A rookie mistake... with Kato slotless motors 11-503-A

[alain10025]

Hello,

 

I have been very enthusiastic about the new Kato slotless motor and I purchased a couple of them on Hobbysearch. More precisely, I ordered the Kato motor 11-503-A. Order was smooth and delivery prompt... But... I have a problem. 

 

Indeed, my initial plan was to use these slotless motors in some of my Kato trains, in particular for high speed trains such as, for instance the TGV 10-1529 (réseau duplex). After all, the product is advertised on the website as "This product is compatible with motors with flywheels.".

 

However, after receiving the motors, I quickly realized they are slightly smaller than those in my TGVs... And I am left wondering what I can do with these motors... I feel a bit silly but I also believe somebody else could make the same mistake so I come here searching for confort / redemption and mostly ideas ! Thank you !

Edited April 7, 2023 by alain10025

[alain10025]

Here is a small update, I start finding descriptions online about the slotless motor. Notably, here, (section "smooth operator) is a picture of the slotless motor beside the classic GM-3 motor. It seems clear that there is a difference between the dimensions of both motors... which explains the slotless motor may not be directly used in some setups, such as the TGV I was mentioning in my previous post... Kind of weird as, again, the motor is advertised on Hobbysearch as compatible with flywheels motors (such as, I assumed - wrongly, the GM-3...).

 

Anyway... if anyone finds a way to put on of these slotless motors in a TGV, I would be greatly interested !!

[yokohama]

Hello.

Applicability list for 11-503-A.
The size is the same as the GM-3 motor.

KATO directly managed store↓↓↓
https://www.hobbycenterkato.com/_files/ugd/cca703_8af157decfc949c4a5d712135b029b21.pdf

[alain10025]

Thank you for your response. I can confirm that the size of the GM-3 (assuming it is indeed a GM-3 motor that is used inside Kato's GV) and 11-503-A are different, the 11-503-A is a bit smaller indeed. Thank you for the list !

[Little-Kinder]

On 5/23/2023 at 11:19 AM, alain10025 said:

Thank you for your response. I can confirm that the size of the GM-3 (assuming it is indeed a GM-3 motor that is used inside Kato's GV) and 11-503-A are different, the 11-503-A is a bit smaller indeed. Thank you for the list !

So there is currently now way to get the new motor for the tgv? not compatible at the moment?

[Little-Kinder]

On 5/22/2023 at 10:19 PM, alain10025 said:

Thank you for your response. I can confirm that the size of the GM-3 (assuming it is indeed a GM-3 motor that is used inside Kato's GV) and 11-503-A are different, the 11-503-A is a bit smaller indeed. Thank you for the list !

According to this document the slotless motor is not adapted for shinkansen, not sure if the same motor is used in tgv but they say we wont get the same speed

 

https://www.hobbycenterkato.com/_files/ugd/cca703_8af157decfc949c4a5d712135b029b21.pdf

[alain10025]

On 4/16/2025 at 7:02 PM, Little-Kinder said:

So there is currently now way to get the new motor for the tgv? not compatible at the moment?

I still could not find a way to put the new slotless motor in a TGV... Though I did manage to change the motor of my 10-1697 Nozomi to a slotless one without any difficulty.

 

[brill27mcb]

Did you notice any advantage or major change in changing to the slotless motor?

 

Rich K.

[alain10025]

21 hours ago, brill27mcb said:

Did you notice any advantage or major change in changing to the slotless motor?

 

Rich K.

Well, yes I did. With the initial motor, the locomotive was slightly noisy (maybe a bit more than expected I would say, I am not sure why, maybe a vibration issue due to the way the motor is kind of tightly mounted in such train) and the improvement on that front was really noticeable. It also seems to me - though I have no way to measure it accurately - that the train performs better at low speed. 

 

I was so pleased with the update that I ordered more slotless motors for my TGVs... Before I realized the size issue that initiated this post actually.

 

Alain