Class 52 Western PF
PFffffffff...ffs! Well I've tried every gearing method I can think of and pretty epic fail on all counts!
New medium (TLG now class them as Large) motors, with lots of torque and a higher spin than the XL's, so I thought should run okay. 1:1 gearing is naff slow, not even shunting speed.
So that put a spanner in the works as lifting the motors up higher to get a faster gearing ratio means that the space for the connections on the IR reciever now dont fit due to the stupid offset overhang of the connections.
The motor gearing pictured is what works acceptably - torque wise, but its still far too slow. Just about shunting speed. Top speed on this equates to speed step 9 on DCC (out of 28! I had this running on the same track as my DCC Deltic at the same time) and just about pulls 2 heavy 7 wide carriages.
Ive tried upping the gearing more (lower left picture) on the bogie as per Cale's idea www.flickr.com/photos/steampoweredbricks/6171429230/in/se... using XL's but this is even worse with torque on the Large motors and even the loco alone doesnt make it around curves, although very slightly faster on the straights.
I'm really not understanding whats going wrong, as all the PF gurus, like Cale, Shupp, Sava, etc all appear to have no probs with this type of gear ratio using a slower spinning XL motor if attached to the standard size wheels, so theoretically the faster spinning Large motors should work as I intended?
Really between a rock and a hard place now, the model may just have to end up being non powered, which really isnt what I wanted, but I just dont see a way forwards with succesful PF operation on this, unless I just keep it to shunting speed with the loco alone, which is crap!
Any suggestions appreciated, although theres not much I can think of that I havent yet tried, I may be missing something completely obvious!?!
Class 52 Western PF
PFffffffff...ffs! Well I've tried every gearing method I can think of and pretty epic fail on all counts!
New medium (TLG now class them as Large) motors, with lots of torque and a higher spin than the XL's, so I thought should run okay. 1:1 gearing is naff slow, not even shunting speed.
So that put a spanner in the works as lifting the motors up higher to get a faster gearing ratio means that the space for the connections on the IR reciever now dont fit due to the stupid offset overhang of the connections.
The motor gearing pictured is what works acceptably - torque wise, but its still far too slow. Just about shunting speed. Top speed on this equates to speed step 9 on DCC (out of 28! I had this running on the same track as my DCC Deltic at the same time) and just about pulls 2 heavy 7 wide carriages.
Ive tried upping the gearing more (lower left picture) on the bogie as per Cale's idea www.flickr.com/photos/steampoweredbricks/6171429230/in/se... using XL's but this is even worse with torque on the Large motors and even the loco alone doesnt make it around curves, although very slightly faster on the straights.
I'm really not understanding whats going wrong, as all the PF gurus, like Cale, Shupp, Sava, etc all appear to have no probs with this type of gear ratio using a slower spinning XL motor if attached to the standard size wheels, so theoretically the faster spinning Large motors should work as I intended?
Really between a rock and a hard place now, the model may just have to end up being non powered, which really isnt what I wanted, but I just dont see a way forwards with succesful PF operation on this, unless I just keep it to shunting speed with the loco alone, which is crap!
Any suggestions appreciated, although theres not much I can think of that I havent yet tried, I may be missing something completely obvious!?!