well the cross sections of the rails vary between the different codes and brands of track. I use Peco code 55 (have some peco code 80 track aswell), both have different cross sections, but if either of those are the rails/track you are planning on uding, then i would be able to measure it for you.

Quote from: taz-of-boyds on September 24, 2008, 07:44:19 PM
the gearing in the chassis is reversed

Good point. I have to admit i completely forgot to take into account the gearing :doh:
you are completely correct, now tats cleared up, im going to slowly back away and hide in a corner until everyone forgets i've just made a completly basic mistake 

I understand what you are saying, but im pretty sure what im saying is correct, so ok bare with me, lets ignore the shell, and ignore that there are two trains for one second, in fact lets ignor there is a train altogether.
If you take any DC motor and connect it to a track where say the left rail is + and the right rail is -. The motor will go for wards when its + is connected to the left rail. If the + of the motor was connected to the right it would go in reverse. Basic motors, im certain you know that.
Right then the chassis of the train is basically the connections of the motor to the track (if you ignore the gearing as that isnt important). Lets say that the motor 'cannot' be rotated in the chassis, and at the moment its + is connected to the right side of the chassis. It will go bacwards like i said above. Now, in order to make it go forward, there are 3 options:
1: rotate the motor 180' that method works if you can rotate the motor, but what if you cant (which was the purpose of my original suggestion).
2: you can reverse the polarity of the track, but if there are two engines with motors connected opposite ways around, you cant.
and finally 3: if the chassis has two sides A and B. A is connected to the left, and B the right. The motor is fixed to these so that its + is joined to B (the tracks -). If you rotate the whole chassis around 180' then side B is now on the left and A the right. We know that B is connected to the motors + and now it is connected to the left rain of the track (the tracks +).
oh, now the motor turns forwards, and the chassis goes in the same direction as the second engine. finally, re-add the shell to the chassis, only putting it on the opposite way around to the way it was before. The locos go in the same directions when they are both pointing forwards in terms of how which way the shell is pointing not the chassis's.

Im sorrry that i went on for a bit then, but correct me if im wron about what ive just said (which an explanation to my suggestion earlier). If you think im wrong, I will go and recreate the problem with some locos and see if the solution works.
Thanks Tom.
(p.s. I know which the best method is which was the flipping of the motor, but i was just sharing an idea if it hadnt been possible to flip the motor)

well i know that the very old rivarrossi heavy passenger coaches (i found one on ebay at one point) have hugely flanged wheels, and i had problems with them and points (they were about twice the size of the rest of my stocks flanges). As for wheels with the widest rims, youd probably be able to extend the rims with either a peice of metal/plastic, or even with another wheel flipped around.

This sounds like it'll be an interesting project (im a big fan of novelty ideas like this, as i have recently built several micro layouts on things such as CD's and Mini-disk's (on my website).
I hope you post some pics or updates somewhere or another, and tell us where.

Hope this helps. Tom

IVe just noticed that you managed to flip the motor, which is good im glad youve got it working, i hadnt seen that before i made my last post.

Just as a side note the suggestion i made was valid, as the result of doing what i said would have meant that one of the locos mechanism/chassis would be on the rails in the opposite direction to before if you put the train on the track with so that the shell faced the same way as before (effectively flipping the chassis around under the shell,)

I know this might sound daft, but has the shell on one of them been put on back to front (i dont know wheter they can be put on eitherway around or not, so i thought id ask).

Quote from: ben_not_benny on February 06, 2007, 05:50:42 PM
One more question: does the MDT have all wheel drive orr 4 wheel drive?

Yup 6 wheel drive. I am also planning to use the #1133 coupler for mine.
As has bees said, electrofrogs are a must for this one if you plan to run it slowly otherwise it stalls alot. Finally if anyone is trying to convert this deisel to DCC i have done so and would be happy to take a couple of pictures of the adaptions ive made to the split frame chassis to accomadate a decoder.

Quote from: brokemoto on July 18, 2008, 05:55:28 AM
I will also buy the 44 tonner.  B-personn did a good job with it in other scales, so I expect that it will do the same in N.   Baltimore and Ohio (did they have any?) and some generics for me.

Yup, theres a B&O one, which i will be reserving, the question is, does anyone know how the couplings on it will be attached (i.e. which micro-train conversion?)

Hot glue sounds like a good idea in principal, but it really is not a good way to go. The problem with it is that both it looks messy, and after a relatively short period of time tend to lose all adhesion with any material, small tin tack etc. are the way to go.

I use neodynium earth magnets for uncoupling my stock, the sort you can get on eBay for dirt cheap (they are tiny only 5x5x5 mm), but can be mounted up to 3mm below the base of the sleepers and still work, you just have to place a row of 3 perpendicular to the track, and they work perfectly.
These are the magnets http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/64-CUBE-MAGNET-3-16x3-16x3-16-NEODYMIUM-NdFeB-craft_W0QQitemZ140254516997QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item140254516997&_trkparms=72%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14.l1318

the coupler pockets on the H16-44 are very different to other locos. Most B'mann locos use a draft gear box, like that which comes with the #1133 coupler, however on the H16-44 the coupler attaches on by a eye on the back of the coupler instead of a T-Shank. At the moment the best way to go is any of the #2000 (1,2,3 or 4) couplers. which involve drilling and tapping a hole to fit. Having said that it appear that if you get two sets of the #1046, you should be able to simply fit the couplings without trouble, i'm not sure though. look on page 3 of this http://www.micro-trains.com/Coupler%20diagrams.pdf

There are instructions at the botom of this page http://www.tophobbytrains.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=2029