I believe Robert removed the tungsten weight behind the motor and used that space for the his decoder.
How about replacing the motor with a better and smaller one and making place for a decoder.... Just a thought and the motor looked cheap.... still waiting for my loco Kim
That little motor is pretty good, no need to replace it. Use a DZ-125 decoder, as it's size and component arrangement allow it to fit behind the motor, and inside the tender if you cut the waterbox deck off the tender. fashion a replacement out of styrene. The headlight is always on, dc or dcc, and takes dcc just fine, so no need to mess with wiring in the loco. All the dcc wiring you need is right behind the motor, and you will have 2 functions to use 1 for firebox flicker and one for reverse light.
D51 Z-scale Mikado restocked at Hobby World <http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10092803> The Tenshodo Z-scale Japanese Mikado is back in stock at Hobby World as of this morning Jan 29th 2010. happy hunting
I forgot to post my quick review: Pilot Diameter .153" Pilot Axle to first driver .46" Driver Diameter .235" Driver Axle Symmetrical Spacing .295" Trailing Truck Diameter .15" Rear Driver Axle to Trailing Truck Axle .475" Pilot Axle to Trailing Truck Axle 1.81" Trailing Truck Axle to Tender Bolster Drawbar Length .665" Tender Wheel Diameter .15" Tender Bolster to Bolster .645" Tender Truck Axle Spacing .3" Pilot Truck Axle to Rear Tender Wheel Axle 3.35" Between Flanges .209" Outside Flange to Outside Flange .24" I took my D51 over to Jeff's and showed him. It ran great on DC, although it took 2 volts to get it to start, which is about a scale 20 MPH or so. Well, I took it apart while Jeff was working on a new module, and found the Universal shaft was mal-formed. If I had a good one, it would probably start running at an even lower voltage. Anyways, I Decided to see if I can install a DCC Decoder, and the short answer is yes. There was one problem though, taking apart the tender to get to the motor took me an hour, because someone glommed the inside with superglue! Yup, CA glue, and the culpret's fingerprint is forever imbedded inside!. It's an ingenious shell design, with an inner motor shell locking the motor in place on the tender floor, with the coal load as one piece, 2 metal weights, and the tender sides and ends as a single piece like a sleve fitting over the motor. Everything looks like it would snap together by design, but the assembler probably broke the snap fit for the coal load, so they just glommed in a 1/4 ounce of superglue, and made the whole affair a nightmare to take apart. I kept chipping away at the clear superglue until I got it apart. I soldered a Digitrax DZ125 in place where the rear weight would go, and that was really straight forward. It ran even better off DCC than it ran on DC, probably because the 12v DCC pulses overcome the universal shaft's binding better than pure 2v DC could. Runs great slow or fast. This tender is small, about the size of the Marklin Bumble Bee steamer's tender, or the Casey Jones tender. The loco has 8 wheel electrical pickup, and the tender also has 8 wheel pickup, for a total of 16 wheel electrical pickup, The best in Z Scale. One thing I noticed was the headlight is somewhat dim. It was dim at 2 volts, and I placed it on the DCC power, and it was at the same brightness, no flickering! Whatever is on the headlight LED board, works just fine with DCC! Think of it as a DCC track power indicator! It's the best! So I don't need to wire the headlight function at all. The rear tender light is non functional, but since the decoder is right there, I should be able to fashion an SMT LED setup real easy. I could not fit the tender shell all the way down after installing the decoder, so I need to cut the rear deck off the waterbox part of the tender, and fashion a new one out of styrene. The motor is a can motor of the type Chris Schmuck calls a "2 Speed" On and Off, but in this loco it works very good. I just wish my drive shaft was not mal-formed so I could really see what this loco was designed to do. The shaft has nubs on the end that snap into a cross slot universal cup. The nubs on my shaft are diagonally opposed insted of perpendicularly opposed as they were designed to be, probably because some factory worker was in such a hurry, they pulled it out of the mold while the plastic was still hot and soft. Overall, I think it is the best steamer mechanism DESIGN I have seen yet in Z Scale, however the Chinese factory workers who assembled it needs to be sent to a re-education camp, as there are signs they were in much too much of a hurry to assemble them. Probably after that worker has assembled a few thousand, he will get better at it. I am very happy with this loco, and the price, under $100, is amazing! Jeff took videos of my DCC work and test, so I am waiting on him to post videos to share. Today I ordered 4 more, becuase there is a 20% off sale, making them $84 each.
