DalaGStanator's Customs, Mods and Experiments

For the dual tyres, I only had to make two additional wheels and fit them behind the "single" ones. Both axles are the same length. I couldn't have done the same thing with the plastic wheels without breaking the rims, and 'their' axles are too short for it. A minor upgrade, but it makes more sense than what I've done until now.



Turned out I wasn't entirely correct about not being able to smoothen them. I initially tried using my black packing foam for treads, but they looked very messy and the foam was too thick in this scale. Would've looked more appropriate for off-road uses. Cutting strips of regular paper and gluing them on top worked better, even though the discs aren't perfectly cut. To see how the paper treads affect the wheels, I whipped up a medium duty with an Isuzu Elf-like cab and attached them to it. Still a bit wobbly, but more effective than the exposed discs. To accommodate the dual tyres, the rear bearing was shorter than the front one. The lorry was taken apart immediately afterwards.

Even though they weren't too bad once I added the paper treads, I'd still rather make them from actual plastic or even PVC (if I had the right equipment to use for the latter). Better than the wick sustainers and air drying clay method I previously tried.

Last Tuesday, I revisited the packing foam tread idea with a bigger wheelset knowing it would be easier to work with (due to the foam's thickness). If I hadn't focused on making them smaller than trains, aircraft or watercraft, I could've done the same for anything with rubber tyres. Even with the inevitable seam where the ends of the tread meet, they roll smoothly and quietly and the discs are more evenly cut. Also look forward to trying cardboard strips glued in a tread pattern someday.



Since I only made two and have plans for a batch of generic construction equipment (with more varied designs than my childhood ones in roughly the same scale), I built a small open-station tractor with them to try building typically massive vehicles without making them "train sized" or bigger. In part thanks to a book I grew up with that stars one, I tend to associate agrotech with these tractors over more modern types with cabs. The front wheels were meant to be attached with separate axles, but I have yet to find a good design for that. For the (heavily simplified) engine detail, I relied on some rolls of cardboard and aluminium, matchsticks and a silver marker and glued it in 'after' it had a bonnet. The steering wheel is a wick sustainer fitted to a nail, and the seat is glued to a negative (spring) battery terminal.



Painted (marker) orange instead of red, since the latter is apparently too common. Apart from the engine, aluminium was used for the headlights, start crank, exhaust pipe and tail light assemblies. The grille is corrugated cardboard. Like on some of the 2022 batch, the headlights were filled in with glue. Although it won't have its own trailer or other equipment, it could still tow a TOMY/TrackMaster/other vehicle with a hook/pin coupling. Size comparison:



I then realised I made the bonnet too long and it had a part that wasn't needed (or would look better near the front), so I shortened it by cutting the tractor in half. Despite how the engine is mounted, the nail for the steering wheel still fits.



That said, regluing the front did cause a minor issue in that one wheel doesn't touch the ground anymore. Later, some more pieces were added underneath to strengthen the rejoined halves. While both axles can move freely, there are cases where one of them will jam (usually the front one, which has no treads on the painted tyres).

It's a better scale than my Jack and Alfie, and even the custom wheels are alright given the size and technique. Might even redesign J&E and build the rest of the Pack after my own equipment.

Three years after I didn't know what to do and left it in storage behind the engines, I found a way to get the powered ex Annie chassis to run again; albeit on one battery like a normal engine instead of three. I suddenly remembered my attempts to build a chassis for my other two "Thomas type" drive units and how I conducted power to them, and thought I could try the same thing with a wire instead of an aluminium foil strip. Like on other items with Thomas types, the DU's negative contact sticks out near the left wheel. There's usually a conductive plate that connects it to the battery's negative (model's front) terminal, and some of Custom TrackMasters' videos have shown a wire can do the same thing. The positive terminal can also be connected to the switch contact, but that starts the motor even in the off position. I chose to wire the DU to the existing bottom battery, whose terminals extend to the top. Essentially what Super thought I did when I first showed it. Only had to jump start the DU after it didn't respond. Even with a new battery and the remaining resistor removed, it's slower compared to most other DUs of that type. Could be the gear ratio is lower since it originally ran on 4.5V. However...



