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Last
summer NWSL released the first of a new
generation of under floor drive systems
designed for use in HO 2 axle Diesels. The
design and development of the new drive was
the brain-child of Neal Stanton an
Electrical engineer and friend and partner
of NWSL. Neal and Dave Rygmyr, owner of NWSL
have been working to develop and produce the
drive for well over a year. Currently a pair
of basic frames covers 2-axle wheelbases
from 6’6” to 10’0”. In the works are frames
for shorter wheelbases and in the long-term
frames for 3 axle trucks. The frames are
designed to adapt to wheelbases in 6”
(scale) increments and to be custom built
with any of NWSLs premium solid Nickel
Silver wheels from 33” and up and code 110
down to the Proto87 code 64 treads. The
product was intent for HO scale diesels but
the surprise has been how many units they
assemble for larger scales both in traction
and critters and just about anything you can
imagine.
A custom
designed 1220 motor with dual shafts to
drive both axles powers the Stanton 2 axle
drives. This motor stalls at 400ma which
makes the Stanton extremely DCC friendly.
The motor uses rare earth magnets and is
wound to specifications intended to lower
the top speed for the best running
characteristics possible. Tiny motors
typically wind out very fast but this one
pushes the limits of slow speed so that the
Stanton doesn’t act like a rocket. Finally
the Stanton is very powerful for its tiny
size.
Unlike
previous under floor power units the Stanton
frame does not “bearing” the axles. In fact,
there is no structural stress on the frame
so it is made out of ABS grade plastic. This
allows modeling plastics to be glued
directly to the frame in a normal fashion.
This is a huge advantage when the original
model’s side frames are plastic because they
can easily be glued right to the Stanton
frame.
But our
focus here is Brass so we are going to share
with you how we attached the side frames of
an Overland Models diesel to a pair of
powered Stanton drives and then installed
the “Stantonized” trucks to the model’s
frame. This is just one way to do it. We
hope you will be inspired and encouraged to
get out your old “coffee grinder” brass
diesel with those nasty KMT drives and put
new life into an otherwise nice model. Best
of all once you’ve installed the Stanton
there is nothing of the power drive in the
interior of the model so, if you want, you
can do a complete detail of the interior,
pack it full of electronics complete with
hugh-mongus speakers or just weight the heck
out of it to blow those little N scale
wonders that pull 400 freight cars off the
track.
Enjoy….
Photo Essay
Of
course the first thing you want to do is
order your Stanton Drives from NWSL.
http://www.nwsl.com/motors-power-drives/stanton-drive
They will want to know 3 pieces of
information in order to provide you with the
correct drive. First you need to know the
center to center wheel base of the truck you
wish to power. You can provide real inches
or scale inches. The 1220 Stanton can be
arranged for 9’ 9.5’ or 10’ wheel bases. The
1215 Stanton is for wheelbases 7’6” to 8’6
in 6” increments. (Their 1210 will do
wheelbases of 6’6” to 7’0”.) Next you will
need to provide the diameter of wheel you
want to use. Thirty-three inch wheels (in HO
scale) are about the smallest diameter that
can be used in order to assure the bottom of
the truck will not touch the railheads.
Finally you can choose from the various
tread codes NWSL offers.
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While you are measuring your
original trucks take a few
notes. You will need to know the
original frame height so that
you can adjust the Stanton to
duplicate this. A pair of Dial
Calipers is useful for this.
Place the frame with original
wheels in place on a solid flat
surface and record the reading
as shown. Don’t forget to note
the height of the side frames. |
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Take a minute to measure and
record the original width of the
truck. This isn’t particularly
critical except to insure the
truck looks the same after the
Stanton has been installed. |
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When
your new Stantons arrive be sure to
review the enclosed literature. You will
note that these are complete stand-alone
units and, if you like, go ahead and
place them on the track and see how they
run… just like that; no fussing, no
wiring, no programming – have a little
fun.
Once
you are done playing it’s time to get to
work. The tabs on the frames are for
mounting couplers. This can be useful if
you have extremely tight curves but most
of us will want to cut them off. The
plastic is ABS and a Razor blade or
Xacto does the job easily.
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Next mount the Stantons to your
model’s frame. Here the Frame
height measurement you took will
come in handy. It’s important to
get as close to the original
height as you can both for
proper appearance and proper
coupler height. You may need a
few washers or bushing but the
nice surprise is that this is
very doable with the Stantons –
they are very adaptable. If your
frame has a gaping void where
the bolster should be it isn’t
difficult to fabricate one and
glue, bolt, or solder it in
place. |
Perhaps the more “challenging part of
the job is mounting your original side
frames to the Stanton frame. NWSL is all
about powering your models so they will
not be a likely source for such
cosmetics; besides there are “bullions
and bullions” of engines out there with
all kinds of variable. Imagine trying to
cover all of those bases. So save your
side frames and prepare to mount them on
the Stanton. It’s not as hard as you
think.
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The Stanton is actually quite
narrow and it is very likely you
will find that your side frames
sit out away from the Stanton
frame as was the case here. To
take up that space and stabilize
the side frames I glued .08”
strip of styrene to the side of
the drives with ordinary Styrene
plastic welder. |
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Here is a little different view of
how the plastic pads were attached.
If the side frames were plastic you
could build up the plastic and glue
them right to the Stanton. But our
example is brass. The old brass
bolster held the side frames with
two screws each. I used these screws
to hold a brass bracket I fabricated
out of .010” brass stock. My
brackets were bent to hold the side
frames apart at the correct width of
the original truck. I mounted these
to the side frames in place of the
old bolster. |
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Here is a better view of how I
mounted the brackets |
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Here comes the trickiest part of
the whole project – positioning
the side frames to the Stanton
frame. If you crafted your
brackets to the correct
dimension they will naturally
hold
the side frames to the correct
width of the truck. The other
two critical points to keep in
mind as you mix up some good ‘ol
JB Weld or other trusted epoxy
is that you want to center the
axle journals on the axles which
will also require that you mount
the side frame to the correct
height. (You did record that
too… right?). I use a pair of
styrene pads on a flat surface
to hold the frames at the right
height while the epoxy sets.
I don’t recommend ACC. It tends
to come apart after a while. But
maybe that’s just me. |
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Once the epoxy is set, voila!
Isn’t it beautiful? |
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Finally remount the Stantons to
frame of your model. If you
operate straight DC leave the
wires twisted together (they
jump between the pick up from
the rail to the leads to the
motor. Simply solder the like
colored pairs together and put
it on the track for a test run.
If you use DCC connect the wires
to the decoder according to the
colors (black to black, gray to
gray, etc.) program the decoder
and have fun.
Did I mention the Stantons were
very powerful?
Simple, huh?
But if you don’t feel like going
to all this “trouble” yourself
NWSL will mount your Stantons
for you. |
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