Stephenson's Rocket in N Scale - and other tiny trains

[gavino200]

I saw this video first about a year ago. I was hoping to find one that I could buy. This is a one-of-a-kind made by hand by an amateur. I've been obsessed by it ever since. I have practically zero modeling skills now, but I want to work steadily on my skills (hobby for life, I think), so that by retirement age, maybe I could attempt something like this.

 

Anyone know of any similar, really tiny N scale locos?

 

 

[cteno4]

3 hours ago, gavino200 said:

I have practically zero modeling skills now, but I want to work steadily on my skills (hobby for life, I think), so that by retirement age, maybe I could attempt something like this

 

LOL no modeling skills! The guy who made a curved profile curved tunnel complete with lights?! Now your own black beetle. 

 

You are well on your way to making something like this! Just keep fiddling. Nothing in this is super hard to do as it’s just freewheeling with a pocket tram for power. Look at bits of it and start fiddling in spare time on how to do each to figure them out and learn new skills and techniques. See if there are similar things you can use for other bits on the trains and layout to get a twofer.

 

you are well on your way!

 

cheers,

 

jeff

[gavino200]

Thanks. That’s very kind of you to say. I’m starting to learn enough to really understand how much I don’t know. Cockiness and beginner’s luck have been working for me so far. But I’m enjoying my baby steps. The Beetle is still in it’s embryonic stages, so don’t jinx me!!!!!

Edited August 21, 2018 by gavino200

[JR 500系]

1 hour ago, gavino200 said:

Thanks. That’s very kind of you to say. I’m starting to learn enough to really understand how much I don’t know. Cockiness and beginner’s luck have been working for me so far. But I’m enjoying my baby steps. The Beetle is still in it’s embryonic stages, so don’t jinx me!!!!!

 

Yeah at least your skills are surely better than mine... I can only do so much with my layout and have next to nothing knowledge about electrical or mechanical stuff... 

[cteno4]

2 hours ago, gavino200 said:

Thanks. That’s very kind of you to say. I’m starting to learn enough to really understand how much I don’t know. Cockiness and beginner’s luck have been working for me so far. But I’m enjoying my baby steps. The Beetle is still in it’s embryonic stages, so don’t jinx me!!!!!

 

It’s all about the the willingness to try! It’s all about fiddling and learning as you go along. You’ve come a long way here and mainly that you are willing to just jump in and fiddle and experiment. That’s when you really learn and gain the experience. Your profession also gives you a huge advantage as it’s really not all that different putting a hand back together as making these things, uses the same critical thinking skills, mechanics and creativity. Just keep at it. Things will fail but you learn the most from the failures and move on for the better.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[gavino200]

6 hours ago, JR 500系 said:

 

Yeah at least your skills are surely better than mine... I can only do so much with my layout and have next to nothing knowledge about electrical or mechanical stuff... 

 

I don’t know what you’re talking about. Your layout is amazing. I love how you put things together and build cool little scenes. I also some day want to have a table and display shelf like yours. I know your carpenter made those, but in this case it’s having the idea and following through that counts. Your layout is on my inspiration list.

[JR 500系]

38 minutes ago, gavino200 said:

 

I don’t know what you’re talking about. Your layout is amazing. I love how you put things together and build cool little scenes. I also some day want to have a table and display shelf like yours. I know your carpenter made those, but in this case it’s having the idea and following through that counts. Your layout is on my inspiration list.

 

Thanks man, those words are really kind and mean a lot to me! Cheers mate!

 

Keep up the good work! I love how you light up your tunnels too! 

 

Like what you said, my carpenters really did a great job with the table and display cabinet which I am very pleased with too, but aint so pleased with the layout itself as I felt I could do much better job than what I have only built, like your LED lighted tunnel for example which is simply awesome! Gotta learn up on those electronics stuff soon... Is there a 'Electronics for dummies' book lying around I hope? 

 

[Pauljag900]

15 hours ago, gavino200 said:

I saw this video first about a year ago. I was hoping to find one that I could buy. This is a one-of-a-kind made by hand by an amateur. I've been obsessed by it ever since. I have practically zero modeling skills now, but I want to work steadily on my skills (hobby for life, I think), so that by retirement age, maybe I could attempt something like this.

 

Anyone know of any similar, really tiny N scale locos?

