Powered Rotary Snowplow

[BestSnowman]

A while back I found an old Athearn rotary kit that turned the rotary blade by running rubber bands from the front wheels. It sort of worked but wasn't spectacular.

This evening I had an idea though, I had the motor out of an older Bachmann F9 that I had given up on and thought to myself... wouldn't it be neat if I powered the the rotary blade with a motor. I set out and ended up with this: http://cid-811d1df10b2b3e61.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/Train/IMG^_1475.jpg

Right now I have it connected to a DC power pack and the mounting scheme is a bit crude (yes thats electrical tape) but my eventual goal is to operate it a bit like the electrified rotarys currently in use. The motor is in the rotary and an old locomotive with a generator but no traction motors is directly following it. The power for the rotary motor is fed from the locomotive (I believe its called a snail if it has a generator but no traction motors) and a powered consist pushes them.

I plan to to do the same but control the blade with a decoder to start and stop it (and use v-max to limit it to a reasonable speed).

[WoundedBear]

I like it!

Sid

[BestSnowman]

I added some weight to the back as the motor made it a bit front heavy. My original plan was to run power from a dummy/snail locomotive to a decoder in the rotary, That got me to thinking that it might be a bit difficult to find a dummy with metal wheels and pickups so I turned one of my bachmann GP40s into a snail and ran the decoder to motor wires out and to the plow (now I have another motor... maybe I should get another rotary kit...)

I've still got some tweaking to do, especially CVs to prevent over revving, but here is a picture I took of it reassembled: http://cid-811d1df10b2b3e61.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/Train/IMG^_1477.jpg

The green and yellow is the snail and the UP behind it is the pusher.

[Jim Banner]

These links may work a little better.  They are certainly worth having a look at.

http://cid-811d1df10b2b3e61.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/Train/IMG^_1475.jpg

http://cid-811d1df10b2b3e61.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/Train/IMG^_1477.jpg


I like your idea of using a decoder to set a slow speed.  Much easier (and quieter) than a gear train.

Jim

[ABC]

These links may work a little better.  They are certainly worth having a look at.

Yeah I noticed they didn't work too, he cut off the end part of the link.

[full maxx]

I thought you meant something like this http://images.search.yahoo.com/images/view?back=http%3A%2F%2Fimages.search.yahoo.com%2Fsearch%2Fimages%3Fp%3Dsnow%2Bplow%2Btrain%26ei%3DUTF-8%26fr%3Dyfp-t-701%26fr2%3Dtab-web&w=1024&h=683&imgurl=www.railroadforums.com%2Fphotos%2Fdata%2F514%2FSnow_Plow_CP_Rail.jpg&rurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.railroadforums.com%2Fphotos%2Fshowphoto.php%3Fphoto%3D40135&size=157k&name=Snow+Plow+CP+Rai...&p=snow+plow+train&oid=e7a78eee73399400&fr2=tab-web&no=5&tt=569&sigr=11u2h735b&sigi=11smn6mq9&sigb=130o2biai

[jettrainfan]

Nice job! i was wondering why it wasn't working.

[BestSnowman]

I guess I didn't notice that the end of the url got messed up.

Jim, its not too quite though but I think its just the decoder. If I run it straight DC its pretty quiet but through the decoder it gets a bit noisy.

[Jim Banner]

May I ask what decoder you are using?  Some of the older designs ran motors at audible frequencies and caused a lot of motor noise.  Most newer ones are "silent" in that the pulses applied to the motor are above the range that we can hear (but they Fido might not like them.)

After spending some time thinking about decoders in rotary plows, it struck me that something like the Digitrax DZ125 would be ideal.  It has BEMF control which would allow control of the wheel down to the 100 to 120 rpm range that they operated at.  And it is an ultrasonic, silent unit to boot.  Just a thought.

fullmax,
When you hear "rotary snowplow," think "snow blower on steroids."  Wedge plows were largely replaced by plows on diesels.

Jim

[full maxx]

uh yep still new here , I thought rotary was referring to the motor in the engine...sorry (hangs head in shame)

[jbsmith]

hmmmm,,STEAM powered Rotary snowplow!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ha59KFvCQUY


the real deal

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHJsjBHzwRg

A Model in action! yep, someone made a working model of one!  G-Scale
This one is for those crazy enough to try it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwNulZLSFnI

[BestSnowman]

It is whatever bachmann uses for the GP40, this particular one is the ATSF GP40 from the EZ-Command set but I have another Bachmann GP40 that is just as loud, initially I thought it was gearing but it obviously is not the case.

I'll probably eventually find a B-Unit for the snail and go with the DZ125 or something similar to get better low rpm control and less sound. I'll probably eventually replace the decoder in my other GP40 for the sound issues too as I previously it was gear noise.