Monday 7 October 2024

LocoWorks - Odin goes battery/RC [4] .. all together now...

The final stages of the rebuild.. 

After a short run test, a small traction weight has been added ....

The loco is in three parts - the RC chassis, the 'footplate' and the body (cab+boiler);  I've made the effort this time to have it so that I can can take the loco apart for maintenance.   

The 'footplate' assembly with the motion removed showing the screw holding the body (cab end)  in place

the smoke box end of the body is held in place with a screw either side.
All parts together now with the RC aerial which comes up through the front of the saddle tank.
I'm going to let all the glue cure for a couple of days before I start any painting.

Saturday 5 October 2024

LocoWorks - Odin goes battery/RC [3] .. couplings go on ...

Today worked on the couplings ..

Firstly the chunky buffers were removed and plasticard overlays added to cover up the neatish 'hack'. Then I fitted the front chopper coupling and brake hose, then put in the rear pivot coupling (both saved from the old loco setup).

Front coupling...

rear pivot coupling...
tender wire hook pivot coupling...
checking for clearance around radius 1 curves .... ( I always leave about 0.5 cm gap on the near side)

Friday 4 October 2024

LocoWorks - Odin goes battery/RC [2] .. out with the plasticard

Today it was time to get the plasticard out...

Rather than dispose of or hack about the Playmobil 'footplate', I decided on a simple cover up job to give me a good flat surface to add on to.....

The advantage of keeping the Playmobil 'footplate' in place makes it easy to take out the motion if I need to replace it.
checking a standard Playmobil battery pack fits...
While I was at it I decided to tweak the tender to widen it slightly to make it more in keeping with the width of the loco...
Trial assembly of all the bits ... the aerial pokes through the top of the saddle tank at the front...
lots of bits to do... remove the buffers, add couplings.....etc...


Thursday 3 October 2024

LocoWorks - Odin goes battery/RC [1]

 Back to the loco works for a change to an engine I acquired three years ago.  The change will be to my 0-4-0 tender loco Odin, to make it battery powered and radio controlled.

I'm going to use a Playmobil RC chassis and replace the existing LGB track powered chassis; some adaptation will be needed.

Odin taken to bits....
The Playmobil chassis,  I'll have to make a hole in the loco body for the aerial to go through..
First trial fit of the loco body to its new chassis..

Quite a lot to do to get the loco to fit right onto the new chassis... plus a better coupling system with the tender (or a fudge as before 😀 )