Chuck Posted December 16, 2014 Author Share Posted December 16, 2014 Well I finally got caught up on some customers work (I do custom DCS conversions) and that gave me a chance to flywheel and service/ rebuild the USA F3 drives. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dash 8 Posted December 16, 2014 Share Posted December 16, 2014 Very nice , i hope it works good with DCS Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuck Posted December 22, 2014 Author Share Posted December 22, 2014 They'll work just great with DCS! Speaking of DCS here's the preliminary PS2 install in both units. Speakers are mounted in the fuel tanks. Next will be wiring the hoods for lights & smoke. Hope to have them both wrapped up in the next week. Even installing a ProtoCoupler on the back of the B unit came out just right! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
enginear joe Posted December 23, 2014 Share Posted December 23, 2014 Wow Chuck. You're very neat and thorough with your work. It's nice to see these beauties get the sound they deserve. Are they for you or a customer? Do you pull the worm off the shaft or make a two pieced flywheel? I hacked the truck up to fit a flywheel over the end of the worm on my B&O geep that never got finished. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuck Posted December 24, 2014 Author Share Posted December 24, 2014 Joe, They're mine....I've wanted a set in large scale ever since K-Line made them in O Gauge years ago. Then a few years back when both MTH & Lionel made them, That really pushed me to have them I always pull the worm gear and fabricate a plastic flywheel that presses on. Here's a cheap but very effective way to remove a worm gear. Just a piece of flatstock with a hole drilled in it and a notch cut from the edge to the hole & the right sized drift punch...this setup will effectively remove a lot of different worm gear/ motor combinations. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
enginear joe Posted December 24, 2014 Share Posted December 24, 2014 Ah Craaaa.... sugar. I already hacked up my truck because I didn't think that worm gear would come off. I chopped off the gear from the axle and cut the truck sides to make room for a flywheel that fit snug onto the worm. I loss the use of one driven axle! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuck Posted January 14, 2015 Author Share Posted January 14, 2015 That makes it kinda tough to speed match by not having the flywheel on the motor shaft. Well these F7 units are wrapping up as they're now on the rails. May add a few more lights but have other projects that need working on Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rayman4449 Posted January 14, 2015 Share Posted January 14, 2015 Chuck's work is always the most professional and meticulous of any I have ever seen All traction tires on the blocks, very nice and very smart! That engine pair will pull like a beast with the least amount of weight saving overall wear and tear on the drive-train. Will also balance out the load between the axles on each truck to balance the wear between the two axle gears. Much smarter than swapping them for all metal and trying to add tons of weight to make it pull the needed load in which case it needs to pull all the weight up grades plus still have the original pull stress which will just accelerate wear on all wear points.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PAZGRR7315 Posted January 14, 2015 Share Posted January 14, 2015 Thanks to all of you for the comments and Chuck for your work with pictures. I have an Alco S-4 waiting for my conversion project; never understood how to do the trucks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuck Posted January 16, 2015 Author Share Posted January 16, 2015 Bob, Glad to have helped out Speaking of switchers...here's another NW2 that I've recently converted to DCS Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Screwy Nick Posted January 20, 2015 Share Posted January 20, 2015 Chuck, great work as always. And Ray said it all as far as just adding weight to a locomotive, not really necessary other than to wear it out quicker for no real gain at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuck Posted January 21, 2015 Author Share Posted January 21, 2015 Thanks! You know I could never figure out why folks remove and replace the traction tire equipped wheels with plain wheels then add about 10 pounds of extra weight then say it's "easier" on the gear train? When all they do is accelerate the wear factor and then complain that their weight overloaded engine will only pull 6 cars up a 4% grade?? Just doesn't make any sense. I think they forget that those heavily overloaded engines don't go uphill for free! Nick Jr, Like you told me once about a friend of yours that has the USA PA set in a ABBA consist...Will pull over a house! And those big PA's are real light...but they have traction tires. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rayman4449 Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 Bingo, exactly Chuck, that overloaded engine doesn't go up hill for free, it comes out in gear wear and on brass bearings in the truck frames. http://www.rayman4449.com/USA_Trains_SD40-2_Sidebearing_0020.JPG- Example of worn truck bearing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dieseldude Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 Wow! Those engines look and sound amazing! And great smoke, too! Nice job. -Kevin. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sean Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 Very nice work Chuck. I enjoyed reading this. On your paint booth... When are you going to build it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuck Posted January 21, 2015 Author Share Posted January 21, 2015 Sean, Boy I don't know but I do need one. Something that's big, fast & easy to setup & take down. Best paint booth is the great outdoors in bright sunlight with temps in the 70's BUT try to pick a day where the air doesn't have pollen or bugs floating around in it. Last fall we had a nice warm sunny day so I decided to paint. By the time I got ready the neighbor lit off a fire burning leaves and that ash was coming down everywhere Ray, Yeah they don't figure factor of adhesion when weighing down those loco's. A real F Unit weighs in at like 234,000 lbs. They claim it's more prototypical to remove traction tires and weigh them down BUT scale down the F Unit weight and your at over 8,000 lbs. or 4 tons...good luck with that. I'll stick with traction tires as the factor of adhesion goes way up! A real train say weighing in at say 15,000 tons parked on a 1% grade has a force of 300,000 lbs. on it pulling it downhill. 4 GP40's will hold that train parked on the hill with locomotive brakes only holding it. Those 4 GP40's are producing 360,000 lbs. of adhesion force while sitting still. To move that same train uphill at say 1mph only requires 801 hp. So it doesn't take all that power to move that load uphill it takes adhesion. I equate that into our models by using traction tires to increase adhesion. How can you tear up the drivetrain when it's not the power required to pull a train uphill?? Power comes in when holding a train at speed when going uphill or scooting across the wide open plains at 70 mph. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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