The wizzy bits

One of the problems with the railcar kit is the vagueness of the motorizing instructions. I'm sure a GP-XX or farish mech can be used, I'm just not overly sure how the blighter would fit in. Not having a spare mech lying around, I came up with the following compromise.


The motor is an open frame Tenshedo jobby sold by Robin Knight as a spare for an OO or 12mm SPUD unit ( in retrospect I think that there might be an N scale version). The Atlas worm gear is mounted onto the motor shaft.. the whole motor is jacked up to the correct height so that the worm and drive gear just mesh nicely without being too tight. the motor case is 18mm long which will just fit into the baggage compartment with minimal intrusion into the passenger cabin (in retrospect I'm not sure why I bothered worrying about it). If this is still too large, then look here for a smaller motor which should fit much better.

I'd test run it, but I don't seem to have any fine wire around top connect the pickups. For a motor mount I'm going to glue a brass frame over the top, and then build a motor mount on the internal frame somewhere. the main concern is that the powered bogie will only have minimal side-to-side travel and the minimum radius might be limited. I had hoped to get it round 18" radius curves, but it might have to move out to 24". It will make the Ka's easier to build too.

Finally, on a different note, why is it when you only have one drill bit you never lose it (that 1.4mm drill has served me well for nearly 25 years now) but when you buy a set, suddenly you can never find the one you want!