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Motors, Gears and Gearboxes

Discussion in 'Kits, Kit bashes & Scratch builds' started by Wolseley, Jan 15, 2019.

  1. Jan 15, 2019 #1
    Wolseley

    Wolseley Full Member

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    I have a few white metal kits to put together, although at the moment most of my modelling time is taken up with construction of a layout. They are all (bar one) 00 DJH kits: Caledonian 439 class 0-4-4T; Caledonian 34 class 2-6-0; Highland/Caledonian River class 4-6-0; and a Highland Jones Goods 4-6-0. The odd one out is a North British Glen 4-4-0 by GEM.

    What I am wondering about is what on earth to use for motors and gears (or would gearboxes be better for meshing?). It would keep costs down if I can make use of what motors I have, although I don’t have any spare gears or gearboxes. I was hoping that some of our forum members more knowledgeable in the area of chassis construction might be able to offer some advice. Come to that, I have never used a gearbox before, so it isn’t as if it’s something I know much about - I know Markits make them, but I don’t know what else is out there.

    The motors I have in my spares box are a used but working X04 (the obvious candidate for the GEM L1 chassis I have for the Glen), a lightly used XT60 and three unused Anchoridge DS10.
     
  2. Jan 15, 2019 #2
    Rob Pulham

    Rob Pulham Happily making models Staff Member Administrator Feature Contributor

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    Hi Wolseley,

    The motors that I have had supplied with the DJH kits that I am building are both open framed types - I haven't figured out just how I will, fit them yet but what my workbench as I will post it up when I get that far.
     
  3. Jan 15, 2019 #3
    York Paul

    York Paul Staff Member Moderator

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    Hi Wolseley,

    I can really only advise from a 7mm perspective but I'm sure the 4mm chaps can confirm what they use as suitable for the job in their scale. Gearbox spec is dependent on what you want your loco to do and how you want it to respond to your controller commands, much of my steam build stuff take a 26:1 ratio and my Sulzer Type 2 diesel builds are fitted with 20:1 single mesh gears. I have a Britannia on the workbench which will be fitted with a JH motor with 26:1 double reduction box, the reason being is I want a nice smooth and efficient pulling loco which that combination will give, whereas the Class 3 and 4 locos which are slower in reality can have the single gear and worm drive. So I guess regards the motor and gearing spec it all comes down to how you want your loco to perform, rule of thumb is the lower the gear ratio the faster your engine will go and, fitting double or treble reduction gearing will increase your engines torque efficiency and make your loco smoother in pulling weight at lower speeds. Bottom line is you wouldn't fit a 13:1 gear in a Jinty unless it was to go the speed of a rocket and you wouldn't fit a 50:1 gear ratio in an A4 unless it was to crawl at the speed of an industrial dock shunter. Hope this helps.
     
  4. Jan 15, 2019 #4
    Splitpin

    Splitpin Full Member

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    Gearboxes 4mm : High Level Kits might be a good place to start if you can get past all the beautiful little locos to the Gearbox page - lots of good info, both specific and general.
    Here's a link http://173.254.28.51/~highlev3/chris/Pages/
     
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  5. Apr 6, 2019 #5
    Wolseley

    Wolseley Full Member

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    Thanks for your answers. I ended up getting two of these from DJH, one for my Jones Goods and one for my Caledonian 34 class 2-6-0: http://www.djhmodelloco.co.uk/prodpage.asp?productid=3200

    I have been trying the motor/gearbox assembly in the chassis and, although it's pretty obvious where the axle and wheels go, I can't figure out how you can fix the assembly firmly to the chassis - surely this would need to be done somehow to stop the motor moving up or down when the power is applied. Can anyone advise me how to do this? There's probably information out on the internet (or maybe even on this forum) but, if there is, I can't find it. There is a fair bit of useful information on the High Level Kits site, but what there is stops short of telling you how to fit the assembly to the chassis.

    For those who aren't familiar with these kits, for the chassis they have the old fashioned rectangular brass strips that are screwed to the spacers.
     
  6. Apr 8, 2019 #6
    Rob Pulham

    Rob Pulham Happily making models Staff Member Administrator Feature Contributor

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    Hi Jim,

    Further to our conversation, I couldn't upload an image to a PM so I have posted it here instead.

    motor restraint.jpg
     
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