Mamod SL1 simple RC conversion
Posted: Thu Sep 11, 2014 9:59 pm
Hi,
My father recently donated his Mamod SL1 to my little railway, the line is end to end so you can probably guess the problem!
As a child I remember our fun with the loco, running around the little loop of track that came with it, it was great and a good little runner, but like all Mamod it did like to run fast, very fast! My dad considered RC, but in those days it was mega expensive!
So my plan was to upgrade the Mamod to RC and meet the following objectives!
Make it drivable
A simple conversion
No drastic cutting/re engineering
Reliable
No tender (personal choice, I don't like Mamods with tenders!)
Cheep!
My eventual solution used deltang radio gear, its cheep and very small, I mounted the receiver in the cab roof and one servo on the left hand cab floor, I used CR2 batteries because they are smaller than AA batteries and each delivers 3 volts so I only needed 2 in total, I mounted them under the cab floor on each side.
I hope the pictures make sense! I'm very pleased with the conversion and it's turned a rocket propelled Mamod into a nice drivable loco!
My father recently donated his Mamod SL1 to my little railway, the line is end to end so you can probably guess the problem!
As a child I remember our fun with the loco, running around the little loop of track that came with it, it was great and a good little runner, but like all Mamod it did like to run fast, very fast! My dad considered RC, but in those days it was mega expensive!
So my plan was to upgrade the Mamod to RC and meet the following objectives!
Make it drivable
A simple conversion
No drastic cutting/re engineering
Reliable
No tender (personal choice, I don't like Mamods with tenders!)
Cheep!
My eventual solution used deltang radio gear, its cheep and very small, I mounted the receiver in the cab roof and one servo on the left hand cab floor, I used CR2 batteries because they are smaller than AA batteries and each delivers 3 volts so I only needed 2 in total, I mounted them under the cab floor on each side.
I hope the pictures make sense! I'm very pleased with the conversion and it's turned a rocket propelled Mamod into a nice drivable loco!