Axle-hung motors

[ON28]

Came across these, sold as a pair they may be one solution to getting an LM into tight spaces. 3-6v, so resistors called for for 12v power. 5:1 single reduction gearing.  See the link for info.
https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10260566

Here's a person who tried them, read the comments
https://no-two-alike.blogspot.com/2014/02/power-bogie-japan.html

[KPack]

That is certainly interesting.  I wonder how good the slow speed is.

I have a model I've been building that uses a Stanton Drive from NWSL.  The concept is good, and it's well-made, but the slow speed just isn't there.  Nowhere near as smooth as a traditional motor with flywheels, especially at slow speeds.  I can get my nicer locomotives to barely crawl at slow speed with Railpro, but I have been unable to get the Stanton Drive to work well.

When the "slow speed kick" is activated on Railpro, the Stanton Drive stutters like crazy before reaching a stable speed.  When the slow speed boost is off, the drive won't move until the voltage is higher, then it kicks in and takes off like a rocket.

-Kevin

[Michael Larson]

I was a little confused at first about there being only one wire attached.  But upon further thought, and reviewing all the pics on the website given, I realized that they are designed to be wired in series.  The axel, or at least one wheel, of each unit picks up one rail, and by mounting them in opposite orientation and connecting the wires of each together, the motors are then in series with each other.  Clever, but doesn't lend itself well to DCC.

I like the idea and can see many applications for such a unit, but probably still in the future for most applications.  It's designed for single cars (street cars, RDCs, etc.) and would likely not have enough power to pull much, even if you put four of them in a single diesel unit.  But in time I think these types of units will break that power barrier, and then the increase of available space inside a diesel shell will present fantastic new opportunities.

Interesting that they say it's 1/80th scale.  In that scale, a 10.5mm wheel scales to 33".  But, in 1/87th scale 10.5mm scales to 36", a really great choice for those of us who run EMD E-units.

[William Brillinger]

I note that the website says these are not available - I seem to recall it said that back in 2014 when I first saw them too. 

[Michael Larson]

Bill,

Yeah, that's a bummer.  Non-the-less, I optimistically added myself to the notify when in stock list.  You never know, it could happen.   

[TwinStar]

RailFlyer locomotives were supposed to use something similar to this as well. I was supposed to have gotten several of them but almost everything that I paid for never materialized.