In addition to the broken rear coupling, the drive gear is also cracked. That makes the chassis get stuck within seconds and the wheels don't (always) engage in the on position. Unlike many cases, it can still run by itself on the ground and not just in the air. When it reaches the crack, the motor itself usually stops unless forced to move or if the voltage is higher. In the latter case, it doesn't "shut off" and has enough power to keep going. Could be risky to run for long since the gear would surely crack further. Due to the triangle screws, I currently won't be able to replace the coupling, the driving wheels or the DU itself/part of it.

Either way, I'm still glad I managed to get it working again in the first place. If I wanted, I could also rewire the 2x pack or a AAA one to get the OG speed.

Literally never thought I could do this without ordering a dedicated screwdriver in hopes it would be the right size. I even recall Chrisjo having to use a bench grinder (!) to reshape a regular one so he could deal with triangle screws. To my relief, it turned out one of the flat bits from my old 31 bit set perfectly fits and can actually move them unlike the hex (Allen) keys I tried right before it. After unscrewing, I took out the counterweight, replaced the coupling and fitted a compatible spare wheelset (currently black with non Plarail traction tyres). Now it no longer tips backwards without the 2x pack or no bottom battery. My only other grey drivers are from the Flip Face James, but they didn't fit since they have the wrong gear. Too bad I couldn't pull off one of the originals and fit both to the new axle. Might repaint these ones or put grey stickers over them. Even though it still has a (smaller) crack, the DU no longer shuts off on 1.5V. A look inside it revealed no dirt or any other cracks I know of.

Update:



Until I could take off the other OG wheel and fit both to the new axle, I applied round office labels (same size as Spenry's) and painted them grey instead. I put the front wheels back in with the spoked sides facing inwards, given most of my uses for it wouldn't look right with spokes. About the darker shade: they won't be permanent anyway, so no need to actually paint them. I also noticed a recess in each side of the battery compartment, likely to make room for the tabs on the OG 2x pack. To keep the front wheels in without it, I glued matchstick pieces just over the half axles. The former steam/sound switch was left unused and eventually taken out. I briefly rewired it to power an optional light as expected, which would work better with another pack or button/coin cells.

I even recall Chrisjo having to use a bench grinder (!) to reshape a regular one so he could deal with triangle screws.

All a matter of perception I suppose. To me it wasn't a matter of having to do it that way, I could have bought one for pennies,. More a question of if I need something and I can make it, then I will make it, ...what's the best way? Job done, satisfaction achieved.

Seeing repair videos of early Fisher Price Talking engines confirmed most of them (including Salty) have what is basically a retooled Flat drive unit, with the sound board replacing the battery terminals and switch. It even still has the rear screw hole and front bottom tab in the same spots. Unlike Talk 'n Action engines, the more complex half of the circuit is in the battery truck/tender. In some cases, the unit can be taken out without having to open the battery car as well.



Before opening Ivor V2, I thought his DU might have the front bearings and may not fit unless I'd cut them off. They weren't there, so I proceeded to take Salty apart. My 2.5 bit didn't work for the triangles, so I had to try other bits and even hex keys to get them out. One of the two rear screws and the front one came out with ease, but the third appeared to be stripped and required much more effort; all the while making sure not to tear the wire coupling. When I test fitted the regular DU, it slipped right in with no mods to the chassis whatsoever. Oddly, I did have to add tiny spots of Blu Tack under it to keep it down; otherwise, it slightly vibrates when running despite being fully tightened, causing the drivers to slip and get stuck. He can now free wheel, but not very smoothly.




If I'd moved Salty's workings to Ivor and had a recordable sound board, it could've played Jones the Steam's voice, the organ pipe whistle, that funny "pssh-t-kuff" chuff and possibly the theme tune. Only the wire coupling didn't fit without cutting the wires first. It did disengage and slip when not on the ground, but otherwise ran properly.



