Worth Waiting For..........for sure I have had the first glimpse up close and personal. Lajos is definitely on the right track and the cad layout drawings, parts and sets look great. Place your order now because it is his best work yet. It's great to watch a truly pasionate craftsman make what is a work of art into a fully fuctional piece. Worth waiting for for sure. With his hard work will come great success. We just have to wait :thumbs_up: Don
My ambitious plans were interrupted at the end of last August. My former employer called me back with a reasonably phased offer, that was proven to be unreasonable. I've resigned from the job at the end of 2010, and now, I'm back to trains (Z and narrow gauges in a few other scales) full time. I had very good progress on all my previously planned products, but because of lack of time and money, nothing was completed. Now, I have no choice, but steal from my retirement funds, and focus on the business. My primary goal is to get the modular chassis system rolling, so the easy part, the line of various shells can follow. It's very likely, I'll release the RS1 kit before anything else, but the time frame is not set yet, because of the intense work required by the chassis projects. I'm not going to take orders until everything is here, working and guaranteed. Be patient, save your money, 2011 will be an interesting year. Lajos
Lajos, I'll ditto Gerd's response, if only moral support. Must have patience, must have patience! -James
Hello Lajos, any positive news on your projects you like to share with us? Looking very much forward!
Actually yes. I just picked up a couple of thousands various wheel wipers an hour ago for six different chassis kits, I'm doing the test assemblies and runs for a few, the RS1 kit is shaping up nicely, and the artwork for a line of switchers are almost ready to move to the next stage. I've the suppliers for the motors, gears and wheels lined up, still lots of candles to burn before the first release hits the web.
Update: The length without brackets is 21mm (13/16"), the width is 8mm (5/16"), the height from the top of rail is 15mm (9/16"). The wheel base is 8'-0" for Z, 6'-0" for Nn3, the wheels are 4.4mm diameter weathered nickel silver, a hair over scale 36" for Z, 28" for Nn3 with very fine flanges. The motor is a coreless 8mm, with 10V DC rating. The chassis frame is made of simple "fold and solder" precision etched phosphor bronze sheet components. The gear ratio is 1:38, the maximum scale speed is about 50 miles/hr for Z-scale and 36 miles/hr for Nn3. It's a beast, extremely powerful and a very smooth runner. With minimal weights added (11 grams overall) capable to pull the test flat car with added lead weight (27 grams), equal of 5-6 freight cars without noticing the drag. When the overall weight of the chassis beefed up to 30 grams, it pulls the same test car with 110 grams of lead weight (it's a pretty heavy drag), no problem. This chassis was developed for the already announced Searails Nn3 GE 25ton brass switcher locomotive. The line of similar amall and even smaller chassis will be available with various wheel bases and motor sizes in kit and ready to run versions starting the month of April.
Lajos, Very interested in these chassis as I'm working on a small Nn3 layout right now: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IsyzRu-cwg Thanks
Very interesting chassis. I have seen two similar previously one from Tsugawa in Japan and the other was in Nn3 and also from Japan but can't remember where I saw it now. Very neat looking and quite robust looking as well. Can't wait to see more like the RS1 project.
Chris -- sweet layout and wonderful work on the train (tram?). Lajos, you've reached a new high in craftsmanship -- and in your ability to help Z/Nn3 modelers. thank you very much. let the fun begin (again). dave f.
The Tsugawa chassis is N-scale, and the motor is mounted vertcally, so it's very tall. The other chassis, but with horizontally mounted motor is by Craft Japan. They use cast metal frames, motors with 4V DC rating, no kits are available and the price is fairly high. I think Craft is the chassis maker for Busch"s HOn2 3V DC rated mining locomotive. I've played with the idea for many years, actually published a similar drive concept for a Z-scale Plymouth diesel switcher back in 2007. Now, I have a series of "fold and solder" chassis kits in my AutoCad files from as small as 13mm long X 12mm tall with 33" scale wheels for Z-scale, all of them run with normal Z-scale power packs.
This may be the Craft Japan model you are talking about: http://www.craft-s.com/locomotive/narrow_gauge/hon.html They are a bit pricey. The Busch loco runs great. Had I built my layout with metal under the rails it would work (uses a magnet to hold the loco down) A new chassis, especially in kit form would be great.