Subject:
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Re: monorail maintenance?
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.trains
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Date:
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Sun, 22 Apr 2007 17:24:14 GMT
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Viewed:
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4914 times
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In lugnet.trains, Felix Greco wrote:
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I’m coming into the monorail world late and have been acquiring track and
parts on Bricklink. I have two motors and both seem to run very slowly. They
really seem to labor going up-hill.
I haven’t run the engines enough to believe I might have burnt them out. All
my metal to metal contacts appear to be clean. My batteries are new. Can
anyone offer me some advice? Are there any steps I can take to clean the
engine and make it more efficient?
Felix
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Monorail trains just run slow. Just how slow depends on your perspective.
I just ran two sets of monorail at the NASM (National Air and Space Museum)
yesterday. The new monorail set I just acquired last weekend seemed to move a
bit faster than my older one, though that could have been due to the MOCish
nature of construction. On average, the trains (2 cars w/motor - standard LEGO
building) seemed to run 1 length of track approximately 2 seconds, from nose of
the train reaching a given piece of track till it reached the end of that same
piece of track. I was using brand new 9v Duracells, but the batteries could have
been any brand just purchased. Each train ran for a total of 4.5 hours (could
have been the full 5 hours, but down time for ‘accidents’ lessened the time for
each train), with no appreciable slowing of the trains. If they are running
slower than that, with the same type of conditions and the bearing that the
motor shaft runs through is clean (no hair or thread wrapped around the shaft
just above the drive gear and before the motor housing) and well lubricated,
then I’m uncertain what to advise you.
A do have a simple word of CAUTION to those who would display a monorail.
DO NOT LET IT CRASH!
I had a casualty yesterday. One motor unit had one set of the ‘nibs’ that hold
the lever connecting the train car to the motor snapped off in an unfortunate,
but spectacular crash. (All other parts were fine, including the lever.) I’m not
saying that it was manhandled by anyone. For all I know it was my own darn
fault. What I am saying is that the older ABS becomes less forgiving as time
goes on, and is likely to break in ways that are difficult to repair (even for
me). I’m still contemplating a way to restore the motor and what the
fix/replacement action will be for the ‘nibs’. I am uncertain that replacement
with plastic will be very strong (considering that the ‘nibs’ sheared off at the
motor housing, making that area completely smooth). If anyone is interested in
my progress, let me know, as you may have motors out there that can not be used,
precisely because of the same problem.
Have fun,
C-ya!
Rich
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | monorail maintenance?
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| I'm coming into the monorail world late and have been acquiring track and parts on Bricklink. I have two motors and both seem to run very slowly. They really seem to labor going up-hill. I haven't run the engines enough to believe I might have burnt (...) (18 years ago, 22-Apr-07, to lugnet.trains, lugnet.space, FTX)
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