I was Bored- so I made a FLEA

[u18b]

How do they pull?

I feel inferior now. I was bored and played online Solitare. 

I'll try to post a video tonight or tomorrow.

[Roger Holmes]

We need to hook Ron up with JDColombo to see if he could add sound

[Ed Kapuscinski]

This reminds me of the G-.5 used for snow clearing by the PRR

[Snark45]

This was the 1/2 - GG-1, correct?   Best, Harry

[tehachapifan]

I just GOTTA build me one of these! Great job!

[u18b]

Thanks for the compliments guys.

I probably shouldn't have done it, but I spent a couple more hours on this.

Mainly adding a head light and some equipment boxes for the big gap up front.

I'll post more later.  But I'm done except for painting.

[UP4-8-8-4]

That has to be the best wildest train idea I've ever seen !
Way to "KOOL" !

You may have started something.

Just one question, what drugs or drink did you take before this brainstorm as I may need to change mine ---------------- 

[u18b]

More photos and a video.

First, this thing runs nose first- as you see it here.  But as an analog loco, it runs backward from my other locos.
So I decided to reverse the wires (the motor was glued to the truck).




I ran the wires through the Rapido coupler pocket.
Switched to black wires to hide them, and switched poles on the motor.




Time to add a headlight.  Added a resistor on the right side.




Soldered magnet wire to the micro SMD LED.  This is the size 6xx.  They are pretty tiny.




After testing to make sure the polarity was right for coming on in the forward direction, I wired it all up.  Including a tiny capacitor (brown rectangle) between the motor poles.  This is to prevent the LED from flickering when running backwards.




The capacitor tucks into the Rapido pocket.  The weight has been added - trimmed just a little for the LED.    Ready to test run!




Runs great.... but the LED was too low for best light out of the headlight.  So I raised it by placing a styrene shim under it.  Glad I had slack in the magnet wire.



Here is a slightly side view of the completed chassis.  What makes this work so well is that when the motor is turned sideways, it lays almost PERFECTLY on the Rapido pocket.  I noted that when I added a weight and shell, that the worm pressed to hard on the drive gear.  So I added a shim of white styrene that lifted the worm end maybe 1 mil or 2.



OK.  I'm done.  Too bad there is not enough room for a decoder.




I added two things to the shell.  First, I found a standard size LED fit in the headlight hole perfectly.  So I cut the lens off a clear LED and pressed it in there.

Second, I added some equipment boxes to hide the big gap up front.



I'm thinking of going back and adding a brake wheel on the back.

[u18b]

A word about the philosophy of this thing.

It started because I was bored.

Then, when I decided to do it- and sacrificed a Kato B driving unit.....

I then decided that everything about this had to come from my junk drawer.

The white shell is an Atlas/Roco FA-1.
The back wall is from a Model Power FA-2.

The original walkway I made was from a Bachmann DASH-8.  But I didn't like it.

This walkway is from a Atlas/Kato era (1980s) Alco walkway (RS1 or 3).  I cut the bottom steps off since this sits so low.

The weight was mostly from a Kato GP38-2.

The equipment boxes came from I know not what.   It looked like a Fuel tank frame but have no idea to what.  The name was a British model company- Grafar (or something like that).

All of the above was unused junk.

Now I can have fun with it.

And since it only has 4 wheels- it is sensitive to dirt (by the way, I removed the traction tire wheel and replaced it.  So all wheel pick up).
So I see this as being a kind of track inspection car.   If it hesitates, the track is probably dirty there.

[u18b]

And here is a video.

Sorry it is so poor.
But hey!  I still have to paint this thing.

Someone asked about pulling power.  This is about the max.  Any more, and the nose sometimes lifts!

[peteski]

So that FLEA can do wheelies?!  Nice!

A word of warning about the LED.  White LEDs are *VERY* sensitive to reverse voltage which is quite low. I highly recommend that you either install a regular silicon diode in parallel with the LED (with reversed polarity) or in series with the LED and in same polarity as the LED.  Otherwise when you run your model in reverse (or even if some EMF spike too powerful for the capacitor to shunt gets through, that will extinguish your headlight permanently.  But then again, it should be fairly easy to replace the blown LED.

[tehachapifan]

Runs good! It looks to me like a Zimo MX621 just might fit on top. Are you sure there's not enough room for one of the smaller decoders?

[u18b]

Runs good! It looks to me like a Zimo MX621 just might fit on top. Are you sure there's not enough room for one of the smaller decoders?

Well, it really needs the extra weight.  Too bad I didn't have an old Arnold metal shell FA-2!

But actually, I have toyed with the idea of mounting the decoder on the roof.
Bare with no heat shrink, replacing all the wires with magnet wire.
And then thus painted like the rest of the loco.

But then disassembly would be pretty hard.  I'd have to install a couple of micro plugs.  And that might be a pain.

[tehachapifan]

I pictured it as possibly fitting between the roof and the top of the weight, but perhaps the space looks bigger than it is.

[Philip H]

That thing would make a nifty yard switcher. Well done