For the switch groove, I looked at a photo of a regular Salty to make sure I marked the exact spot. With only one chance to get it right, it had to be done with perfect accuracy. After I burnt it out with the soldering iron, the molten edges were sanded and filed.



Turned out the shell needed some more modding than I expected. Apart from the ridges that originally held the sound button and weights, two other cylindrical bits under the bonnet had to be cut, sanded and melted out. It was done before I had a rotary tool, hence why I needed a more difficult process. At a later point, I temporarily unscrewed one of the ends and filed through the shell. Without all these mods, he had to use a AAA since a AA was too big to fit. My only other gripes are having to remove all three screws to fit a battery and the lack of a retainer piece for the coupling (which I could fix with cardboard). The weights are now glued in to keep them from falling out.

I've been wanting to do this mod for literal years, and it even has another advantage in the form of a third "general purpose" chassis for my own engines. Who knows, it might even become an "Online Selling Shocker" one day since the only other one I know (by Megahedgehogx) wasn't motorised and (probably) no longer exists.

The four layered sleeper design I had in mind for my zip tie track looked good, until I found a minor issue with it: gluing the half sleepers at the ends would be difficult, since the sides are thinner than the treads and they would break off too easily. I kept the two layered rails since they're (naturally) more durable and keep their shape better once bent.



I then switched back to a flat design like V2; still made of four layers, but by gluing two next to each other. A third layer (outlined in image #6) was briefly added to make slots for the rails, which didn't quite work since the rails didn't "lock" into them. I'll have to find a better way to do it. Furthermore, the inconsistent widths of these ones led to a gauge that was smaller than before, and the plastic coaches that happened to fit on the one layered rails were now too wide for the above straight.



My last curved track jig wasn't very good due to how the rails were held in, and the pieces made with it tended to warp as a result of pulling their ends out (and also the rails being made of one layer). To rectify this, I tried making something more like a scaled down, tight radius version of BumBin's curve jig (see 4:40). That one is basically a frame with grooves to bend the rails into shape and hold them against the floor/other surface while gluing the sleepers on the bottom. It's more effective since it produces far more consistent pieces that don't lose their shape when released, and the same applies to my version even though it was put together differently. Due to their length and angle, it would take three more pieces to get a full circle than what I got from my previous technique.



As before, the narrow flanges on the aforementioned plastic train made it derail easily even though the gauge was correct this time. On one or two pieces, however, the coaches ran fine. Any of my own stock for such track would have broader flanges anyway.



Another option I tried for the rail slots was using matchsticks, which would've perhaps worked better had I glued them with superglue instead of hot melt (due to the excess between them). Even so, I had tough luck trying to file and burn the gaps to make them deeper. After that, I also tried cutting plastic tubes and aluminium strips (not pictured) and they too couldn't be tightened enough. My idea was to create a prototype/"master" sleeper I could mould and cast after making sure the slots worked. For connectors, I'd like to modify the half sleepers in a way they could meet and interlock; preferably with male and female at both ends since they can't be flipped over. It turned out a hole punch was able to penetrate the hot glued zip ties and "make" perfect male connectors, so I'll have to buy my own punch to avoid jamming/otherwise damaging the one I used.

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I've had the smoke equipped 4-4-0 on the back burner for too long. Being short on DC motors with non-broken/poorly repaired brushes, I wanted to revisit the idea of replacing the smoke fan with a piston for a puff effect. To see how the drive motor would handle it, I removed the smoke motor and attached the piston to a rod on one of the crankpins (which would've been hidden behind the coupling rod on that side). Due to the placement of the drive motor, there were no good ways to fit the mech with the loco's current design.



