Klose
At this point in time, coming up to the main part of construction, all I can say is that if you want to build one of these -you must be out of your mind! The calculations to get one of these things to work is frightening as it contains all the 'O' and 'A' level maths you swore you would never need again as long as you lived...
All the following calculations are based on an IP Engineering 0-6-0 chassis.
Below is the drawing my 6 year old son made. As a proud father I include it here!
OK -so having got this far the basic question remains -what is so special about a Klose locomotive that I would go to all this trouble to build one? In a Klose locomotive the front and rear axles pivot and the conrods change length to allow for this. In the following shot you will see the items from the first drawing and the swivel axle holders from the fourth drawing.
Everything has been made from K+S sections -the linkage bars between the triangle (motion head) and the diamond (differential head) are made from 1/16 rod with crimp connectors -soldered on to them. All the nuts and bolts are 3mm.
The next shot shows the differential head and the two conrods connected to the motion head -remember all of this is in motion whilst the loco is running....
The compensating levers which measure the distance pivoted by the axles and transfer the distance to the motion head are finished. The shot below shows the linkage in its new home -not as I originally intended an IP Eng 0-6-0 chassis -but a custom set of 3mm thick sheets of steel!!! This is basically a test rig while I get everything right -I will then transfer the working prototype to the IP Eng chassis. If I make a mistake here I can simply have another piece lopped off out of the waste sheet bin at the steel stockholders -cost around 50p...
I know I said at the welcome page that I would try to cut down on the amount of high res photos that you would have to load to look at the page -but this you need to see in relation to, and compare with, the set of four drawings above and the pictures below...
The image above comes from Page 11 of Issue 74 of Locomotives International. This one and the images on page 10 were the first real ones of any use that I have ever seen. Most of them had the linakge in shadow -or with people in front of it -etc etc!!!
Currently I am constructing the body work for the loco. It will be a semi tank loco with 4 wheel support tender. The reason it has a 4 wheel tender rather than the expected 2 wheel support tender -is this makes the problem of fitting the battery a lot easier, with the added benefit that the semi tank outline makes it possible to disguise the two upright motors... This beast will lose a lot of power through the linkages and the second motor will help this.
Well a couple of weeks have passed and the bodywork is complete here it is sprayed in grey primer.
The main problem with this has been the fact that the 1:40 gears that I was using kept slipping on the axles so I was forced to do my usual trick.... This involves drilling a 1mm hole through the side part of the spur gear and then through the 3.2mm steel axle and out the other side! This enables me to drop a pin (AKA a section of nail) through the hole and CA the whole thing together.
Speed is as calculated around 10mph scale (10 Inches per second) -any faster and the linkage becomes a blur. Having gone to all this trouble I am vain enough that people should SEE that I have gone to all this trouble!!!