Re: Zach Bond "Momentum Van" project
Posted: Wed Apr 09, 2025 11:31 am
I thought, perhaps, 10 years after publishing the article in GardenRail magazine it was worth putting an update on here.
A couple of years ago (2021?) I took the original Momentum Van to the Peckforton Light Railway where it finally failed. The original mechanism failed as the brass gear wheel on the flywheel axle has been eaten through by the steel idler gear.
Fig. 1. original mechanism showing the gear has been eaten through.
Not having a railway at the moment I didn't get round to fixing it until this week. Zecars are still available and still the same design so I bought a replacement mechanism while I sort out the original one. Since the original I wonder if the plastic bushings in IP's insulated wheel sets have a marginally wider bore or if the zecar axles are slightly thinner as the IP wheels were slightly looser going onto the axles than the original. A drop of loctite gapfilling superglue seems to have done the trick but I did need to carefully adjust the wheels to get them to run true as the glue set.
Anyway the van should now be good for another 6 years or so of en-docilificating errant manual locos.
Fig. 2. New replacement mechanism. It was the work of 10 minutes to tap the wheels off and put on some IP engineering insulated wheels. The underside of the original van can be seen - it really was a rough old bit of work but it did the trick! Coinsidentally the original AnDel resin axleboxes are in really good shape
I've really enjoyed watching this thread over the years and seeing all the variations in design. I hope that the various momentum vans out there have brought the pleasure of controlled running to your railways and will continue to do so.
A couple of years ago (2021?) I took the original Momentum Van to the Peckforton Light Railway where it finally failed. The original mechanism failed as the brass gear wheel on the flywheel axle has been eaten through by the steel idler gear.
- IMG_20250407_214134.jpg (2.16 MiB) Viewed 34690 times
Not having a railway at the moment I didn't get round to fixing it until this week. Zecars are still available and still the same design so I bought a replacement mechanism while I sort out the original one. Since the original I wonder if the plastic bushings in IP's insulated wheel sets have a marginally wider bore or if the zecar axles are slightly thinner as the IP wheels were slightly looser going onto the axles than the original. A drop of loctite gapfilling superglue seems to have done the trick but I did need to carefully adjust the wheels to get them to run true as the glue set.
Anyway the van should now be good for another 6 years or so of en-docilificating errant manual locos.
- IMG_20250407_214236.jpg (3.05 MiB) Viewed 34690 times
I've really enjoyed watching this thread over the years and seeing all the variations in design. I hope that the various momentum vans out there have brought the pleasure of controlled running to your railways and will continue to do so.
That might be a document worth making available to all members who host visitors!