MOC clockwork steam locomotive

[rsb0204]

one day I was playing with an old wind up motor i had. I alwase liked the way these motors spun at a fairly slow pace for a long time, rather than spinning all their power away in the first few seconds after winding like most wind up/pull back motors do. thats when it hit me, sence it has such a long run time, just how far would it go on my layout? well, it worked better than you would think, so i carefully removed the road wheels the motor came with and fitted it with a set of blue/grey era train wheels (easier said than done). i decided id make the loco in the classic 80s style sence the running gear was from that time period. the end result? I tried to make it as small and light as possible, its smaller than it looks in the pic, fits in the palm of your hand. heres it is next to 7722 for size comparison. theres just enough room for a minifig in the cab. his head just barely touches the roof. well it was a fun experiment to say the least, the engine isn't exactly what you would call practical, but it works ok for what it is. its actually pretty suprising what it can do, really under rated motors these.

[Pizzareno]

That is neat. I have one of these motors and thought about pulling the wheels out. How far did it go?

[rsb0204]

well my circle is about 6 feet long one way, and it makes 1 1/2 loops so about 18 feet. it would probably go farther but the wheels slip a bit. im ordering replacement ruberbands for the wheels of my 7722 soon, I think ill put a set on this and see if it helps. ive been pulling the tanker car from 7939 with it and it makes one loop like that to, but only if give it a little push at the end of the second corner, with 2 cars it still makes it part way through second corner, when it doesent jump the track. the rear (drive) wheels are a little to far from the back of the cab due to the way the motor is set up so with 2 cars it does wheelies, ill probably put a carrier axle with small wheels in the rear under the cab, like this. http://www.narrowgau...ain/69tal01.jpg

Edited April 29, 2014 by rsb0204

[woofmcmoose]

Nice! I have two of those old yellow wind ups in my spares bin. I think I'm going to have to have a go myself now. Did you try running them on the standard wheels (without tyres) before replacing them with train wheels?

[rsb0204]

Nice! I have two of those old yellow wind ups in my spares bin. I think I'm going to have to have a go myself now. Did you try running them on the standard wheels (without tyres) before replacing them with train wheels?

yes I did. the standard wheels worked fine, however it wont go trough switches with them fitted because of the outside flange. if your just running a loop though they would work great

[woofmcmoose]

Had a quick go last night, with just the motor and tyres removed, resulting in lots of wheeelspin. Im guessing the weight of the extra bricks in your model adds some traction, but o-rings definately seem like a good idea.

Im also puzzling over:

so i carefully removed the road wheels the motor came with and fitted it with a set of blue/grey era train wheels (easier said than done).

I can't really see how to remove the original wheels, and don't fancy just using brute force in case I damage the motor; any hints?

[rsb0204]

Had a quick go last night, with just the motor and tyres removed, resulting in lots of wheeelspin. Im guessing the weight of the extra bricks in your model adds some traction, but o-rings definately seem like a good idea.

ive been playing with one of my yellow motors and a few of the small train wheels from my 4855 (leftovers, as it is now a monorail) and it turns out that if you leave the tires on the clockwork motors wheels and attach the small wheels to keep the engine on track it works really well, makes about 2 1/2 loops and has lots of traction, plus it has a much higher top speed. unfortunately it cant pull jack because having the bigger wheels with the tires on them effectively raises the gear ratio (witch is why it is faster) and the motor dosent have much power to begin with lol.

I can't really see how to remove the original wheels, and don't fancy just using brute force in case I damage the motor; any hints?

yea they arnt really suppose to come off, and it takes a lot of work to get the new ones on too. don't worry about hurting the motor, the wheels will break first if things go bad. heres how you do it, grab the one wheel with each hand and turn them in opposite directions a few times to make sure they arnt stuck to the axle then pull them away from each other as hard as you can while turning the wheels back and forth. eventualy one will come off. then either pry the other wheel off with a flat blade screw driver (if you don't want to use it later, it will most likely break the wheel) or hold the metal shaft with a set of vise-grips and remove the wheel in the same way you removed the first one (if you want it to be useable later). now the hard part is getting the new wheels on, the metal shaft from the motor is the same size as the metal shaft that sticks out of the back of an old lego train wheel. you have to remove the shaft from the train wheel and then press it on to the shaft on the motor. but much like the wheels on the motor the shafts in the train wheels were not ment to be removed. you need to grab the metal shaft in the train wheel with some vise-grips (or a set of pliers) and pull the shaft out. this is much easier said than done, and you have to be very carful not to break the train wheel in the process. once you get the shaft out you just press the train wheels onto the shafts on the motor (don't press them so far as to make contact with the motor, leave a small gap) and your done.

it helps if you have a broken motor to practice with first. if you look at the top left corner of the fist pic you can see a yellow clockwork motor with the wheels removed. I tried all this on that motor first, it was junk, totally jammed, I think some kid played with it in the bath tub and then the internals rusted solid. I also took that motor apart, and let me tell you, these things are made well. the shaft is one solid piece with a gear in the middle that contacts a series of other gears before finaly reaching the spring, its all metal and its all thick, you arnt going to break it with anything short of a hammer.

Edited May 19, 2014 by rsb0204

[LEGO Train 12 Volts]

Wow nice!

I like this experiment!

[rsb0204]

Wow nice!

I like this experiment!

thanks, im working on another one in LDD and im hoping to start ordering parts soon. these little wind up motors are addictive .

[Hrw-Amen]

May have to try this. I have tried it with a pull back motor I have but it was a bit of a failure, as said lots of wheel spin at first then nothing, no grip whatsoever on the track with train wheels. I would like to get a clockwork one to try. I bought the pull back one simply to try it out as it was only a few pennies.