I love it when this blog helps someone out. Over the weekend, a member of the excellent Double O Gauge Association forum asked if anyone had the instructions for a K's model of an Adams Radial as he'd bought a second had kit which didn't include them. While I don't have the paperwork, at least I could point him at my photos to help out a bit.
This prompted another question about the motor in the kit. All I knew was that it's a whopper and possibly came from a Lancaster bomber, Lanc bomb control panels were a popular army surplus item for railway modellers (anyone got an unused one stashed away I could have?) so maybe the power units were also sold off...
Anyway, back in the real world, Colin Snowdon quickly identified the electric lump as a K's Mark 1. The Mark 2 apparently enjoyed only one magnet and after this they moved to the infamous plastic motor - most of which weren't going to trouble the skin of a rice pudding before expiring.
This motor seems quite smooth in a vintage sort of way. Were I to want to run the loco seriously on a finescale layout then something from Mashima attached to a proper gearbox would be dropped in but as this is a vintage model, I prefer to keep it original.
4 comments:
Not only model railways... I seem to remember bits of Lancaster incorporated into the local control panel for Forestry Crossing on the Talyllyn. (Not any more, the electrics got renewed in the late 90s.)
The K's motors were excellent motors. When I was slot racing in the 60s they were the motor to beat until the expensive American rewinds of Jap cans came along. The only motor that could take on a K's Mk 1 (or a Mk 2 in a smaller car) was an MRRC with double pole pieces.
The Mk 2 was merely smaller, it still had a magnet at each end. Being double shafted, K's were popular for 4Wd, which translates into flywheel for railway locos. With speeds of variously 35-40,000 they respond well to good gearing in a loco. There is nothing wrong with open frame motors in slot cars or locos. They worked wellthen and they still do.
Do you still want K's Adams radial Tank instructions? If so, I have them and can scan them and e-mail them
The thing I remember about these motors was that the magnets were fixed with Araldite and all too often the motor fell apart. That said, even modern motors such as Mashima's are not that durable.
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