Saturday 1 February 2014

Power Bogie Japan


Now look at these here.  I'm going to have to get some of these to try out.  I have one particular project in mind that this would be the ideal answer to the current poor drive train.

So, after all the years of argument about whether or not HO scale suspended motors can be done here we have a commercial product at least.  Now of course these won't be suitable for everything, but with due diligence I can a lot of modellers being able to use these.

8 comments:

  1. Welcome back! Hope the writing went well.
    More entertaining than the product is the fractured English in the linked website. Reminds me of building model kits back in the 70s. Japanese text translated to German, then Italian , then French and then English.

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    1. The writing continues, and you can read more about it here. On my fourth novel as I write this.

      http://ashleyrpollard.blogspot.co.uk/

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  2. I've got an alert out on those too, ideal for repowering a Deutsche Reichsbahn railbus. According to RMWeb (a chap on there did order and receive from Hobby Search.jp before thy sold out) you get 2 such motors/wheelsets per set.

    I was lucky enough to get the kit tram chassis from the same manufacturer (17.5mm wb, 8.3mm diameter wheels, 26:1 gearing, powered and trailing bogie for 16.5mm gauge track) http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10253348 Assembles quickly and accurately, runs decently well and (with a small bit of fettling) the power bogie will go into a 3D printed DR ASF battery loco body.

    Taking into account postage and getting stung by HMRC/Royal Mail, it worked out a tad over £30 (cheaper than the equivalent Black Beetle/Bull-Ant)

    Annoyingly though, the site restricts orders to only 1 per person/order.

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  3. Just had an email from Hobby Search confirming new stock of the axle-hungs, so I've ordered 2 (hopefully 2 pairs)

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  4. Ashley,

    I have bought these directly from the manufacturer also for DCC. I need to discuss several matters so I need to get in contact with you if possible. I´m modeling CNS&M myself. Tony

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  5. If I may ask, How do these perform? is there adequate power from such a small motor? Are speeds somewhat realistic or too fast? (looking at the reduction gearing in the photo)? I am looking at these for a couple of otherwise very difficult old brass repowering projects. just checked the Hobby search link and these are listed as "long sold out".

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    1. Gearing is about 5:1, single-reduction. The motors are probably 3-6v dc ones, so applying 12v will see the model move *very* rapidly!

      I've installed 2 in a German 4-wheel railbus, but need to add resistors in the wiring to reduce the speed quite a bit.

      And, as they can be quite free-running, you can't park/stable the loco/unit on a gradient much steeper than 1 in 40, otherwise it'll run away. Likewise you do run the risk of 'running away' pulling a heavy train on a gradient!

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  6. the cars cannot stop on steep, it will be slide down when no power supplied to cars.

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