I have a question before I lay out the bucks for one of these.
Will a USA Trains Docksider make it through R1 switches? I use 8 and 10 foot curves, but all my switches are R1s. TIA
I don’t know Joe but all 6 wheels are flanged which may cause it to bind going through a R1 switch.
Here is a link to Greg E’s review of one.
http://www.elmassian.com/trains/motive-power-mods-aamp-tips/usat-motive-power/docksider
They are neat looking engines but I think short. have you seen one in person yet?
I have a USAT docksider. While all of my tracks have a minimum of 8’ diameter, and my switches are the Aristo 10’ ones, I do have one 4’ dia switch, which I believe is equivalent to the R1 you mention. You will notice that there is some side to side play on the drive wheels of the engine. This does indeed seem to allow the engine to manage on the short radius switch. I say “seem” because my engine did hang up on the Aristo switch controller, which in my case is on the outer side of the curve section. Other than that though, I could not detect any binding of the engine as it went around the switch. I am sorry, but I didn’t remove the controller to make absolutely sure.
Ed
Todd Haskins said:
I don’t know Joe but all 6 wheels are flanged which may cause it to bind going through a R1 switch.
Here is a link to Greg E’s review of one.
http://www.elmassian.com/trains/motive-power-mods-aamp-tips/usat-motive-power/docksider
They are neat looking engines but I think short. have you seen one in person yet?
Todd,
Thanks for your response. I already sent/got an email back from Greg and looked at his website review. Very informative, but did not answer the R1 switch question.
Ed Headington said:
I have a USAT docksider. While all of my tracks have a minimum of 8’ diameter, and my switches are the Aristo 10’ ones, I do have one 4’ dia switch, which I believe is equivalent to the R1 you mention. You will notice that there is some side to side play on the drive wheels of the engine. This does indeed seem to allow the engine to manage on the short radius switch. I say “seem” because my engine did hang up on the Aristo switch controller, which in my case is on the outer side of the curve section. Other than that though, I could not detect any binding of the engine as it went around the switch. I am sorry, but I didn’t remove the controller to make absolutely sure.
Ed
Ed,
Thank you so much for this information. That is what I wanted to hear. Switch machines are not a problem. BTW, what hung up? Possibly the pilot step?
Actually it was the step on both the front and the rear. As an update, with a very rare spurt of energy, I moved the switch controller to the other side of the switch, eliminating that interference. Now when I run the dockside through the switch, it definitely binds, slows down some, but does go through the switch with no other problem. I don’t know what effect this might have on the life of the gear train. At very slow speeds, the engine will stop. But at higher throttle settings, it will pass on through the switch.
Hope this helps.
Ed
Ed,
Could you do me a favor and measure the wheelbase of your Docksider for me? c to c of the first and back driver wheels, please.
Center of front driver to center of rear driver is 5-1/8".
Another option Joe is the PIKO switcher. I have one from a starter set and just tested it through a R1 switch and then through 2 connected together at the tangents and it went through without a hitch. The wheel base axle to axle is 4.75. The 6 wheels are flanged.
Here is one for sale but I have seem them as low as $50.
They are neat little engine with a similar look to the USAT and some are available with sound but they are plastic not metal and I don’t think they will pull as much as the docksider.
Ed and Todd,
Thank you very much for the measurements. I think the Docksider will be OK. I measured a Bachmann bobber caboose and the wheel base is right around 5 inches. It too can be felt binding a little through an R1 switch, but it goes through all the time, and it doesn’t weigh 10 pounds 10 ounces! (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cool.gif)
Joe.Z. Michael Glavin left his USA 0-6-0 here for a bit and it works fine thru the R-1. I have one location using a LGB R-1 for Eng’s. crossing over two main line to the Eng. storage/ large turntable side. Lots of over hang for the coupler swing tho.
Joe, Noel’s test is a pretty good one. Not having seen that, I got to thinking this evening about your question about the axle to axle distance on the engine. I measured the side play and it is about .093". By doing a little trigonometry, I determined that for “no bind” at all, you would need about a 5’ diameter curve. That is why it binds on my 4’dia. Aristo switch. I wanted to have more confidence that the bind wasn’t because of track spacing or something else. I am not familiar with the exact radius comparison is for the R1 switch, but hopefully this will give you a little more data to work with.
Ed
You really cannot compare it to a bobber caboose with just 2 axles, because there is a third axle. You need to determine the max curve taking into account the center driver, and to make it more complex, the axle spacing is not the same.
If you want to know if you can squeeze through a switch on occasion, I would say that is different than “living” on R1 curves all the time.
Mike Kidman reported excessive wear on the wheels, where the plating came off and the wheels wore significantly. I’d contact him and see what conditions this was under.
The loco is heavy and can “bull” its way through a tight curve, but it won’t be good for the drivetrain nor the wheels.
I’d consider this carefully.
Regards, Greg
I received my Docksider this afternoon. The first thing I did after getting it out of the box was put it on rollers to check things out. I was “blessed” with the double chuff that Greg mentions on his video. I opened her up and moved the chuff receiver about 1/32" away from the magnet wheel and now the chuff is OK. While I had her opened up I lowered the volume a little as I saw on Greg’s website. Out on the railroad I found that the rear steps were lower than the front steps and were shorting out over a couple of switches. I took them off for now until I figure out how I can raise them about 1/8". The couplers work just fine with all my Bachmann truck mounted couplers and there is plenty of coupler swing so it doesn’t derail the car behind the engine. My new Docksider goes through all my R1 switches with no effort, just as Noel said. I’m a happy camper! (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-smile.gif)Thank You all for your help and advice. (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cool.gif)
Here is a a video from this afternoon…
Looking good, Joe
They sure have the pulling power. Guess with all of the wt. they have.
I’ll have to ck again on dbl chuff. I don’t recall hearing that on this one here. I hear every other chuff, like on every 180 deg’s.
Glad it works so well for you, Joe. If you figure out what to do with that low rear step, please let us know. I know on mine, it can be a real bother.
Ed
Ed Headington said:
Glad it works so well for you, Joe. If you figure out what to do with that low rear step, please let us know. I know on mine, it can be a real bother.
Ed
Here’s what I came up with…
- Remove the steps from the rear of the loco.
- Saw off the step just above the upright support hangers.
- Reattach step to support hangar with tiny screws. The hardest part is drilling the tiny holes.
- Reinstall steps on rear of loco.
I gained about 5/32 more clearance to the rails and nothing touches any more. Make sure you move the step OUTBOARD before reattaching! I didn’t on the first try and wound up reducing the coupler swing.
Looking Good Joe. It sounds pretty good too. I like the bell.
Overall a Fine addition.
Happy RRing
Thanks Joe. I’ll have to try that.
Ed
Cool, its got pole pockets, too,