smooth bottom baseplate? Does the magnet need to "ride on" the bottom of the scene or is it just sheer magnetic pull?

- I'm also assuming the "height" of the lower system is to allow for the PF components.  Could this be shortened if using 9V.  Would that effect the motor/magnets?

- what's the "fastest" you can go without the cars separating top from bottom.  I really want to animate a police chase in our club layout after seeing this.   

- how well does it handle uneven track? ... This is a constant struggle with the shows we do as you can only level folding tables so much lol.

 

 

 

[scruffulous]

3 hours ago, Roadmonkeytj said:

@scruffulous

This is amazing intuition.   I do have some questions about the implementation...  If you don't want to give all your secrets away publicly I would love to pic your brain in a pm? 

Thanks. There are no secrets. I'm not the first to do this type of thing (although perhaps the first to do it with trains). Happy to share; hope others find it useful.

3 hours ago, Roadmonkeytj said:

@scruffulous

-I'm assuming this is all built on a smooth bottom baseplate? Does the magnet need to "ride on" the bottom of the scene or is it just sheer magnetic pull?

The lower magnets run very close to the smooth bottom of the baseplate (they actually brush it in places where the baseplate sags a bit). The upper and lower magnets are separated by about 6 plates, with the baseplate and track ballast in between. The magnetic attraction is strong enough to fairly reliably keep them connected across that gap.

3 hours ago, Roadmonkeytj said:

@scruffulous

- I'm also assuming the "height" of the lower system is to allow for the PF components.  Could this be shortened if using 9V.  Would that effect the motor/magnets?

The height of the lower system is for a few reasons: it allows for the PF components, it matches the height of the standard LEGO supports (so it's convenient), and there's enough room to reach my arm under if there is a problem. I used PF primarily to get better speed control. I don't see any issues using 9V, although you might run into issue if you mount the magnets too close to the 9V motor.

3 hours ago, Roadmonkeytj said:

@scruffulous

- what's the "fastest" you can go without the cars separating top from bottom.  I really want to animate a police chase in our club layout after seeing this.   

- how well does it handle uneven track? ... This is a constant struggle with the shows we do as you can only level folding tables so much lol.

You can run them pretty fast. Speed actually helps overcome some issues with uneven track - the momentum of the rolling stock helps ride over bumps. In general, though, uneven track is a problem. I use custom tables that can be accurately leveled to minimize this. Reducing the separation between the magnets can help, although it can also make things worse - reducing the separation increases the magnetic force, which effectively makes the rolling stock "heavier", which can make uneven track worse.

Hope that helps. If you are interested in more detail, I've given a fairly complete account of the development of the system in this discussion on Flickr (search for the scruffulous entries):

https://www.flickr.com/groups/3699484@N23/discuss/72157674019840858/

Edited December 23, 2018 by scruffulous
Fixed URL

[LEGO Train 12 Volts]

Very complex but very effective!