Build a massive dirt mountain. Call it an operational RR like many strive! The kids WALK to the top of the mountain as they are the “Loads” and ride the train down the mountain then you drive the “Empties” back to the top of the mountain and refill ! No transmission needed and dirt/fill is cheaper than a transmission.
Only my thoughts
Great idea! Quick question; Doesn’t it require a transmission to drive back up?
Horses or maybe,
I would think maybe drop off one car if possible, or run it until it starts having issues and you can get a donation stream to get maybe a used small tractor, not a garden tractor, like you said a Kubota or a Mahindra. They should be comparable in price to a new G tractor, and probably easy to convert the shell you have to the new one.
Ken,
One of my hobbies is collecting and playing with vintage John Deere garden tractors. My collection dates from Kohler powered 1963 round fenders with manual Peerless transaxles to a 1985 diesel powered garden tractor with a hydrostatic transmission and a turbo added by yours truly. NOT all garden tractors are created equal… Most of the stuff available are simply toys IMO, these are manufactured by a couple of OEM’s and are rebranded with specific names we all recognize. This is true of Craftsman, Toro, Cub Cadet, John Deere, and others. The retail market stuff you get from Home Depot and the like fall into this category and are not built or designed to last or perform as well the products sold by a John Deere dealer as an example.
The hydrostats in these retail tractors are entirely different, said retail mowers/tractors hydrostats are not robust, are diminutive and sized to run a lawn mower with out additional loads. I’d suggest your hydrostatic transmission comments pertains to these types of tractors. Small to Full size tractors utilize hydrostats and they have proven to be highly desired and to work well for many years.
I can offer that anyone of my John Deere hydrostat garden tractors could pull your kids train until the cows come home! They are designed to pull plows, discs and other implements. Tractor sizes range from the aforementioned retail stuff to slightly larger. While these tractors cost more than the retail stuff when new, they work and last for years.
Some of the John Deere garden tractors that I’m talking about are; later 110-140 series, 300-332 series and 400-455 series. These are all older models.
If you find the need, I’m akin to helping you out herein. For instance we could start with a used JD-140 w/hydro, refit with a modern overhead cam, fuel efficient and quiet two cylinder engine (in lieu of the tired 14/16hp single Kohler’s) service, tires, seat and paint. Been there and done that, makes a great inexpensive work horse IMO. Cost maybe $3,000.00 or so, including a used 140. I’d even donate one of my 140’s in need of restoration to your wonderful cause.
Michael
Pete,
Dropping a car was something that we thought of, however, where we will be doing this is the busiest part of town and capacity is kind of important. The last time they had a horse-drawn carriage in the area, the lines to ride it we’re beyond sight. This train stands to be a lot more popular than that and between tourists visiting Historic Helena and community citizens, we’re probably going to need that extra car. I spoke to a gentleman who builds trackless trains for a living and this brings me to another point;
Michael, Pete, I spoke to a gentleman by the name of Tom last night who builds trackless trains as a business. The link to his Ebay listing is below.
He told me that he had been building and running 22 horsepower Kohler engines on various tractors with matching Tuff Torq hydrostatic transmissions on his trains and had been pulling up to five cars for a lot of years without any problems. He stated to me that the hydrostatics will eventually fail but not for 3 to 7 years, depending on how they’re used and/or abused. Like any train, he suggested slow easy starts/stops without jerking the train, which you wouldn’t want to do anyway. He also said to stay away from hills, if possible but if you have a hill at an event, make sure it was not over 3-4 degrees. That kind of matched up with the Tuff Torq transmissionn’s corporate recommendations that they sent me. On the other hand, I’ve had other trackless train companies that rent their trains and drivers out tell me that these hydrostatic transmissions will fail very quickly, so now I don’t know who to believe. Of course, since they had employees who probably didn’t care about the equipment, maybe that was the reason for the failures.
I guess we’ll just have to try this out and hopefully not have to walk 20 kids back to the loading point if there is a transmission failure. Since this is a top-of-the-line Dixon 54 inch garden tractor that originally cost us $3,500, I would hope that the transmission is a little better. Below I have included some information that Tuff Torq transmission engineers sent me. Maybe this will help. These charts are what they sent me when they heard that I was building this train for kids and I can’t really make much sense out of it but maybe you can, since you have a beautiful collection of this type of equipment. Let me know your thoughts! Anyone else’s advice would be great to.
Thanks! Ken
