Sometimes it doesnt always go to plan...

Hello.

Its about time for another post me thinks.
As the title says, sometimes the best ideas and plans in my head don't always work and below is a classic case of that. This time it was inspired by some recent posts regarding the influx of mini motors from China and in this instance some tiny 3x4x12.8mm which were ordered sharpish from here EBAY LINK

After some initial thoughts I came up with the idea of using these as a miniature axle motor and just fit some wheels onto each end. The idea sounded right in my head and once the motors have been delivered I carried out some simple checks just to make sure the ideas would physically work, so far so good.
Next on from this was to find something to motorise using this new design. I had a choice between a small shunter type or a bus. The bus idea appealed to me but at the time a lack of some suitable donor vehicle lead me to try the shunter option. I had an etch for a Ruston 48DS lying about so the basic structure was put together so I had an idea of the volume I had.
To start with I machined up a set of 4 wheels using the lathe. The rims were made from some Nickel Silver and the middles from Paxolin. These were then pressed onto the motor shafts to see what they looked like.

Next was the chassis design and construction which, to be honest sort of 'evolved' as it took some time trying to figure out things like mounting the motors. I came up with a design that looked like it would work eventually though.

At this point I was getting quite excited until it was wired up and tested. Then it became apparent that this design might not be as good as it was in my head. The problem is the motors just arent powerful enough to deal with something like this. The chassis design had wire pickups to the wheel rims and even with these adjusted so they are hardly touching the rims, the wheels refused to revolve at all. If I am having trouble already then the chances of it pulling itself along is negligible.

Its a shame really but I am now thinking it would be best to put this to one side for now and come back to it sometime in the future once I have figured out a better was to motorise it. Things don't always go the way I hoped they would!

Anyway, on a better note, the 14xx is finished (apart from its decoder) and I am extremely happy with the way its turned out (thanks Steve). Thats another engine ticked off my list!

Julia :o)

EDIT:

OMG! I just noticed I havent really explained the 14xx! So here goes...

So, the original boiler was stuffed full of lead but I found it just wasn't heavy enough to pull anything. The idea came to replace the lead with a big slug of tungsten but as all the lead was stuck fast with super-glue I decided to replace the boiler section. This was scratch built with castings fro N Brass and my rivet tool  was used fr the first time to do the smokebox details. The tungsten (recycled dart) was then machined to be a snug fit inside the Brass boiler.

:o)