Garden Railway Forum

BWLR wrote: ↑Sun Oct 03, 2021 4:59 pm As a bit of a diversion I've recently been working on an Occre Soller Tram car kit. I've got a bit of a weak spot for trams like this...

Body and interior are complete and once the roof is done, I shall work on how best to motorise it. Probably going to be spring until,its finished as I will probably move onto some other projects in between!

IMG_1704[1].jpg

GAP wrote: ↑Fri Jan 07, 2022 10:19 am After a nearly 10 years hibernation I fired my "Ruby" live steamer.

There is more to running it than just switching on the battery and running it.

Just like the real thing it requires oiling, firing, water filling and watching to make sure it does not run out of water before the gas runs out. It is supposed to run out of gas first but mine seems to run out of water first.

Good practice for when I go for my steam ticket on the 1:1 locos at the railway in the botanical gardens here, I will need 150 hours in my log book as a fireman/driver and pass an exam to qualify.

DAVID L wrote: ↑Thu Jan 06, 2022 10:37 am

BWLR wrote: ↑Sun Oct 03, 2021 4:59 pm As a bit of a diversion I've recently been working on an Occre Soller Tram car kit. I've got a bit of a weak spot for trams like this...

Body and interior are complete and once the roof is done, I shall work on how best to motorise it. Probably going to be spring until,its finished as I will probably move onto some other projects in between!

IMG_1704[1].jpg

Hello-excellent work going on there. Would you be able to tell me the floor to axle distance using the original wheelsets, as I am cooperating on a possible drop-in motorised axle?

Phil.P wrote: ↑Fri Jan 07, 2022 8:38 pm Somehow, I don't think time on the Ruby, will count?

BWLR wrote: ↑Sun Jan 09, 2022 2:41 pm

DAVID L wrote: ↑Thu Jan 06, 2022 10:37 am

BWLR wrote: ↑Sun Oct 03, 2021 4:59 pm As a bit of a diversion I've recently been working on an Occre Soller Tram car kit. I've got a bit of a weak spot for trams like this...

Body and interior are complete and once the roof is done, I shall work on how best to motorise it. Probably going to be spring until,its finished as I will probably move onto some other projects in between!

IMG_1704[1].jpg

Hello-excellent work going on there. Would you be able to tell me the floor to axle distance using the original wheelsets, as I am cooperating on a possible drop-in motorised axle?

That's actually a really good question, as while I have completed the body & roof I've not yet started on the underframe as I've been considering how best to motorise it myself! Having had a look at it this morning, I find there is a bit of a discrepancy in the kit with regard to axle height. The outside axleboxes (which are dummy ones) don't match height wise with the height of the axles if you fit them as per the instructions. The floor to axle centre is 26mm, while that on the axle boxes is just 21mm which I feel is going to look very odd. There is an extra 3mm spacing piece which I'm tempted to leave out to reduce the distance to 23mm which would look much better, however I'm slightly concerned about lack of clearance, so I'm going to experiment with it before coming up with a motorising plan. Actually I'd be interested to see what you are thinking of!

Cheers
Peter

Hello Peter, I've actually been talking to Tim, who produces Appletree motor/gearbox units. I saw that other people have fitted them to Occre trams by making proper metal or 3D printed sideframes with functioning axleboxes. It looked to me that there might be a way of attaching the gearbox to the floor, so the axles would not make contact with the dummy axleboxes. This interested me because I have an IP railbus with a rough and noisy nylon worm gearbox which bolts to the floor and supports the motor and axles, so the sideframes do not locate the axles as in the standard Ocre setup. Comparing various models, IP, Occre, etc, it seems that he should be able to produce a mount to fit his gearbox so that the axles are 21mm from the floor. If this works it would be easy to drop one or two motors into a tram or railbus with no further running gear mods. I'll let you know if he is able to produce such a mount.

BWLR wrote: ↑Sun Jan 09, 2022 2:41 pm

DAVID L wrote: ↑Thu Jan 06, 2022 10:37 am

BWLR wrote: ↑Sun Oct 03, 2021 4:59 pm As a bit of a diversion I've recently been working on an Occre Soller Tram car kit. I've got a bit of a weak spot for trams like this...

Body and interior are complete and once the roof is done, I shall work on how best to motorise it. Probably going to be spring until,its finished as I will probably move onto some other projects in between!

IMG_1704[1].jpg

Hello-excellent work going on there. Would you be able to tell me the floor to axle distance using the original wheelsets, as I am cooperating on a possible drop-in motorised axle?

That's actually a really good question, as while I have completed the body & roof I've not yet started on the underframe as I've been considering how best to motorise it myself! Having had a look at it this morning, I find there is a bit of a discrepancy in the kit with regard to axle height. The outside axleboxes (which are dummy ones) don't match height wise with the height of the axles if you fit them as per the instructions. The floor to axle centre is 26mm, while that on the axle boxes is just 21mm which I feel is going to look very odd. There is an extra 3mm spacing piece which I'm tempted to leave out to reduce the distance to 23mm which would look much better, however I'm slightly concerned about lack of clearance, so I'm going to experiment with it before coming up with a motorising plan. Actually I'd be interested to see what you are thinking of!

