OK I hate to get a bit gripey but sheesh I’m frustrated. I am a basher and I love large scale but I feel like I have been left adrift when it comes to motors and drive options. I love really small engines but its becoming neigh impossible to build anything track powered anymore because of the lack of available drive options for small engines, even big engines are problematic these days. There just are no drives out there… Currently I have three options for drives, HLW Mack, USA brick, and the ever diminishing and increasingly hard to find Aristo FA1 brick. Forget about the Aristo center cab bricks, they are LONG gone, as is the Magic Carpet drive from NWSL, and HLW doesn’t really offer drives separately anymore. Bachmanns Lil Haulers have a tall vertical motor which limits their use. I have looked around online for a small block or nose hung motor that can fit under the floor but the only other best option, a guy from England, turned out to be motor drives for purely battery only operations. I have been trying to keep going by building non powered models and relying on the pusher cars I made, but as near as I can tell, its currently my only real option for small bashes. I cannot power any of them as the current available stock of bricks are simply too big for some of my current ideas. Occasionally I find a small drive on ebay but just as often the seller wants the moon for it. Anyways that’s my rant, just wanted a vent a little.
Vic-
The HLW Mack has proven for me absolutely reliable. Can the motor/wheel “brick” assembly be purchased apart from the body?
AFAIK HLW stopped selling motor bricks independently entirely. They used to sell the Goose drive separately as well and the 8 wheelers, but all that stopped a couple years ago. I’ve used the Mack for several bashes but its brick is too big for some projects.
Vic,
remember IT Uncle?
the guy from japan? look up his threads. he has very good descriptions, of how he motored his creations.
(he puts gears on the inside of the wheels and hangs a small motor into the truck to power them. for an excellent modeler like you, that should be a piece of cake)
Vic, you are dead on!
Gee, you cant call up Phil at Heartland and order motor blocks anymore? That blows. I hope I have enough left over stuff to build what I want then.
Camp out on fleabay, I normaly see blocks from LGB and other brands on there, might not be as cheap as they once were or could be cheaper depending on the auction. But I agree, getting harder to find. Doesn’t seem to be much coming from HLW lately, wonder if they are on the way out soon. All I keep seeing is what they are not making anymore, not much of here is what is new or we are gonna make.
Vic - I have an 0-6-0 LGB drive unit brick that was made bor the HSB prairie tank locomotive I bought many moons ago for a project that never happened. If you are interested I can send you dimensions and so on.
tac
Ottawa Valley GRS
Thanks TAC, pm me, what I really need is a way to power an HLW minicar chassis, the last time I used a goose drive from HLW. I had high hopes for a nose hung motor wheel product from Britain called a Fosdrive but then I found out from the seller it has a solid metal wheel and can’t work with track power. I can’t really use battery without a trailing car. But that will be the only option for the Fosmotor.
Somewhere I have a DVD by Alan Olsen on powering small large scale critters with motors gears and chains but I am not the most mechanically inclined person (fists of ham, fingers of butter) so I never got too deep into it, maybe time to dig it up again.
I am also planning to build a powered tender as a pusher, that will help give me some options.
I, among others, is surprised at the obvious opportunity for HLW to sell motor blocks, packaged and purposely advertised for those of us who want to personalize our layouts with self-created locos. I doubt there would be any threat to HLW train sales. The most popular rolling stock on our layout is a chunky circa 1900s all-wood street car - likely 1:20 scale - that has a rescued motor block. What stalled out the project was what is going to power the finished project.
I will add my support to that rant. I have several projects in the planning stages that no longer continuing with. I also have an HLW rail bus that I won’t be able to fix.
I guess HLW doesn’t want my business!
Vic,
This suggestion is from Mike Morgan.
He suggests you look at the equipment that this company has to offer.
http://www.abcgears.co.uk/html/traction_motors.html
It may suit your needs. They have some interesting drives. Such as this one in O gauge…
I’ve bought HLW blocks via Phil in the last year without any issue I was aware of. I’ll give him a ring on Tuesday to check it out.
J.
I agree Vic. When I started in the G scale hobby I was relying on scratchbuilding and kitbashing as it was a cheaper alternative since I had no job to support the hobby, but I stayed with it for the fun and creativity. I like the smaller critters and beat up loggers as they much character, and the possibilities are endless, but the lack of available drives and the cost has caused me to move many projects over to the RIP track 
and even if price wasn’t an issue, the available locos are way to big to provide good drives, short of selling the back 40 to buy an out of production LGB rig to attack with the saw
I guess the course of popular society has moved us to the fringes of the niches. Several things around here which apparently ain’t gonna happen, which is a sad thing, the ideas which will never be.
At the same time, the advent of 3D printing might make it pretty easy to make your own custom drives. Barry’s Big Trains uses gears from Small Parts and/or other suppliers, standard axle sizes, etc. There’s also Northwest Short Line for motors, gears, and wheels. The parts are out there, you’ve just got to design the chassis or gear cage to go with them. There’s a learning curve on the software, for sure, but it’s not that expensive to send something to Shapeways to have printed, or you might check your local library. The one out by me has a 3D printer for folks to use that is pretty reasonably priced.
Later,
K
Joe Zullo said:
Vic,
This suggestion is from Mike Morgan.
He suggests you look at the equipment that this company has to offer.
http://www.abcgears.co.uk/html/traction_motors.html
It may suit your needs. They have some interesting drives. Such as this one in O gauge…
Thanks for that - especially suitable for anybody modelling 16mm and using 32mm track, as well.
tsc
Ottawa Valley GRS
Kevin Strong said:
At the same time…you might check your local library. The one out by me has a 3D printer for folks to use that is pretty reasonably priced.
K
I don’t actually know anybody who has SEEN one, and you have one in a library!?
tac, stunned
These people (UK) have motor/gearboxes with full info of gear/speeds (RPM) available on the site.
Click on Gearboxes. They come with motor.
ABC gears mentioned above appear to use an MFA Como product in one of their own productions.
I have four and they are superbly built.
When I was up visiting with Bruce Bates a few weeks ago, he showed me a few critters with the Tamiya 6spd HE motors installed. Not sure how’d you track power-but with a measly few volts you can make 'em move. He used the #72005
http://www.tamiya.com/english/products/list/gearboxes/kit700P01.htm