Momentum wagon candidate?

DGE-Railroad

DGE-Railroad

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I have a momentum/inertia wagon on the "todo" list and had been thinking of using the ubiquitous Zecar (which now seems pretty expensive in the UK, incidentally)

I was playing with my 3yo son and some Lego this morning when I stumbled across what I think may be a possible alternative, assuming the final drive connection for the axle can be solved, which may be as simple as using a lego train axleset.

I do have a Zecar sitting in the cupboard and would say they're about equal in terms of flywheel action. The Lego offering may be a little stronger.
20200729_091832.jpg
 
My glamorous assistant and I tried a quick test of the unit with standard Lego friction-tyre wheels and no additional weight.

It manages a 26 degree incline on its own. Sadly the Lego wheels are a little on the small side though.

Still, interesting stuff!

Lego unit friction test
 
The part number I have on the blocks I have tried is 54802. They seem to crop up for around £5 or so. Several on eBay at the moment, but I suspect they're equally obtainable through somewhere like Bricklink.

I need to start my SRRL Bowaters Boxcar project and get it put in there to really try it out properly. I think I may look at getting some Slaters wheels or similar, to see how easy it would be to mate a lego shaft to them. The other option would be a steel axle with broached splines into it, which'd probably negate the cost, or to chain drive from the Lego shaft to the truck axle.
 
Just had a look in bricklink and there appears to be lots of them for sale in quite a few different countries as well.
 
I bought a couple of these lego blocks to play with - one was not working properly (as disclosed) so I took it apart. I could not find the joint so the table saw was used to get started!

It's just a simple wind-up spring, so I can't see how you'd make a momentum wagon out of it.

20200812_145211_lego-pullback.jpg
 
I had a quick look on Google when this thread started, and it looked like there were two basic types: a pull-back/let go version, and a flywheel/friction motor one. Clearly the latter is the one that would interest us...
 
Fred2179G said:
I bought a couple of these lego blocks to play with - one was not working properly (as disclosed) so I took it apart. I could not find the joint so the table saw was used to get started!

It's just a simple wind-up spring, so I can't see how you'd make a momentum wagon out of it.

View attachment 271507
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Oops I think you may have trashed that.
 
Northsider said:
flywheel/friction motor one. Clearly the latter is the one that would interest us...
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Now you tell me. So how do we tell the difference?
dunnyrail said:
Oops I think you may have trashed that.
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I only paid $2.25 for both, plus $4 shipping (6GBP?) and I was told the grey one didn't work right. No sweat.

(I just started a new thread with pics of the serious inertia/drag car that I just acquired.)
 
Fred2179G said:
So how do we tell the difference?
Click to expand...

Of the Lego cars:

One is a 'pull-back' (that winds the spring), you let it go and it runs forwards until the energy is spent..

The one we are interested in; You 'scoot' it forwards a number of times, and that spins-up the flywheel inside.. Let it go, and again, it runs until the stored energy is spent..
It adds inertia into the system, taking energy to be spun-up, and then putting that energy back into the system, when slowing down.

How you work-out which is which (part number, perhaps) I do not know.. :(

I suppose you have to ask the Vendor?
 
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