0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.
I believe your model would still be great even if it did not have the see through.
I would say that most modelers expect that N scale has some inherent limitations, so #2 would be acceptable.However, there could also be ways to have our cakes and eat it too. For example several Kato models use trucks with very low-profile gear towers. The NW2, the RDC, and few other recent diesel locos among them. That kind of design would lend itself to having (mostly) see-through grilles in the tunnel motors. Use that design and then just have slot in the size of the grilles in the end of the chassis.Then there is a brass (Overland) AMD-103 with somewhat see-through low grilles made possible by unusual thin-cross-section gear tower.You can see some daylight through those low grilles (the photo doesn't capture it well.Here is the mechanism with skinny gear towers. Unfortunately to the extra spur gears spinning at motor shaft speed, this design has a whine while running.But there are some possibilities.
I thought the exact same thing about having a small recess machined in the back of the chassis while still retaining a powered rear truck. It wouldn't have to be deep. Maybe paint the recess with that "vantablack" to give an even more illusion of depth.
(1) A completely see-through radiator section with nothing visible inside. (2) See-through etched metal radiator grilles with the interior weight painted black to give the illusion of depth and maximize pulling power.ScaleTrains.com, Inc.
Wolf N Works: thank you for your confidence our ability to create top-shelf locomotive and your willingness to spend your hard earned $$$ on our models (we're happy to help!:D).As you know, the signature feature for a "Tunnel Motor" are the see-through radiator grilles with nothing visible inside. Creating a drivetrain so the locomotive would be all-wheel drive and all-wheel electrical pick-up in N Scale would be an engineering miracle (even more than the HO was). If this is even possible, a large amount of weight would be lost which would sacrifice pulling power greatly. A second option would be to power the front truck only which also compromised pulling power.Which would you prefer?(1) A completely see-through radiator section with nothing visible inside. (2) See-through etched metal radiator grilles with the interior weight painted black to give the illusion of depth and maximize pulling power.