DalaGStanator's Customs, Mods and Experiments

After removing the gearbox and electronics from the tank loco, I tried the horizontal powered bogie idea. All I had to do was glue a bearing with a wheelset under one of the screws, and the height perfectly matched. I then proceeded to make an unpowered front bogie. For the wheel spacing to be equal, I lined up the bearings with the axles on the powered one. I thought it would end up being static (not articulated) with only the front one turning, but cutting a hole in the chassis in the motor's shape made it able to swivel a bit. Only problem is it can nearly fall out when picked up, and only the wiring can stop it. The front bogie had enough room to make a whole 360° until a pilot (cowcatcher) was added (below).



I initially wanted the side frames to have bearings (from a plastic tube), but the frames were difficult to glue, always fell off and even prevented certain wheels from turning. Instead, I just glued them to the sides of the bogies and had them "rest" on the long axles. Even though I never had any, the whole thing reminds me of a LEGO train for a smaller gauge (and with the bufferbeams separated from the pilots).



The main reason why I chose this switch (from an old bump 'n go bus) was due to the additional wires that were already soldered to it, which I thought I could use to power incandescent lights (from the same bus). However, wiring the lights to them caused them to turn on when the switch was off, so the extra wires became totally redundant. Instead, one light was wired to the motor's capacitor and one to the other light. After adding a wall to insert them as headlights, I (naturally) built a whole diesel electric body around it. Due to use of the 2x AAA pack as the fuel tank, the only thing taking up space on top besides the motor and switch is the jumbled wiring for the headlights. Would've looked better if I mounted them sideways or facing up, because the tips aren't really as bright as the middle portions. I opted to keep the lights on the other cab fake.



The body was (very) loosely inspired by diesel electrics made by companies like Alstom, such as the JT 42BW or the AD 32C. White cardboard was used to match the uncovered battery pack. Not very pleased with the bulky roof, but the rest turned out OK for an experimental design. At one point, only the lights still turned on after the body was finished and the roof had to be loosened to allow access to the motor. Funny how the red tank loco sounded more like a diesel than this while in motion (likely because the motor is different).

Update:



Instead of making an entirely new roof to replace the original, I simply reshaped it after cutting down the sides at the top. It can also be lifted up to access the electronics without having to loosen it.