All-Nation oddity

[ScaleCraft]

This 4-6-0 with lead boiler I have been working on (now running) had a very strange axle and gear, removed when I went back to stock, as I had none of the rest of the gearing:



Well, sitting on my computer bench, under the monitor, for years has been a KTM pot metal screw together gearbox.
I had an apostrophe, and pulled the axle out of the parts box, and it goes into that specific KTM gearbox.

The parts loco I have still had the lower plate from the first one, with the gear area cut out for something. Now I know.
I need to minimize the worm shaft thrust (more washers) and maybe install this box.

Near as I can tell, I need a solid shaft to a motor, as there does not seem to be any mounts to fix the box from rotating.
Glad nobody wanted the box.

So, extended rear frame, lead boiler, NW2 cab back in cab, KTM gearbox.........really weird.

[Jay Criswell]

Okay, time for some thread drift, but only just some...it is A-N and it's an oddity.

A friend asked me about installing one of my light duty (switching) drives into an All-Nation NW-2, owned by a friend of his...so, a friend of a friend. Anyway, all he had was the body but I had frames and, other required parts. In my collection of old A-N parts I found some brass frames and since I wanted to install a floor the seemed like the right way to go. Carl Jackson provided the OMI trucks (the originals were just too crude). The model was to be P:48, with a sound decoder. Seemed like a fun challenge so I went for it. I had some TCS WOW decoders (HO) with keep alives in stock so we used one for this project. We also planned to use a Tang Band speaker but it just wouldn't fit. It hindered the truck rotation. We might have been able to install the speaker inside the shell but I feared the die cast body would really impair the sound. I wanted to mount the speaker below the frame where it's pretty much hidden by the fake fuel tank. The mechanism used two 2619 Faulhaber gear head motors. Running at top speed, while holding the model in place, and allowing the wheels to slip, the whole thing draws 0.020 amps. Yep, the HO decoder will be just fine. Customer will just have front and rear lights so I installed two MiniaTronics 2 conductor plugs and wired one end to the wire termination blocks. The incandescent lights are 18 volt so no need for resistors. The remainder of the drive uses my ball bearing gearboxes, axles, and P:48 wheels. Wiper mounts are screwed to the new, narrowed, truck bolsters and are machined from Delrin. Wipers themselves come from Rod Miller. Oh yeah, it runs really well and sounds good too.

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[sleepmac]

Jay, that's beautiful!

Dan Weinhold

[bob turner]

Yeah - work of art.

[2railjon]

Awesome, Jay!

[Jay Criswell]

Thank you for the compliments. It is fun seeing what can be done with some of the is old stuff. I also enjoy the look on some modelers faces when an old model runs far better than their new "Store Bought" treasure. A little twisted? Maybe, but that what the voices tell me I enjoy.

Jay

[ScaleCraft]

Thank you for the compliments. It is fun seeing what can be done with some of the is old stuff. I also enjoy the look on some modelers faces when an old model runs far better than their new "Store Bought" treasure. A little twisted? Maybe, but that what the voices tell me I enjoy.

Jay

Oh, yeah. I was raised in Model Railroads to make it run smooth and quiet first. I run into too many folks who throw a decoder at it to make it "good enough".

Personally, 70+ year old steam locos with phenolic (it appears) worm gears and steel worms, with spring drive coupling.....out performs, smoother than any import stuff I ran across when I was paying attention.

Bob (RK) Hall used to show me loco balance....weight be danged, he'd say....loco only on his balance beam, no lead or trail, balance to the center of the drivers....and the OLD stuff WAS! Then you add in cast iron driver tires, and it's all over.

[Jay Criswell]

Okay, now we drift just a little further. Guy lists this a "Brass Import". Obviously, it isn't. It's A-N or one of it's predecessors. What grabbed my attention was the last photo. Is that some sort of clutch coming of the rear of the motor. I've never seen anything like that. I remember reading about fluid clutches. Kind of a crude torque converter, if you will. I've often thought about trying to experiment with building one. With today's seals and bearings it might be fun.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/VINTAGE-0-SCAL ... SwVX1csAJT

Jay

[sarge]

Jay, I might be telling you something you already know, but my bet would be a centrifugal clutch of the same ilk as Stew Kleinschmitt used to use. They had pistons arrayed radially with pads on the ends that slipfit into what looks like a flywheel on the motor shaft. On the drive shaft is a cap that enclosed the bit on the motor shaft the inside of which provided the surface against which the pistons would bear with contact forces increasing with the rpm the motor would induce.

That outside bit completely surrounds the inside bit and disassembles. That way a ball bearing on the motor shaft keeps the outside bit in proper radial alignment with the inside bit and alignment between motor shaft and drive shaft is maintained.

Its very effective, but at its best on gradeless bits or for yard switching. As loads go up the adhesion of the pistons gets exceeded and the clutch begins to slip more and more. I have one of Stews drives in a diesel here, got tired of limiting it to the yard, so drilled and tapped a screw so you can lock the two halves of the clutch together and run it direct drive. Pull the screw and the clutch is back in play. Its a horse, very smooth and as good a drive as existed in its day, still needing no apology today.

[bob turner]

Andy Romano wanted to do such a clutch commercially. His proposal was we design and build it and he would market it. We would then both get rich. We were busy doing 2-rail conversions at the time, and trying to keep the lights on. No cushion for such an investment.

[Jay Criswell]

Sarge,

Yes, very familiar with Stu's clutches but never was impressed. I still have some HO versions, of unknown (or forgotten) origin. They used rubber pieces that probably woked far better when the rubber was new and pliable/soft.

Looking at the photo, it doesn't look anything like one of his. Having said that I've only worked on a dozen, or so and the design may have changed of the years.

I may bid on the model just to see what the hell it is...if I was unlucky enough to win. Yeah, I need another A-N F unit like I need another hole in my head.

Jay

[sarge]

I'm curious, too, though I wouldn't be surprised if its a different make of centrifugal clutch.

They were the one thing didn't like about Stu's drives back in the day; I think engineered for the old guys with no grades on plywood. This thing is otherwise one of my favourites, a real over-engineered ball-bearing tractor and smooth especially given the open frame motor. The screw through the clutch housings was the best thing I did for that loco, though. I am not impressed by clutch-drives in models...

[bob turner]

Today’s All Nation oddity: I note various eBay offerings with truly surprising “buy it now” prices. For instance, $5/dozen for flathead brass screws (I buy a hundred for that price). I am assuming this is the new All Nation store, since it sort of says so.

While I wish him all the luck in the world, is it possible that prices are set so that no sales will occur? Indeed, I would guess that a domestic supplier of O Scale parts is climbing a very steep hill in any case.