DalaGStanator's Customs, Mods and Experiments

The first practical use for my motor and switch circuit was a rudimentary chassis that went through three different revisions, all powered using a 2x AAA pack. It doesn't have any gearing beyond the motor's worm gear on the driven axle, but can still manage to drive onto some carpets with enough power. I'll have to find how to arrange a decent compound gear train with the few non LEGO gears I have. If that won't work, I could always try using rubber bands. It ran more smoothly than I imagined, save for the rear wheels being a bit on the wobbly side. The right traction tyre was from a scroll wheel of an old mouse, while the left was just (poorly) wrapped with electrical tape.



The second design used a battery tender with the motor still in the main unit, à la the C battery Edward/Henry/Gordon/James or the Talking/RC/Flip Face engines. Rather than a flexible coupling, the wires were fastened with (the end of) a zip tie. The plastic front wheels (from the back of a frame) were moved to the tender and swapped with cardboard "train" ones, and the tender's wheelbase was too short to fit another such wheelset. In addition, a simple "running board" and "bufferbeam" were added. It pulled the tender just fine, so I would be able to build a new Rocket that's battery powered.



For the third design, I shortened the wires and Blu Tacked the battery pack onto the chassis again. To test it on Union Express track, I replaced the powered wheels with two other "train" ones (a bit thicker with some more glue for traction), adjusted the gauge and used O-rings for traction tyres. When it doesn't stall, it runs alright save for a little jerkiness (either due to imperfect wheels or lack of some weight at the front.

Bonus:



Disney+ launched in my country today (not like I'll ever subscribe to it), so I took a crossover photo with the No. 1 engine and my No. 1 favourite princess queen.