Looking at the above photo of a wheelset from a Krupp-built loco that had inside cylinders (credit to Keith Braithwaite), I noticed it had an irregularly shaped axle with its own crankshafts to allow the motion to work. This gave me an idea for a more viable way to drive the pump/a similar mech from an unpowered axle: bending a metal rod so it would have a protrusion in the middle, effectively acting as a crankshaft for the arm. Apart from not having to be attached to coupling rods or valve gear, it would also control the smoke and even give the illusion of steam being vented (like when the cylinder cocks are opened when moving from a stop). Definitely more practical than what I tried to do with gears and another fan before adding a separate motor. I currently don't have good metal rods to make the (final) axle from, so the one I modded was originally from an old pull back motor. Aluminium bicycle spokes should work since they might be easier to bend. If so, I could do away with wooden axles/shafts and upgrade existing models to prevent cracked wheelsets.

Last year, I originally planned to recreate Dübs No. 4101 with an authentic driveshaft for the jib yet never tried a design for it, instead building an orange saddle tank on the chassis. In the event I'll actually build it someday, two different prototypes were made for the mech until it could be installed in a full model. I correctly remembered getting at least one worm gear in the NXT 1 kit (8527) as well as the large turntable, so I had a perfect way to achieve the method I want to use. The middle holes in the 90° connectors (55615) lined up with the shaft and were big enough to hold an axle for gears. Adding an NXT motor programmed with the brick's built-in feature gave a neat slow output in both directions, like I'd expect the jib to operate at. With the unsuitable shape and bulkiness of these motors, it's a good thing I didn't have to incorporate it due to the wire end facing the wrong way.



Had my 59510 battery box still worked (only the power light turns on), the M motor would've been more appropriate design-wise; if it wouldn't be too close to the smokebox. I took the battery box apart to check the terminal wires but found nothing wrong, so it's likely a faulty component on the PCB.



After the Technic version (obviously) worked as intended, I measured the running board of my dark red side tank to get the approximate proportions the loco would have. It gave enough room to hide a motor behind the tank, which would power the shaft using a belt drive. That said, it might have to be geared down to be slow and strong enough since the jib would likely have its own motor for the hook, thus adding more weight along with its length and height. Although the black gear has 100+ teeth and the shaft uses a worm gear, the motor alone made it too fast on 1.5V when I tried it before building the base. A low speed N20 (probably 60 RPM) should make the jib move more realistically. The cab would have buttons/switches on the roof/rear wall to control the slewing and hook, while the other tank could perhaps hold the battery(ies) if it won't need a battery truck.

Made a second (technically third) version using the black gearbox I'd normally use for drive, at the same width and length for the base. However, the motor couldn't be placed behind the tank due to the driveshaft's angle. Otherwise, the gearbox would have to be modded to accept a motor from the left or right. Like a drill chuck, a specific tube-ended gear from a clock mech was used to hold the shaft with the worm gear. While one end was the right diameter, the other needed some more glue but still made it wobble a bit. Besides that, it was stable enough that it didn't have to be fixed to the tank.



Speaking of the tanks, my idea to use the other one for power instead of a truck/coach worked surprisingly well with a 2x AAA; perhaps even with a drive motor, though it (currently) only seems like it might fit. One thing that wouldn't be easy to do in Plarail scale. For access, it would likely have a panel that could be unscrewed/taped to the side. The tank under the shaft was modelled after the pack for consistency.



Now that it had enough torque and a lower speed, a rough version of the jib was also made and glued onto the gear to see how it performed. It could do a whole 360° under its own power, though it had to be pressed against the shaft to stay engaged. As a result of the (very) mild wobble, it ended up stopping for like a millisecond after each turn before starting again. Barely noticeable in real time, so not as jerky as it may sound. One minor advantage was the ability to manually move/reset the jib if needed.

After I took apart the Dübs crane tank experiment, I kept the motor glued to the gearbox and had another go at a motorised Plarail-compatible transfer table. The old base and straight track I made for it still exist, so all I had to do was add a new track in the middle and extend the base to make the platform reach the edges. While my first try had a good, practical setup that nearly worked, one thing I did wrong was putting a single gear (later a cardboard wheel) on the axle thinking it would mesh with a rack that had an incorrect tooth size/spacing. No wonder why it often slipped, disengaged or stalled altogether. For this version, I made better wheels with balloon rubber traction tyres and put the unit on the new middle track. No more wheelslip, though the platform wasn't fully balanced and should've had a rear counterweight. I thought about using one of my Thomas type DUs to move it, but I only have two spare ones and one has an annoyingly stiff switch.



