Small Tractor

Loco

Registered
Country flag
I have re-built the small tractor in my avatar picture, this time with better materials - I have used plastic instead of plywood. It is still a brittle little thing, and for this one I will make a transportation box to avoid damaging it. The drivetrain is the same Aristocraft unit.

9b486b39753d448fa0c0ecf90c868ff2.jpg

RhB Ta 1/2 80 - drivers side

f29dfdbc1c094e96ac10dc33e53525e5.jpg


147e480dc9ba44d9adbd7012d6bf22db.jpg

The other side with the battery charger and the electrical cabinet

13a416782f6a4374a7cacda99c5d78f0.jpg

The electrical cabinet has a 1,8 mm green LED

f0413a3f877c4b0db25bcbdfc891bb34.jpg

Front - all hinged components can be rotated, the orange hooks for the buffers, the plate and the two small black hooks on the left and right.
 
Always wondered if the loco in your avatar was based on a prototype?

I guess this is used in the depot at Landquart....
 
Thanks for the link to the prototype piccies site. All sorts of fascinating stuff on there that just begs to be modelled! Has your tractor model got the red blinky light on the top, couldn't see it in the photos?

Jon.
 
Well, not wishing to flaunt my ignorance, I'd looked at you avatar and was waiting for the rest of the bodywork to appear ! Now I've finally twigged whats going on, its an excellent model of an interesting prototype. The yellow Taf 2/2 doesn't seem as practical. As James said, you should write it up.
 
James: No, that has not been in my mind during the build. I'm not good at taking pictures as the builds progress, mainly because I only have a mobile phone with pretty bad camera. The pictures above were taken with my son's Samsung Note 2, which is far better than the one I use.

Jon: I have a red light for the top, but it is not yet assembled. I need to finish off the top plate details and then install the decoder. I'll post a few pictures of it when finished. I have a Massoth M-decoder to control the motor and the flashing red light + the green LED in the electrical cabinet. No horn sound with this setup, which would be nice - so if anyone has a cheap solution for just that one type of sound I would very much like to learn about it.
 
Just a thought about the horn - some old LGB Schema diesels had a simple horn sound setup triggered by a track magnet, maybe there is some way you could get an old second-hand one of these (just the horn unit) and trigger it via the decoder function? Of course, the board for that might be too big to squeeze into the little tractor, I don't know how big they are, or how much room you have spare (not a lot, I'd think!).

Jon.
 
Thanks for the suggestion. The available space is about 85 x 58 x 13 mm. If to small to fit a Schöma sound system, may be a H0 driving/sound decoder could be an option, I assume the prices are lower for those units compared to G-scale decoders . The need for amp. is probably only about 1A for the Aristocraft drivetrain. I already have a miniature 8 ohm speaker about the same size as the Massoth M-decoder, for a horn sound only that might do the job.
 
I had thought of the idea of using an HO or other small scale sound chip - but you will need to be careful of the voltage it runs on - smaller-scale decoders may not handle the 20-24 volts of a G scale layout.
Also, as you're using an Aristo power unit, do watch the amperage carefully if you're using the M decoder - this is only rated at about 0.8 amp for driving current, which is fine for LGB small locos but the much higher current demands with Aristo motors might be pushing close to the limit..... Of course as you are only using it to move such a small loco, it may not be a problem.

The best solution all round might be a Massoth L (with a SUSI socket) instead of the M, plus a Dietz/Uhlenbrock sound module (very tiny!) plugged into the SUSI; this combo still works out cheaper than a Massoth LS with sound!

Jon.
 
Back
Top Bottom