 

 

As a child I had this in HO scale damm I wish I still had it.

 

[gavino200]

2 hours ago, JR 500系 said:

Gotta learn up on those electronics stuff soon... Is there a 'Electronics for dummies' book lying around I hope? 

 

 

I've only got a high-school knowledge of electricity and electronics. Anything I've done related to electricity I've learned by asking people here on this forum. My only trick is to stick to your guns and doggedly keep telling people when you can't understand them. I now start out by explaining my level and asking them to ELI5 (Explain like I'm five - a reddit phrase).

 

Funnily enough, I asked Pauljag to write a short LED guide. Before he did it, I thought maybe I was too forward, so I started writing one myself and messaged him to tell him. But he had already done it, so I stopped. I was trying to write a guide telling everything I "knew" with no physics - at all. Just plain language, and as simple as possible. The purpose was twofold. 1) To help others who, like me, have no electrical background but want to do electrical stuff on their layout. 2) So I could go back to it myself and "relearn" it all after I've totally forgotten. That kind of knowledge has a short half-life in my brain!

[gavino200]

1 minute ago, Pauljag900 said:

As a child I had this in HO scale damm I wish I still had it.

 

 

Cool. As retirees we can both make one - in n scale!

 

Btw I sold all my OO gauge trains when I was a teenager for beer money. Dumbest thing I've ever done. So I feel your pain.

[Pauljag900]

Are you two joking?No skills? You re having  having a laff!👍👍😂jeff just said it all really.

superbly detailed tunnel with lights?

A table layout superbly detailed?

I do nt think so guys,both superb examples of detailing our layouts.

I reckon everyone is the same,we re all too critical of ourselves but it’s only practice.I m not saying mine is that good,far from it,but take a look at some of the mess I produced when I first started😂😂or ask jeff,I mithered the life out of him.

All I m saying is do nt do yourselves down gents,you ve both done stuff you should be proud of,keep it up 👍👍😀😀😀

 

[Pauljag900]

5 minutes ago, gavino200 said:

 

Cool. As retirees we can both make one - in n scale!

 

Btw I sold all my OO gauge trains when I was a teenager for beer money. Dumbest thing I've ever done. So I feel your pain.

We re older and wiser now buddy,as youngsters all we want is beer money!!😂😂

[Pauljag900]

12 minutes ago, gavino200 said:

 

I've only got a high-school knowledge of electricity and electronics. Anything I've done related to electricity I've learned by asking people here on this forum. My only trick is to stick to your guns and doggedly keep telling people when you can't understand them. I now start out by explaining my level and asking them to ELI5 (Explain like I'm five - a reddit phrase).

 

Funnily enough, I asked Pauljag to write a short LED guide. Before he did it, I thought maybe I was too forward, so I started writing one myself and messaged him to tell him. But he had already done it, so I stopped. I was trying to write a guide telling everything I "knew" with no physics - at all. Just plain language, and as simple as possible. The purpose was twofold. 1) To help others who, like me, have no electrical background but want to do electrical stuff on their layout. 2) So I could go back to it myself and "relearn" it all after I've totally forgotten. That kind of knowledge has a short half-life in my brain!

It s always the fear of the unknown mate,I guarantee that once you ve done it a couple of times it ll become second nature,everything is hard until you know how to do it,then it becomes easy and you wonder what all the fuss was about.👍👍😀😀

[railsquid]

16 hours ago, gavino200 said:

I saw this video first about a year ago. I was hoping to find one that I could buy. This is a one-of-a-kind made by hand by an amateur. I've been obsessed by it ever since. I have practically zero modeling skills now, but I want to work steadily on my skills (hobby for life, I think), so that by retirement age, maybe I could attempt something like this.

 

Anyone know of any similar, really tiny N scale locos?

 

 

 

Somewhere I read a discussion about the practicalities of making an N scale version of this, and the conclusion was that the only way to power it would be to put the power unit in a trailing car, which appears to be the case here. Maybe there's some potential for the kind of motors Kato uses in its Portram?

The nearest equivalent in N scale would be "Der Adler" from Minitrix.

[gavino200]

On 8/21/2018 at 10:59 AM, railsquid said:

 

Somewhere I read a discussion about the practicalities of making an N scale version of this, and the conclusion was that the only way to power it would be to put the power unit in a trailing car, which appears to be the case here. Maybe there's some potential for the kind of motors Kato uses in its Portram?