Rather than two four-wheeled dollies on their own tracks, it now rests on rectangular runners (skids) that slide along cling film cutter rails. I previously tried this technique when I wasn't sure how I could motorise it, hence why they were glued to the base before I took it out again. One might think the pieces of paper at the bottom would increase friction, but they were mainly added to extend the runners and make the platform a little more stable. Unlike the previous runners, they have triangular supports to keep them from falling off/bending too easily.



Once I could tell where the platform should stop when it got to the other edge, a bumper was added so it couldn't move further and derail. Could've also put one at the back, though I relied more on the long wires for the motor and thought it wouldn't be needed.



Since I (initially) wanted to power and control the unit from the base, the extension was sized to fit a 2x AA pack. Holes were added to guide the wires under the track and out the other side so it wouldn't run over them, and also to keep them out of view. My only three-way switch had three prongs with unused holes on the other side, and I had no good way to make new ones to achieve this circuit. After trying to find a convenient spot to operate it from, the power wires were connected to the same "poor man's" polarity reverser I originally used: a dial with two live rods that make contact with three nails wired to each other and the motor. Main problem with this method was the long wires couldn't be hidden or anchored since they had to move with the platform without getting stuck. A top view of the transfer table with the controller wired to it:



These blue and brown wires were replaced with a polarised two-wire cord (below) from an existing wired controller; they were only there to show how the design worked and aren't even connected in this photo. I briefly tried guiding them through a hole in the side near the dial, though it gave a bad range of motion and they often got too close to the wheels. Nearly asked for advice on wiring it in a cleaner (yet still functional) way, until I decided the batteries and switch should be on the platform itself in a later revision. Even if the dial were directly behind the unit, the wires would likely have to move sideways when it returns to the other track. How the table would look on a layout:



It happens to be (just about) level with Plarail track on two quarter risers, though it wasn't measured to a particular riser height. Since the platform is R-01 length, it can fit an engine +one car or a tender engine but not a consist. Plarail track doesn't have both connectors at both ends, so having the female ends facing each other may require TrainLab or similar adapters at certain points on each line. To rectify this, I might try giving it dedicated connectors like official destinations have. Speaking of which, a real one would also have a stop/go tab so engines won't have to be turned off on it.



Like the motorised engines I've built for the UE track with this gearbox, it could also run on a piece of normal track (which might help it grip better thanks to the teeth in its rails). If I had the unique DU from the Forward/Reverse Thomas, it would've surely been one of the best ways to power it; apart from its torque, it could also be wired with the battery(ies) next to it and the track in front unlike a Flat or Chassis Based DU. I should hopefully be able to get a proper six prong three-way switch so I could rebuild it with on board power and other improvements.

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Last month, I watched many video tutorials for homemade rotary tools/"mini drills" made with plain DC motors at high voltages (ranging from 3.7V to 9V) and no gearing to try building one myself; I learnt about the existence of very small chucks that can fit on the shafts of such motors and be tightened with hex keys. My dad offered to see whether he could find such chucks for the idea, only to decide it would make more sense to order a whole tool with its own attachments; he did, and this is what I received. It's actually fairly well made and intuitive once I learnt how to use it, and it came with a good selection of bits that'll help with higher quality materials; mainly wood, plastic, PVC and various thin metals. In fact, the drill bits are tiny enough to penetrate something as thin as a 'matchstick' without cracking it. Apart from the usual sanding, cutting, smoothing, reshaping, etc., it could also be used like a mini lathe to remove/prevent imperfections in round parts. Only the shaft for the saw blade was found to have mild damage and needed a custom alternative, though it's otherwise brilliant. Definitely more practical in cases where my power screwdriver wouldn't do.