DC control

Jan 10, 2005 35 Replies

Wire the motors in series and they run nice and slow too, with extra pickups the running becomes far smoother. The load hauling has to be seen to be believed, far superior to double headed unmodified locos. Of course some locos do not suit wiring in series (HST or XPT) as they will run too slow.

Regards

Kevin Martin

I did that to a Bachmann 44 ton switcher a while back.

It transforms switchers but halves the maximum speed.

The motors also start at exactly the same time.

Once upon a time real electric locomotives, railcars, tramcars etc started in series and only switched to parallel when they had reached a certain speed.

Christopher,

Wasn't that the switching of the field coils of the motors series wound to shunt wound - which is a bit different to connecting complete motors in series or parallel.

Jim.

In message , Jim Guthrie writes

I seem to remember that the controller on the 4-EPB electrics had 4 positions: shunt, series, parallel, and weak field.

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Terry Flynn

You are the one who intends waste time re-powering your Lima 44's. I never suggested to do it. I suggested getting an accurate model instead, the Trainorama 44.

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HO wagon weight and locomotive tractive effort estimates

DC control circuit diagrams

HO scale track standards

I never had any great success with the lima mechanisms, dual motors still had poor pickup and higher than average minimum speed range. In fact I found it easier to get my steam locomotives to run better than Lima diesels.

Perhaps I'm just lucky with my examples, or perhaps I set them up better than other people, but mine run quite nicely.

Regards, Greg.P.

Each to their own f#ckwit.

nathan

Who gives a f#ck, thats your opinion but everyone doesnt have to agree with you do they.

Nathan

Ahhh, yes, you're the guy who sent his wife down to Cox Brothers Clothiers to get him a seercucker suit, and she went to Sears instead. Fits you perfectly.

Umm Im from Australia pal what the hell is Sears.Is that some American thing.

Typical Yanks.

Nathan

So you will get your wife to pay the bills and eat the kid, or the other way around?

I'm going to suggest that if you don't like Terry, you add him to your killfile.

If it hadn't been for reading his posting, I wouldn't have known about his website, which contains some pretty good stuff. A solid contribution.

Your contribution?

Greybeard.

Umm I don't think so, my wife and son come first.Hobbies come second, my wife and son are the most precious to me

Nathan

On Mon, 24 Jan 2005 16:56:14 +1300, Gregory Procter wrote: ...

Likewise we've found that ensuring the track is well laid and kept clean, as are the locomotive wheels, plus using a Gaugemaster HH feedback control gives extremely good low speed running. Many people express surprise when informed that the locomotive's are just standard Lima 'pancake' mechanisms.

That said the one simple upgrade I would recommend is arranging for power collection from as many wheels as possible in order to avoid stalling when passing over the frog of turnouts (and yes they are 'live' frog turnouts).

I found the addition of weight made the difference, so I haven't bothered with extra pickups (yet) That being said, I never build a model loco with less than 3 wheels on each side collecting and that with at least one axle floating. (exception 0-4-0t)

Regards, Greg.P.

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