What’s on your Workbench?

[ScaleCraft]

Back when I was buying and restoring vintage H0 stuff......there was an alleged Lindsay with a belt drive. Like an o-ring. Never seen another....maybe it was another oddity the seller had no idea and just placed a name on it.
Single sheave pulley.

[PRRK4s]

Finally finished the Pacfic Limited PRR X23b last month and then jumped into the next unexpected project. Building the new resin PRR X31f kit produced by Yarmouth Models. Dang what a nice kit! All that's needed for finishing that one is the trucks I have on order from Protocraft. The Yarmouth kit featured a resin body, resin detail parts, metal etchings, laser cut roof walks, a special 3d printed roof and all the necessary grab irons, brass wire, brake details, decals, etc. to finish the car. The limited run was sold out quickly but one became available so I bought it. This was their first venture into O scale resin so I'm hoping since it was a success a flat car or gondola might be in their future releases. PRR of course!

[De Bruin]

Wow! those are beauties!
Like them both but that X31f would be real eye-catcher on any freight.

[ScaleCraft]

Lindsay never used spring belts. Varney? Yes.

Jay

Went looking, think I found what the guy was offering as a Lindsay.
Baker. Belt drive. I know why I passed on it, looked like that belt if fairly well embedded in the drive, and I KNEW how much PITA the Athearn HiFs were to change belts on:

https://www.hoseeker.net/baker/bakerpowertruckpg1.jpg

That's roughly the photo I saw in the middle of that page.

[Jay Criswell]

Lindsay did offer a special unit that went in box car kit. The kit was basically a Silver Streak box car kit with a cutout in the floor/frame and the power unity would extend through it. It fit the Silver Streak HO sprung truck and, in fact, had a little sheave/pulley one one end of the two axles. They used a rubber band or small o-ring to tie the axles together. They called it The Ghost. John Allen did some for his layout. Probably his own design.

I still have one of the kits in my Lindsay collection.

If you look closely at the CP Huntington photos, in the Kemtron Catalogs of the era, you can make out the end of a Lindsay sticking out of the area where the back should be.

Jay

[ScaleCraft]

Yeah, knew about the Ghost, an\gled motor and all.

Lindberg, looks like Athearn drivers for rubber band with a spring belt wrapped around both and a pulley above;

https://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/topic/old ... ing-drives

https://www.hoseeker.net/lindberg/lindb ... herpg2.jpg

[R.K. Maroon]

The discussion of spring belts reminded me that I never responded to two comments Sarge made about the Hawk switcher:

I wonder if the hood is over-wide (on the Hawk switcher) to accommodate the K&D

It may be, but the inside of the hood is thinned in the area where the K&D was mounted, which is easily spotted by a notch in the frame to accommodate the field laminations. Further, I have a second motor-gearbox assembly from one of these, and the motor field laminations have been ground down to narrow the motor. That's not proof of anything though, so I will measure the hood width and see if I can find a drawing somewhere that shows prototype dimensions. Bill Lenoir designed the model, and as I recall he published such a drawing in a contemporaneous Model Railroader.

I seem to remember the Walthers boxcab using very similar spring-belt and pulley drives

Correct -- but only in the first two years, which was 1936-37:




The second drive design was used for two more years, 1938-39:



There is a horizontal motor sitting right on top of the truck, with spur gear on the end of the motor shaft.

The third drive was the classic, vertical-motor Walthers drive that was used in there traction and gas electrics for many years thereafter:



Jim

[sarge]

Thanks for that, Jim. Truly these people were very very sharp in those days.

[Jay Criswell]

I installed a new drive in one of those. Somebody did a real hatchet job on it, prior to my attempt. It had a combination of a small Sagami, CLW gearboxes and a collection of junk between them. If interested, here's a link to a bunch of photos. No particular order to them. Norm tells me it's a beast and really pulls well.

https://app.photobucket.com/u/jaycriswe ... 31c1e02f7a

Jay

[bob turner]

Exquisite gear work.
So have you decided that Delrin chain is as good as timing belts?
I have one of these, powered by George Wilson with four Escap motors. It really needs to be cleaned up and run.
Anybody know the prototype?

[ScaleCraft]

Is the top one with spring belts insulated?

[Jay Criswell]

Bob,

No, just cheaper and they seem to be more forgiving. Please remember, all of these are powered by gear head motors so everything is turning far slower than a pulley/sprocket coming directly off the end of a motor. All sprockets are polished because and flaw could potentially eat up the chain in no time.

Jay

[Jay Criswell]

Dave,

I'm not sure who you're directing your question. If it's me, I don't understand. If it's someone else then I guess it doesn't matter that I don't.

Jay

[sarge]

Is the top one with spring belts insulated?

Dave, I had two with that drive, one insulated and one not. I knew something of the history of the insulated one and it was in that configuration when the previous owner got it used during the war. He didn't know if it came that way or the wheels had been recut. A catalogue might tell us if there was an option, but I wouldn't at all be surprised.

Anybody know the prototype?

Its a GE/Ingersol-Rand 600hp 100-ton boxcab; the model was of one delivered to CNW, #1200. This article has a builder's photo of that particular variation. Same photo also appeared in the Loco Builders Cyc of that period.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GE_boxcab

[ScaleCraft]

Dave,

I'm not sure who you're directing your question. If it's me, I don't understand. If it's someone else then I guess it doesn't matter that I don't.

Jay

Directed to Jimmy, but it's okay. Read the text, saw early, in the 30's, spring belt drive, then the OS3rd whiskers, immediately thought "uninsulated"