The Blue Planet

[RichardG]

When I joined the local society of Model Engineers, I expressed an interest in their table-top layout with its 45 and especially 32 mm dead tracks. Very casually but quite convincingly, it was pointed out that if I was thinking of getting into NG live steam, then I could buy a battery-powered loco for five-inch gauge for the same money.

I had a think about which would give me more fun, and have made a start with a (roughly) 1:5 scale loco from Maxitrak.


This should give me a diversion from the Heybridge Railway, which is now nearly three years underway and where the sample diorama and one of the locos have become wearying.

The procurement process was for me to buy a car battery from the local Halfords. Then it was easy to buy the loco, because without it the battery had no purpose

There are four colour options. I chose blue because it goes best with the decor in the living room, and this is the only space in the house to keep it.


The Planet has four motors, two per axle. If I have to justify this any more, I will say this is the largest loco I can lift in and out of the car on my own, and the smallest able to haul me up the gentle but finite gradients on the club’s track.


There are two sprung subframes, one for each axle.

I have some ideas. The loco needs a dead-man’s device or provision for a safety chain (yuk) for use with public running. I need to make up a coupling bar to bring it closer to the club’s trailer, so I can reach the controls better.

Access for fingers to lift out the battery is really tight, so some kind of cradle with a handle for the battery; and a quick-release connector for battery connections would be good too.

Then there might be better cab glazing, a headlamp, nameplates. And some less municipal-looking rolling stock.


I do not however need to add a cup holder. This is already here.

I think this will be fun.

 

[simond]

My pal, John, had a Bogie diesel outline (class 22, perhaps) which benefitted from a remote control rather like that you might have on a layout, speed knob & direction switch, and a horn,(and maybe an e-stop).

this does mean that you can sit up on the riding car, rather than getting a bad back leaning forwards with nothing to lean on.

one day, maybe, I will finish my Rob Roy…

 

[Osgood]

If you'd like traction battery power from a car-sized battery, try one of these when your Halfords jobbie gives out:

Optima Blue Top Battery BT DCM 4.2 (8016-253) (BCI D34M) BTDCM4.2 AGM

BTDCM4.2 Optima Spiral-Cell Blue Top AGM Battery Optima Batteries based in the USA have over 40 years experience in the battery sector. Used extensively across the globe, providing extreme performance and power across a broad range of applications. Using the very latest SpiralCell technology...

www.tayna.co.uk

Although you'll probably find a Red Top 4.2 almost as good.

 

[Jordan or Plymouth Mad]

The procurement process was for me to buy a car battery from the local Halfords. Then it was easy to buy the loco, because without it the battery had no purpose

Very sound reasoning, Sir!!

I'm rather surprised to see what looks like plastic gears in the drive train, though.

 

[Oz7mm]

All these models seem to have plastic gears. My Metropolitan Bo-Bo, not from Maxitrack and chronicled elsewhere on WT, also has such gears. Though it has only run a few test (real) miles, there is no evidence that they wear.

John

 

[Peter Insole]

Oh yes, it will indeed be fun... I really can promise you that!

I do hope my own efforts can help to prove that building trains to ride on need not require much in the way of specialist tools, any particular engineering background, be of landed gentry or even cost a fortune either!

Any, or all of the aforementioned are jolly useful of course... but it looks as if you have caught the bug, (that moment you applied the power, felt the movement, and started seeing the scenery gliding past) so it wont matter much whatever anyone says from now on?!

All the best,

Pete.

 

[Peter Insole]

By the way Jordan, the nylon gears (I assume that is what they are made of) are a matched and straight mesh, so should be good for a fair few miles?!

The only thing that bothers me is that they are far too smooth and quiet for any sort of proper railway locomotive! I quite forgot to mention the lovely noise in my previous reply!

Pete.

 

[Dog Star]

Richard,

Now that was an enjoyable time down the warren!

 

[RichardG]

The Planet had its second outing to the club today.



I took along a GPS app on my phone and a stopwatch. The raised track is reckoned to be 1,000 feet long, and a lap ought to take 2 minutes whilst respecting the line speed limit, this is 6 mph.

With the throttle wide open all the way, a lap took 1:58, and adding an adult passenger increased this to 2:01. The extra load clearly saps the power on the uphill sections and I guess it gives a bit of extra momentum going downhill. The GPS app is consistently showing 5 mph on the level, and 3 to 6 on the gradients.

The loco has four 60 watt motors, two driving each axle. If I use it for public running, a parent and two small children should be good, but two adults and even worse a child as well will sap the power.



The "highway pegs" belong to a member of the club and allow a better driving position whereby the driver can sit further forward and reach the controls. They are good with a steam loco but a bit academic for me because I want to add a dead-man's device for public running and the easiest way to do this is to build it into a hand-held control box. The control box being on a length of cable and letting me sit further back.

A safety chain is a permissible alternative to the dead-man's device but not very pretty, and the control box brings a better driving position.

If you'd like traction battery power from a car-sized battery, try one of these when your Halfords jobbie gives out:

Optima Blue Top Battery BT DCM 4.2 (8016-253) (BCI D34M) BTDCM4.2 AGM

BTDCM4.2 Optima Spiral-Cell Blue Top AGM Battery Optima Batteries based in the USA have over 40 years experience in the battery sector. Used extensively across the globe, providing extreme performance and power across a broad range of applications. Using the very latest SpiralCell technology...

www.tayna.co.uk

Although you'll probably find a Red Top 4.2 almost as good.

To be honest, I think the Halford's 35 Ah car battery is more than I need. I would be very happy with enough power for an hour's operation. There's no point having a loco with more endurance than the driver.

When I bought the model I was a bit under the weather and I felt that its 26 kg bulk was all I could manage to lift in and out of the car. The Halfords battery adds 11 kg, so this comes out for carrying around. But if I could find a 3 or 4 kg battery, I reckon I could pick up the loco with battery inside. This would open the way to adding a charging socket and indeed keeping the loco complete all the time. I would want a battery able to cope with deep discharge.

Obviously a lighter battery will reduce traction but all I need is "sufficient" traction. Perhaps an experiment is called for, placing the Halfords battery on the riding truck with some longer leads, and seeing how the loco copes.

 

[RichardG]

The Planet has gone to a new home. It was too heavy for me to pick up off the floor, so it had to stay on top of a piece of furniture from where I could carry it out to the car and back again. And so it got in the way. And if I am going to drive public passenger trains, I might as well be using one of the club's locos; they are more powerful and easier to keep momentum going up the gradients.

The buyer took well over an hour. Much of this time was spent looking at my 7 mm efforts. He didn't say much, just looked. He studied the incomplete layout with some care, and then simply said I am a "perfectionist". Hmm.

Curiously, his partner is the niece of the chap who ran Backwells of Hawkwell. Small world.