Powered Ohio Crane

[Jim Starbuck]

I’ve had this project in the works for quite a while and finished up the crane portion this morning. The boom tender is painted and ready to outfit.

This is a 3d printed model of an Ohio DE-300 40 ton rail crane that was built in the early 70s.
The highly detailed model is available online through Etsy seller Baldylox Designs. He did a beautiful job on the design and printing. He also has a large catalog of modern MOW equipment and other assorted machinery.
Check it out.

https://www.etsy.com/shop/BaldyloxDesigns

It’s intended to be a non powered model riding on standard freight car trucks but… it would be even cooler if it ran.

I used the same basic technique on this as I did with the Stewart American model I did a few years ago.
It uses a 6x15 coreless motor mounted diagonally on a brass channel with the worm driving the front axle of the rigid mounted rear truck. The trucks are from a Kato 11-105 powered chassis providing all wheel axle cup pickup. I cut the mounting posts from the donor and epoxied them to the printed chassis after milling the bottom flat and removing the bolsters.

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An ESU Lokpilot decoder and an Iowa Scaled Engineering powerkeeper reside vertically on either side of the motor. I neglected to take a photo of that during the build.
There’s quite a bit of room along the inside of the house so I fit up lead sheets to line the sides as well as any other cavities like under the operator.

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I replaced the stock Kato wheels with Tangent 36” by cutting the axles of the Tangents to only use the uninsulated wheel then fit them in the stock axle cups. It looks much better and is extremely free rolling.
The lighting is all done with 0201 LEDs. The front facing lights are part of the printed shell and the rear are the LEDs tucked into a small styrene tube and glued to the house. The operating beacon is a Sunrise part (thanks @milw156)!

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Paint is a combination of Tamiya NATO black and Vallejo flat yellow with Mr. Hobby Matt clear as a top coat. All the decals are homemade on the Alps.
The pendant cables from the boom tip back to the bail are .008” phosphor bronze wire to give the illusion of tension. The cable “clamps” are tiny pieces of electrical shrink tubing. The rest of the rigging is Berkely Fireline .007” fly fishing line.

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I decided to rig it with an electromagnetic so I fashioned one from brass.

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The crane and tender are fitted with N-Possible couplers. I did mill the bolsters and cut coupler pockets on the flat car which took over 9 1/2 scale inches out of the ride height. Much better now.

The crane portion is finished and I’m moving on to outfitting the tender flat.

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A video:

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[GaryHinshaw]

 

[BCR 570]

Nice!  I would like to model one of the BCR's smaller self-propelled cranes one day.

Tim

[Jim Starbuck]

Other than the expensive OMI brass I think this is the only N scale Ohio crane I’ve seen.
Even if it was built as unpowered it’s a very nice model.

[ednadolski]

Sweet!   Reminds me of something @DKS might do.   

Ed

[peteski]

Outstanding modeling Jim!

[garethashenden]

No Sound? 

Very good work, my only concern is the swing of the boom as it goes around the curve. Any chance of resting it on the idler car and letting the house swing?

[BCR 570]

I checked my files and the British Columbia rostered at least one Ohio crane, and it looks quite similar to the one depicted by your model:

http://www.cnrphotos.com/picture.php?/2777/category/45

http://www.cnrphotos.com/picture.php?/2778/category/45


I dont know if I have the skills to power it, but I would love to have a smaller crane for bridge and track work.  My 150T Industrial Brownhoist is really a wrecking crane.


Tim

[Jim Starbuck]

This is a

I checked my files and the British Columbia rostered at least one Ohio crane, and it looks quite similar to the one depicted by your model:

http://www.cnrphotos.com/picture.php?/2777/category/45

http://www.cnrphotos.com/picture.php?/2778/category/

I dont know if I have the skills to power it, but I would love to have a smaller crane for bridge and track work.  My 150T Industrial Brownhoist is really a wrecking crane.


Tim

Tim,
This is a high quality detailed print and even unpowered you have all the skills needed to make it a great addition to your layout.

[Jim Starbuck]

No Sound? 

Very good work, my only concern is the swing of the boom as it goes around the curve. Any chance of resting it on the idler car and letting the house swing?

That’s a necessary compromise with limited space in the house to fit everything in.
Unless the motor could be mounted under the deck freeing up space to let it swing. Another guy that built one of these did what you’re talking about but the model wasn’t powered.
The swing effect is greatly exaggerated on the tight curves on my test layout. The layout where this will end up has 30” curves and it will be just fine.

[fcnrwy23]

Wow..   

Jerry G.

[Jim Starbuck]

Sweet!   Reminds me of something @DKS might do.   

Ed

Thanks Ed!
High praise indeed.

[BCR 570]

Hi Jim

I have a few questions concerning the powering:

Where did you source the coreless motor, and did it come with the worm gear interface to connect to the axle?

Most 6 x 15 motors I am seeing online are 3 volt.  Any concerns re compatibility with 12 volt track power, decoders, etc.?

Did you run wires from one truck to the other for eight wheel pick-up, or some other routing?


I checked my records and the BCR crane is a DE-250 model which was a 25-Ton crane, but has a very similar appearance.


Thank you,

Tim

[Jim Starbuck]

http://tramfabriek.co.uk/

Here’s my recommendation for motors. You’ll definitely want a 12v. He doesn’t ship to the US now but Canada may be different. He also sells worms and bushings and can set you up with a 3x4 mod 3 worm that will match a Kato geared axle tube.
For track pickup I soldered wires to the axle strips then made a connection towards the middle of the chassis underneath so only one wire come up through on each side so yes, it has all wheel pickup.

Jim

[Rockysgn]

WOW Just Wow!  I purchased the ohio crane and was going to make it a static version but I like this.  Now I will have to see if I can make it look as good as yours.
Excellent work.