Musings and too much time to think!

[Sarah Winfield]

Thinking about my garden layout and track cleaning. Rather than use one of my "electric powered locomotives" to haul a rail cleaning wagon I came across the following http://www.justgardenrailways.co.uk...e-with-lgb-clutch-g-gauge-garden-railway-iim/

What do members think, please? What is meant by a LGB clutch?

There may be better alternatives, are there please?

Thanks,

Sarah Winfield

 

[Greg Elmassian]

Inexpensive locos will have inexpensive drive trains.

Adding a cleaning car will add a lot of drag, and usually destroy the drivetrain of an inexpensive toy in the long run.

Find an old LGB that is inexpensive, convert to a fixed speed battery (inexpensive) and pull your car.

Greg

 

[Zerogee]

Sarah, avoid "toy" locos like that one - although they run on 45mm track, they are smaller than "G", actually nearer to Gauge 1, and will have a very basic low-voltage motor that would struggle to pull the skin off a rice pudding, as the old saying goes....

The term "LGB clutch", here, is a common mistranslation for "coupling" when using an automated translation program to go from German to English. What they mean, in this case, it that it has hook and loop couplings similar to LGB ones. I've seen the same confusion occur several times when putting German loco descriptions through Google Translate!

Jon.

 

[Zerogee]

Following on from my last post....

I'd agree with Greg - if you want a battery loco to pull a track cleaning car, buy a cheap(ish) basic LGB loco, just a simple analogue one, that has enough room for a pack of batteries - ideal candidates are the Schoema diesel (the 2060 type, which has been made in many colours and guises since about 1970) or the little old-type KoF diesel (the 2090 type, again made in many, many liveries over a long period). If you keep your eyes open on evilBay you should be able to find a decent example of one or the other for under the £100 mark, maybe as little as £50 if you strike lucky. Both types are sufficiently plentiful that most of the versions are not considered especially collectable, so prices should reflect that - if you see an overpriced one, pass it by and wait for the next one to come along!

Jon.

 

[PhilP]

NO!

End-of..

It will disappoint. LGB are pretty bomb-proof..
Newray, Dickie are definitely in the 'toy-train' camp..

A starter set diesel, with 6 or 8 AA batteries would make a much better investment..

 

[Zerogee]

Yep, that's exactly the sort of thing I was referring to.... one of those with about 6 to 9 volts of batteries either under the hood or in the cab, a simple forward-off-reverse switch mounted where you can get at it easily (or, of course, one of Phil's nice simple RC units!), and you've got your track-cleaner-towing loco sorted......

Jon.

 

[Neil Robinson]

You may wish to consider GRS' track rubber.
They do two versions, one with and one without a handle.
The version with a handle isn't available by post.
I just used an old broom handle instead.
It works well on modest sized accessible layouts.

http://www.grsuk.com/TRACK-CLEANER-HEAD-W-TWO-HEADS-M5193

 

[Sarah Winfield]

Thank you for your comments.

Neil, I just wanted something that would pull a wagon with track cleaning ability to save me using elbow grease and it would add to my enjoyment.

I like the small orange 0-4-0 locomotive which is just the sort of thing I had in mind.

Regarding powering a suitable locomotive, are you saying that even a Stainz (not my troublesome one of course) would work with batteries please?

Many thanks,

Sarah Winfield

 

[Zerogee]

Yes, a Stainz will run just fine on batteries! In fact, if your main use for one would be to pull a track cleaning car, you could put a nice heavyish battery (like a small 12 volt sealed-lead-acid, or a pack of AA cells) in the cleaning car and use the weight of it to help the cleaning effect. If you remove the skates and wheel-contact bullets from the loco, thus disconnecting it electrically from the track, you can then feed the battery power into the loco via the 2-pin auxiliary socket on the back of the cab (all but the very oldest LGB locos will have such a connector - either two round brass sockets on older ones, or a two-pin connector covered with a black blanking plug on newer ones).

Jon.

 

[PhilP]

Regarding powering a suitable locomotive, are you saying that even a Stainz (not my troublesome one of course) would work with batteries please?

Yes Sarah..
You can have a switch, or just pull the track-wires from the motor-block and feed battery volts into them..
OR,
Insulate these wires, and many LGB loco's have a socket on the back.. This is to pass track-power to coaches etc. for lighting. But you can feed battery-power into this socket, and it will run the loco.

If making a dedicated battery-power loco, then you would remove the carbon-brush 'bullets' that rub on the rear faces of the wheels, the skates, and make sure there was no way track-power could get into the loco..

Removing these items reduces drag, so improving performance, and increasing run-time on batteries.

<edit>
Posted at similar time to above..

 

[Gavin Sowry]

I am firmly in the anti track rubber/abrasives camp.
A drop of 3 in 1 oil on the railhead in a few places, and run a loco round a few times, then settle down to carefree operation.

Just a personal opinion (that has worked for over 18 years on my line). Got the idea from American HO modellers years ago.
They specified Whal hairclipper oil.

Works for me, but track cleaning is the subject of great debate (please leave the battery arguement in the box).

 

[Neil Robinson]

Yes battery operation may be as simple as plugging one into those sockets.
No need to even worry about removing any skates or other pickups IF you disconnect the track power and remove any other locos from the layout
However if an older loco has been modified for decoder fitting the sockets may have been disconnected.