Cheers
Peter

DAVID L wrote: ↑Mon Jan 10, 2022 5:35 pm

BWLR wrote: ↑Sun Jan 09, 2022 2:41 pm

DAVID L wrote: ↑Thu Jan 06, 2022 10:37 am

Hello-excellent work going on there. Would you be able to tell me the floor to axle distance using the original wheelsets, as I am cooperating on a possible drop-in motorised axle?

That's actually a really good question, as while I have completed the body & roof I've not yet started on the underframe as I've been considering how best to motorise it myself! Having had a look at it this morning, I find there is a bit of a discrepancy in the kit with regard to axle height. The outside axleboxes (which are dummy ones) don't match height wise with the height of the axles if you fit them as per the instructions. The floor to axle centre is 26mm, while that on the axle boxes is just 21mm which I feel is going to look very odd. There is an extra 3mm spacing piece which I'm tempted to leave out to reduce the distance to 23mm which would look much better, however I'm slightly concerned about lack of clearance, so I'm going to experiment with it before coming up with a motorising plan. Actually I'd be interested to see what you are thinking of!

Cheers
Peter

Hello Peter, I've actually been talking to Tim, who produces Appletree motor/gearbox units. I saw that other people have fitted them to Occre trams by making proper metal or 3D printed sideframes with functioning axleboxes. It looked to me that there might be a way of attaching the gearbox to the floor, so the axles would not make contact with the dummy axleboxes. This interested me because I have an IP railbus with a rough and noisy nylon worm gearbox which bolts to the floor and supports the motor and axles, so the sideframes do not locate the axles as in the standard Ocre setup. Comparing various models, IP, Occre, etc, it seems that he should be able to produce a mount to fit his gearbox so that the axles are 21mm from the floor. If this works it would be easy to drop one or two motors into a tram or railbus with no further running gear mods. I'll let you know if he is able to produce such a mount.

wheels

Fred Mills wrote: ↑Thu Jan 13, 2022 2:40 pm Hello out there...
Posting from Eastern Ontario, Canada; we are deep into the Winter season, with low temperatures, sometime dipping into the -20C range. So, there is nothing much happening out-of-doors, needless to say !!
We are however looking optimistically towards the 2022 Spring reopening of the IPP&W Railroad, by doing the maintenance on locomotives and rolling stock, in the workshop, indoors.
Check us out, if you care to on our Ottawa Valley Garden Railroad web page at: www.ovgrs.ca
One of the lads; Mike Hamer, maintains a blog, which keeps us all up-to-date on happenings...the link is on our web page, under "Mike's Blogs.
At the moment; I'm doing upgrades on a small fleet of old MDC Ore Cars; the ones that are from the same moulds as the ones currently being pedaled by Piko. They look and operate much better after being converted to Kadee body mounted 820 couplers. I'm also doing coupler conversions for a few other guys, mostly old Aristocraft freight cars, along with USTrains rolling stock.
I hope everyone is enjoying the idea and optimism of a great 2022 ahead of us...good health and happiness to you all.
Fred Mills send a note if the mood strikes....millsf@sympatico.ca

Fred Mills wrote: ↑Thu Jan 13, 2022 2:40 pm Hello out there...
Posting from Eastern Ontario, Canada; we are deep into the Winter season, with low temperatures, sometime dipping into the -20C range. So, there is nothing much happening out-of-doors, needless to say !!
We are however looking optimistically towards the 2022 Spring reopening of the IPP&W Railroad, by doing the maintenance on locomotives and rolling stock, in the workshop, indoors.
Check us out, if you care to on our Ottawa Valley Garden Railroad web page at: www.ovgrs.ca
One of the lads; Mike Hamer, maintains a blog, which keeps us all up-to-date on happenings...the link is on our web page, under "Mike's Blogs.
At the moment; I'm doing upgrades on a small fleet of old MDC Ore Cars; the ones that are from the same moulds as the ones currently being pedaled by Piko. They look and operate much better after being converted to Kadee body mounted 820 couplers. I'm also doing coupler conversions for a few other guys, mostly old Aristocraft freight cars, along with USTrains rolling stock.
I hope everyone is enjoying the idea and optimism of a great 2022 ahead of us...good health and happiness to you all.
Fred Mills send a note if the mood strikes....millsf@sympatico.ca

philipy wrote: ↑Fri Jan 14, 2022 8:31 pm That looks very good. I must admit that I've been a bit sceptical about the artificial grass in the past, but it does work extremely well in these shots.

ge_rik wrote: ↑Fri Jan 21, 2022 8:02 am

philipy wrote: ↑Fri Jan 14, 2022 8:31 pm That looks very good. I must admit that I've been a bit sceptical about the artificial grass in the past, but it does work extremely well in these shots.

Just what I was thinking. The artificial grass seems to work well in this situation

Rik