I had already received my first streamlined version, my pre-ordered standard version is on its way, and I ordered two more of the standard version today. I am very happy with my streamlined version. With a PWM controller, mine runs quite well at reasonably slow speeds, comperable to my Marklin 5 pole mikados. So, I'm guessing the manufacturer must have cought the problem that Robert's locs have in time to correct the problem later in the run. My tender didn't have the super glue issue, either. The only problem that I had happened when I took the loc apart to check it out. I broke off one of the power wires leading from the loc to the tender. The solder joint on the loc side is a bit delicate, but it was easy to fix. I look forward to having a couple of these for kitbashing projects. Hopefully, this is a very successful product launch for Tenshodo so they will offer other wheel arrangements. Dan S.
Robert, Dan, You guys just can't leave well enough alone can you........always tinkering and taking things apart. I envy you both, as well as others who have 'the knack and touch'. I wish I was the caliber of modeler you guys are in that respect. I'm not that educated or savy enough to do some of the things others do so I salute your achievements and encourage you to continue to lead the way to further advancements in 'tinkering' to make the world a better z place. Guess I'll just have to win the lottery so I can afford to have you guys do custom work for me. Somewhat on the side lines of this one....... All the best.
Does anyone know the gear ratio? How many times does the drive shaft have to turn to get the drivers to revolve once? Can these still be purchased anywhere?
I just looked and seen them Sold Out: http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/list/1050/0/2 I got the 81103's this morning. They get restocked every few days, so you just have to check every morning as soon as you get up, and see what's in stock. They were there yesterday, but it was only 5% off, then today I looked and they were 20% off, so I jumped... Even with my boss watching me, I said "t's a better deal than this job!" and continued to enter my credit card info!
Chris, I don't know the ratio, but if I take mine apart again before Robert or someone else jumps on it, I'll check it out. As of this morning, Hobby Search had the "standard" D51s in stock, plus pictures of some of the others, so they might be coming soon. Rob Kluz is expecting an order for ZTrack Center in a couple of weeks. Dan S.
Reservation closed means all that they ordered for others are spoken for, and sold out means that the stock they kept for themselves is also sold out. Like I say, you have to check every morning, because the one day you forget to look, is the day that someone posts they are in stock, and that only lasts till about 8AM Pacific Time, before all are sold out. It always happens that way at Hobby Search. In fact, I have no guarantee that I will get all 4 I ordered this morning, they might have been sold out before I refreshed my screen. The good news is Rob Klus said he will be carrying them. Better news would be if someone like MTL would buy 10,000 of them, and make USRA 0-8-0 shells for them! haha!
At Hobby Search Reservation Closed means there were advanced reservations taken at one point and the list has been closed and the product has not been delivered. Sold Out means there are none in house stock could be on back order. Long Sold Out means nada not a chance of getting them again any time soon. Of the 8 model variations being offered only 3 have so far been delivered. From Rob's Ztrack message I would say the next three will be out in a week and the last 2 in March.
Here is a video of a D51 with 19 freight cars running on my 2 x 4 show test track oval. There are no switches on this oval of Real ZJ track from Japan. I have run it on my Micro Trains roadbed track layout and have had no problem with switches on that layout either. I have a double track main with about 9 switches on the main so if was going to have problems I think I would have already found them. This thing is small about the size of the Marklin 2-8-2T engine. Remember these engines run on 42 inch track in Japan and are about 80% of the size of our main line power. This was taken with the camera in my Ipod <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AmV4U7ro9Q>
No much smaller engine chassis and drivers so it lower and shorter. Would look like a Colorado narrow gauge K class engine with a bershire boiler perched on top. Yews I know they have standard gauge boilers on the larger K but they from engines smaller than a 2-8-2 standard gauge engine. Will try and post some pictures of the two engines side by each or one in front of the other.