The nearest equivalent in N scale would be "Der Adler" from Minitrix.

 

Thanks for the analysis Squid. I agree about the Portram motor. 

 

This video shows the "Adler" and the "Saxonia", both from Minitrix

 

 

 

Edit: Actually there are two versions of the Saxoinia, the Minitrix (above) and the Arnold (below).

 

https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/arnold-0247-railex-brass-saxonia-1821787294

Edited August 27, 2018 by gavino200

[cteno4]

T scale motor to one of the wheels might work but needs some gearing I expect to get power and lower speed. Self powered would be a real craftsman effort

[gavino200]

1 minute ago, cteno4 said:

but needs some gearing I expect to get power and lower speed. Self powered would be a real craftsman effort

 

I recently discovered that watchmaking as a hobby is a thing. Not really for me, but might be a good source of gearing.

[cteno4]

3 hours ago, JR 500系 said:

Is there a 'Electronics for dummies' book lying around I hope? 

 

Sure they have one and many primers around the web as well. With this sort of stuff it does take a bit for you to find the one that teaches to you well. Folks always ask me about the best computer book to get and I woild tell them to go to their nearest big book store and pull the 10 written on the thing they were interest in and find a chair and look something up they had a question on in each and see which one answers it in a way that makes the most sense to them. 

 

So if the first ones you look at dont don’t make sense don’t assume you are the problem, probably just talking the wrong way for you to easily understand! Btw this is what makes a great teacher over a good one, great teachers can adapt a lesson to speak to most allmthe differnent learners in the class, good ones just get the center of the bell curve well.

 

if you want a little physics that includes some basic electronics I have found the gonick cartoon guide books really great

 

https://smile.amazon.com/Cartoon-Guide-Physics/dp/0062731009/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1534867905&sr=8-1&keywords=cartoon+guide+to+physics

 

ive never liked the dummies series much (they don’t speak my talk) but many love them.

 

https://smile.amazon.com/Electronics-Dummies-Cathleen-Shamieh/dp/0470286970/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1534868560&sr=1-2&keywords=dummies+guide+to+electronics

 

jeff

[gavino200]

Try this site - "Howstuffworks.com". I used this site years ago to learn how an internal combustion engine works. I liked it.

 

https://www.howstuffworks.com/

[cteno4]

13 minutes ago, gavino200 said:

 

I recently discovered that watchmaking as a hobby is a thing. Not really for me, but might be a good source of gearing.

 

Yep now that’s small work! I use to pull dead watches apart all the time when I was a kid, loved them!

 

Problem with watch gears I think will be they are not meant for the force of train use and bit too small and require very precise alignment to mesh up well. There is a German company that makes a lot of great mini motor gears, I’ve got the link somewhere. Big thing is machining the chassis to hold the gears and axles.

 

jeff

[Welshbloke]

I think the smallest I have in N is an Arnold model of the little SBB Tm II shunting tractor. Bought because it was crazily cheap just as Hornby bought Arnold and (presumably) dumped a load of excess stock for pennies. Neat little thing and runs better than you'd expect for a tiny four wheel loco.

 

Triang managed a powered Rocket in OO, I have a bodyshell and complete tender for the later Hornby version somewhere. Apparently it struggled with the switch from steel to nickel silver track, as the traction magnets no longer worked!

[gavino200]

Is this it? Very nice! What kind of couplers are those? Can you change them?

 

https://shop.morris-models.co.uk/arnold-hn2014-sbb-tm-22-740-diesel-shunting-tractor-era-4-2617-p.asp

[Welshbloke]

That's the one. They did a couple of versions of the German Kof tractor as well, presumably with the same mechanism. The couplers are simple hooks which work with Rapidos, I've not tried to change them.

 

As I recall I spotted a handful of them on ebay for £50 each, grabbed one and the rest were gone within 24hrs! I knew of their existence before but wouldn't have paid full price for one as it's a bit specialist.

[gavino200]

Thanks! This is the Arnold Kof II Tractor.

 

https://www.todocoleccion.net/trenes-escala-arnold-n/tractor-diesel-kof-ref-2091-escala-n-arnold~x35418125

[gavino200]

There's a tiny n scale switcher selling on this site for $46. No real details given though.

 

http://www.bbmgroup.com/sprog/shop.html