Quote from: Mustermark on May 01, 2012, 01:18:26 AM

Quote from: NTrain on April 30, 2012, 09:34:32 PM
Can we see a picture..................................

Sure can!



A couple more pics in this thread:

http://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/index.php?topic=1545.msg41238#msg41238

Thanks

Quote from: EtchedPixels on May 01, 2012, 01:59:20 PM

Quote from: H on May 01, 2012, 12:25:22 PM
Yep, but it not new though.

I never said it was -

I never said you said it was 

Quote from: EtchedPixels on May 01, 2012, 01:59:20 PM

Also somewhat cheaper than £100 a bus.

With the TomyTec starter set, which I paid £65 for rather than £100, you actually get two bus bodies (not sure why as you only get one motor chassis) plus the roadway and a special pull in bus stop mechanism section and a bus stop shelter!

H.

I've just been stung by Customs fees of £48 on a package from Hobby Search aka 1999.jp aka PlazaJapan... (which I’ve since noticed is actually all Parcelforce Handling fees and not customs at all which is outrageous)

Negates the cheaper price I paid for the Tomytec bus system and a cheap Kato Glacier Express set, but thankfully there are things in my order which you can't get any other way which reduces my pain.

My mistakes by the look of it. Previously I've not been surcharged on stuff from US or Plaza Japan and indeed looking at the invoice the charges were all non-customs (mainly VAT). The problem is only Hobby Search have the individual bits and pieces I was after, mainly stuff to further my Kato RhB project such as individual bogies.

However, back to the Tomytec bus system:

Ran my B2 set at my club last night having got it in my office earlier in the day. Almost the whole club to a man was fascinated by it!

I do mainly European, and the immediate thing I found (to my utter glee) was that you can dupe the bus into operating in left hand drive /right hand of the road running, although the lights that operated on the bus when you add the widget magnets don’t work, but they don’t really add a great deal IMO. The bus even still pulls into the bus stop when running in the ‘wrong’ direction.

My installation is likely to be a single track anyway as it is to be part of my minimum space Kato Glacier Express layout. Whereby the bus runs in the middle of the road which is realistic for a Swiss Post bus on a rural mountain road.

Unfortunately putting the Rietze Swiss PTT bus on the Tomix chassis doesn’t quite work as the Rietze wheelbase is just  too long. However modifying the side the doors are on on the basic bus supplied with the set is going to be a piece of cake.

I wonder has anyone thought about motorising an actual vehicle, gearing it down with mini robot motor and gear box.

This motor is the smallest one I could find:

http://www.robotshop.com/uk/solarbotics-gm7-gear-motor-7.html

• Voltage: 5vdc
• RPM: 145
• Torque: 25oz.in (1.8 kg-cm)
• Current: 88mA
• Reduction: 120:1
• Shaft length: 2mm
• Size: 53x13x19 mm
• Weight: 20 grams (0.7oz)

At 53x13x19mm it almost fits inside the Oxford diecast horsebox ... but not quite.

http://www.jd-collectables.co.uk/acatalog/Southern-Railways-Albion-Horsebox-N-gauge-from-Oxford-Diecast-4677.html

I was thinking either shoehorn in a vehicle or scratch build a vehicle around the motor. The road would be like a track with small kerbs and maybe a centre divider. The vehicle is set off from a road tunnel into the fiddle yard. It then meanders its way on the track/road probably bumping off the kerbs here and there until it disappears into some trees or another area accessible from the yard, where the operator in time resets to go back the other way.

I'm just wandering if this idea is a goer, or would lack realism in movement to the extent, it would be better having static vehicles.

Quote from: Firefox on November 24, 2015, 11:28:21 PM
I'm just wandering if this idea is a goer, or would lack realism in movement to the extent, it would be better having static vehicles.

Well it would certainly be less realistic in movement than using either the Faller or Tomytec systems that were discussed in this thread...  

Quote from: Firefox on November 24, 2015, 11:28:21 PM
I wonder has anyone thought about motorising an actual vehicle, gearing it down with mini robot motor and gear box.

This motor is the smallest one I could find:

http://www.robotshop.com/uk/solarbotics-gm7-gear-motor-7.html

• Voltage: 5vdc
• RPM: 145
• Torque: 25oz.in (1.8 kg-cm)
• Current: 88mA
• Reduction: 120:1
• Shaft length: 2mm
• Size: 53x13x19 mm
• Weight: 20 grams (0.7oz)

At 53x13x19mm it almost fits inside the Oxford diecast horsebox ... but not quite.

http://www.jd-collectables.co.uk/acatalog/Southern-Railways-Albion-Horsebox-N-gauge-from-Oxford-Diecast-4677.html


I'm just wandering if this idea is a goer, or would lack realism in movement to the extent, it would be better having static vehicles.

There are plenty of smaller motor and gearbox setups available. Power with a hearing aid battery, and maybe add a resistor around 50 ohms to drop the speed. For steering mount a ball bearing under the front axle with a neomagnet above, to follow a buried steel wire. Probably less haphazard movement. This seller on ebay tends to have the small motors.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/antareshobby?_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2754

IDL Motors is currently in the process of releasing a connectable version of their linear motor tracks which might be worth considering.  Unfortunately this isn't exactly cheap, can only handle one tight group of vehicles, and while powerful enough to propel small plastic vehicles in N gauge would probably not be up to large trucks or any sort of diecast models.

Their website is:  http://www.teenytrains.com/

Thanks woodbury22uk. Excellent info on the motors. That ebay source produces a 7x7x16 motor which is just what I need.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Car-System-HO-N-scale-MD06G18T-Gear-motor-1V-4V-DC-ratio18-1-1qty-/141777118288

It will fit the Oxford diecast trucks and I think it will even do the bus. I wanted to motorise a bus as they regularly go back and forth.

But I had almost given up because I couldn't find a small enough motor and gear. I spent ages searching and looking too! Also steering suggestion sounds good. I wonder if motor can overcome friction from the magnet guide though?

Quote from: Firefox on November 24, 2015, 11:28:21 PM
It then meanders its way on the track/road probably bumping off the kerbs here and there until it disappears into some trees or another area

Will you be having another vehicle, this time a police car, following to arrest the driver as "drunk in charge of a horsebox" 

Unfortunately not as the car is probably too small to motorise 

However, it could be towed behind the bus/horsebox on a piece of fuse wire, and let's hope the rivet counters don't start pointing out the wire