Subject:
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Re: Thoughts on Spy Photos of New Trains
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.trains
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Date:
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Sat, 7 Jan 2006 23:19:18 GMT
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Viewed:
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2135 times
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In lugnet.trains, John Neal wrote:
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In lugnet.trains, Mike Petrucelli wrote:
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The current 9v motor can be powered by rails or a battery box. Just plug a
battery box where the light brick would normally connect and turn it on. The
only thing is it will go backwards compared to normal power by the wheels.
However a polarity switch (or even turning the plug around the other way)
will fix that. While I am not a die hard train fan I still like the whole
9v standard and hope that they are simply using the same motor with a new
battery box controller. (Turn off the battery box and stick the train on 9v
track and away you go.) This would actually make sense if, as TLC stated,
they do not intend to discontiune the 9v train system but have both, so that
kids can “graduate” to the the 9v trains. What better way than to have the
cheaper battery train sets you “already own” work on the more expensive 9v
as well.
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Eureka, Mike! I think you have nailed it! The spy pics show metal wheels,
suggesting that they are indeed still utilizing the 9 volt train motor. That
side thingie I was concerned about now appears to be the sensor that gets the
signal from the remote unit. It would be nice if the battery box contained a
quick recharging battery that could easily be swapped out.
If this system IS the way you suggest, it would be quite elegant indeed! And
if this all is true, then I would not necessarily consider this a new
system, but rather a clever augment to an already good one!
Though it makes me think that the death knell for metal rail track cannot
be far off. And I seem to remember that that manufacturing process was the
one that TLG wanted to get rid of.
Hold off on buying all of those 9 volt motors, Ben! :-)
JOHN
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I’d just assumed that most train-heads knew that already. John, you need to
open up and talk to the six-wide builders more... ;-) But what does happen if
you connect a 9V battery box to a train motor is that you get not so much a
train-powering device as a train-launching device. The full 9V propels the
motor at very high speed. That’s why I wondered if it doesn’t need six 1.5V
batteries, and just propels the motor at a lower voltage.
If it does take six AA batteries (and they could just fit in 6-wide - lots of
things do, you know ;) , it could obviously regulate the voltage going to the
motor. It could mean the lights (if powered independently - and fingers crossed
they’re on the remote) are much brighter than on 9V trains, and you could use
flashing ones effectively too.
If it doesn’t regulate the voltage, you get a train base that goes ridiculously
fast on its own, but may slow to a crawl under even a small load. I just hope
they’ve resolved the wheel-wear problem.
I’m not sure why Mike thinks the motor goes backwards - surely you can say that
about any of the 9V devices if you turn the connector round? If you just mean
that putting the motor, cable and battery box in a straight line with the
battery box switch towards the tail end makes it go tail first, that’s not
really much of a problem.
Mr Reynolds actually built a battery powered train and snuck it into an
otherwise professionally designed and run layout (note that the following smiley
is for the benefit of the general readership, not Mr Reynolds himself... ;-) and
it caused some near-misses by continuing to electrify the track it was on, even
after it was told to stop. It was heavy enough that it didn’t immediately
launch itself off the track under its own power, but it did use a single 9V
battery in a small box rather than six AAs.
Jason R
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Message has 2 Replies:
 | | Battery drive / new trains
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| (...) Ah...another reference to my enthusiastic pioneering approach by Jason. The loco in question is a replica of a real loco called a Motor Luggage Van made as a single unit for the Southern Region (ex British Rail). As the name suggests, it was a (...) (18 years ago, 8-Jan-06, to lugnet.trains, FTX)
| | | Re: Thoughts on Spy Photos of New Trains
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| (...) Eeoow. That's akin to kissing one's sister:-p (...) Well, I was imagining a sort of regulator as a part of the battery pack that a remote control could simply activate. A long time ago my son Ross rigged up an old 12 volt motor that ran off of (...) (18 years ago, 8-Jan-06, to lugnet.trains, FTX)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: Thoughts on Spy Photos of New Trains
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| (...) Eureka, Mike! I think you have nailed it! The spy pics show metal wheels, suggesting that they are indeed still utilizing the 9 volt train motor. That side thingie I was concerned about now appears to be the sensor that gets the signal from (...) (18 years ago, 7-Jan-06, to lugnet.trains, FTX)
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