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I have a Merlin Motor Mule which is the ancestor of the Essel Fowler, via the Friog Mini Mule. The drive arrangement is the same, with a Como geared motor and bevel final drive.Mitch stack wrote: ↑Sat Nov 30, 2019 11:55 pm i was wondering what the Essel Fowlers are like hauling heavy loads?
Graeme, I remember you mentioning a while ago you had some Imformation on Fowler Mechanical locos from a LRRSA article , I was wondering what Number it was in?GTB wrote: ↑Sun Dec 01, 2019 1:40 amI have a Merlin Motor Mule which is the ancestor of the Essel Fowler, via the Friog Mini Mule. The drive arrangement is the same, with a Como geared motor and bevel final drive.Mitch stack wrote: ↑Sat Nov 30, 2019 11:55 pm i was wondering what the Essel Fowlers are like hauling heavy loads?
Mine has a manual electronic speed control running on eight Eneloops AA cells. I now have the bits to fit it with rc, but haven't found the right size of ‘round tuit' yet......
My track is flat which helps, but on test the Mule has hauled a 40 axle train at a steady speed of 14 scale mph at half throttle with no effort. It weighs 1.8kg so the theoretical limit on the flat is a goods train of about 60 axles. A train that long would stringline and derail on the curves, so my official track limit is set at 40 axles.
It has also hauled the Garratt and ten bogie wagons on the flat when the steamer ran out of gas at the back of the track. The Garratt was in mid gear and the Mule just slipped when starting on the curve, but it kept the load moving after that.
Hope that gives you some idea. Fowler aesthetics are an acquired taste, but the performance of that mech design is good.
Regards,
Graeme
It was a two part article by Bruce Belbin in Issues 204 and 206. The main subject was Fowler 16830 which is a 0-6-0PM originally imported to work at Childers Mill and still exists, at Menangle near Sydney last I heard. There is some general information on the other versions built by Fowler.Mitch stack wrote: ↑Fri Dec 13, 2019 7:06 am I remember you mentioning a while ago you had some Imformation on Fowler Mechanical locos from a LRRSA article , I was wondering what Number it was in?