PF Motors for shunters

[roamingstop]

Hallo All

Im currently planning & building a little shunter (switcher?) based upon some of our local Swiss Diesel models... Whilst im awaiting a delivery of BBB wheels, I was playing around with different motor combinations... and wanted to pick brains of others.

1. Is there a general guide (other than PhilHome) which can provide an overview of PF motors and gearing for use in trains, with an indication of pulling power (e.g. 3 EN carriages).

2. If not, can people share their experiences? E.g.

* is a single XL with high torque and low speed better than two M in parallel (geared together, e.g. with a slip differential).

* is it preferable to have one or two M motors if better than XL?

* does two XL motors enable a heavy duty load?

* does the new Motor (Mr Ellis?) provide better torque ratios than XL?

Thanks in advance

RS

Ps I should add I did try the old google search thing - but sometimes too much information is confusing! (similar to 10+ page threads).

PPs this is no way related to Brickworld Competition - that was a pure fluke and coincidence!

Edited May 10, 2010 by roamingstudio

[Duq]

It depends what you want to build. For a shunter you don't need speed and you have little room so I'd go for the M-motor and gear it down.

Look for HoMa's BR80 to see a great example of a small engine running with just a single M-motor.

[Freddie]

I'll agree with Duq here and say that a single M-motor should suffice. Switchers are relatively slow locomotives (or at least were!), and so speed isn't high-priority. Still, both the XL- and M-motors are slow motors (the XL being geared up 9:1 on the Emerald Night), and so a 1:1 ratio might be worth looking into if you're going for the M. The M also has the advantage of being smaller by a big margin (not to mention needs a less complex gearbox), and so also easier to hide, not to mention if you're building a slave-unit that houses the battery and receiver, and want to size-match them.

Other than that I can only theorize on what would work. A big, heavy enginge will always be able to pull a lot more than a small, light one, but if the small engine can muster the same amount of traction, well then it's really up in the air. You'll have to experiment to see what works best for you, but I suspect that, as I mentioned above, that a single M-motor will do the job without any major trouble.

[Matt Dawson]

A medium motor should be fine. Remember that for shunters, Traction is the issue, not power. A engine could have all the power in the world, but virtually no traction, and be useless.

As your doing PF, Is the shunter going to have connecting rods? and how many wheelsets?

And A suggestion: Use a weight brick to increase traction, should you need it.

Edited May 13, 2010 by Matt Dawson