Grovenor Sidings, Railway Modelling Pages by Keith Norgrove
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Diesel/Electric Drive ideas.

This page has resulted from discussions initiated by Richard Tearle and contributions from Russ Elliot and Andy Reichert.

So far it contains some illustrations of the various bits and pieces discussed.

1. Overland Models/Ajin Precision drive system

This system is fully sprung with a coil spring to each axlebox and uses a 15:1 reduction gearbox for each bogie linked to 1:1 spiral gears for each axle. The drive is fully reversible, ie pushing the loco along the track will spin the motor.

Construction is simple, operation smooth, if it has a weakness it is the bearings which do not look durable, just holes in 0.5mm plate.

The gearboxes are, however, superb - smooth quiet and solidly engineered.

Click on the pictures for larger versions.

Ajin11s.jpg (5252 bytes)

 This shows the top view of the Ajin chassis showing the drive shaft and universals to the reduction gearbox which is integrated with the final drive to the centre axle and supported on the axle.

Ajin10s.jpg (6898 bytes)

 Here we see the bottom up view, the three gearboxes are linked by 'D' shaft and sleeve couplings which allow freedom for the individual wheelsets to move on their springs but are rigid enough to act as the torque arms for the gearboxes.
(Where I wrote SD45 please read SD60, not that there's much difference but the chassis was actually intended for an SD60)

Ajin12s.jpg (8079 bytes)

 This is the frame sans wheelsets, very straightforward.

Ajin9s.jpg (6127 bytes)

 And the component parts, electrical pickup by the wipers attached to the plastic stretcher.

Ajin5s.jpg (6144 bytes)

 Here details of the springs and bearings, the axle end actually bears on the hole in the retaining plates, the hole in the axlebox proper is larger. The plates could be replaced when worn but I suspect the retaining lugs which are part of the lost wax axlebox will break and a new fixing would have to be devised.

Ajin1s.jpg (5320 bytes)

 These pics show the two types of gearbox with a P4 wheelset, the wheels are on the original axle and the axle end is not long enough for outside bearings so longer axles need to be substituted.

Ajin2s.jpg (5020 bytes)

Ajin13s.jpg (6587 bytes)

 This pic shows the limit of the drive shaft u/j. At this angle they operate comfortably.

Ajin14s.jpg (4526 bytes)

 Here one of the motor - reduction gear drive shafts and a 'D' shaft from the end gearbox with its sleeve.

2. Some of the Exactoscale components

Exacto2s.jpg (13590 bytes)

 This is the kit of parts from exactoscale, assembly needs care, check here how Ted Scannel does it.

Exacto6s.jpg (4392 bytes)

 The assembled result.

wgd-1s.jpg (6433 bytes)

 And connected to an Exactoscale rubber coupling, these are no good as a u/j but do give a bit of resilience in a drive line, and may be OK for similar use to the Ajin 'D' shafts above, although I haven't tried it!

rgd-1s.jpg (5247 bytes)

 This is the 2:1 reduction box, the centre axle has an idler gear same size as the bottom gear, the single stage unit has just the one large gear, the 1:1 box has two of the larger gears.

rgd-2s.jpg (4330 bytes)

 Here the RGD is linked to the 18:1 worm drive.

escap-1s.jpg (5979 bytes)

 This shows an Escap motor and small flywheel attached to an RGD, this was in preparation for a tender drive but is equally applicable to Richard's Scheme 2.

For further information on this topic try Richard Tearle's proposals and/or Andy Reichert's Electro-Glide system.

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Copyright Keith Norgrove.
Last revised: August 27, 2003