Big Ben Bricks - traction

[BryanKinkel]

I'm currently trying to add a motor to my version of Ben Beneke's Electric Engine from his April Fools gallery:

I've used the large drivers from BBB wheels. While I have not tested the engine yet, I suspect the wheels will have very little, if any, traction on my 9V electric rails.

Has anyone found o rings or another solution for use with BBB wheels to increase the clutching power?

I know the 10194 wheels use an o-ring to get around this problem.

-- Bryan

[missouri_bb63]

I'm currently trying to add a motor to my version of Ben Beneke's Electric Engine from his April Fools gallery:

I've used the large drivers from BBB wheels. While I have not tested the engine yet, I suspect the wheels will have very little, if any, traction on my 9V electric rails.

Has anyone found o rings or another solution for use with BBB wheels to increase the clutching power?

I know the 10194 wheels use an o-ring to get around this problem.

-- Bryan

Hi Bryan that is a great looking train!

As it happens I have the same problem with my BR50 steam locomotive and mentioned this in the Flickr Lego trains group. I have read that the O-rings from the Emerald fit, but the original Lego drivers apparently also have ridges so that the rings don't slip off. I don't actually own an Emerald or have any of the wheels so someone else would have to confirm this. It does seem that the Lego O-Rings come off the BBB wheels rather quickly.

I have heard that the O-rings make the train move around a lot at speed so you might just want to leave them off. Most guys simply put extra weight over the driving wheels to gain traction. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a real solution for the large drivers yet but you could just check out your local hardware store. User Savatheaggie posted a blog on Railbricks.com about aftermarket O-rings for some of the smaller wheels a while back. In my case the problem isn't so bad that I need to deal with it, but if you find a solution it would be great to hear about it!

Edited September 26, 2009 by missouri_bb63

[BryanKinkel]

Hi Bryan that is a great looking train!

Ben did a great job with those trains back in April 2000. Just to clarify, the photo I posted is from Ben's gallery. Not mine.

It does seem that the Lego O-Rings come off the BBB wheels rather quickly.

That is not good to hear. I have 8 large drivers that I was going to use to test this out. I guess I will just have to weight the engine down and see if that works. Thanks for the note.

-- Bryan

[SavaTheAggie]

The drivers on the Emerald Night do indeed have a groove in them to house the o-rings. I've not looked very much for replacements like the ones Cale found for the small train wheels.

I've read how people have carved similar grooves into their BBB wheels to accept O-rings, but as made the sloped surface of the BBB drivers cannot accept O-rings, they slip off real easy.

--Tony