Doullama's BEV WR5 narrow gauge locomotive

[doullama]

So as was bound to happen eventually in my terminal spiral of railway barrydom, I have scrounged myself a tiny 2 foot gauge locomotive. It is the same wheelbase (and length with the operator stand folded up) as a minecart, so it can be put in a liftshaft in my future illegal underground goldmine. Its a "battery electric vehicle - winstone & rogers model 5" and could have been built anywhere from 1937-1982. It has been stripped of all its electrical gear, and has nothing but the final drive left. The final drive is a worm gear reduction box of unknown ratio. I intend to get it running and stopping, using either battery electric (forklift?) gear or petrol hydraulic. I would rather electric just for the silent operation aside from the flanges screaming and joints thudding at a thundering 3.1mph..

[HighLUX]

Can you count input turns to output turns to work out ratio? 

[doullama]

18 minutes ago, HighLUX said:

Can you count input turns to output turns to work out ratio? 

Yeah absolutely, though I thought i'd try to find out for idle planning purposes without having to put it on blocks haha. Some barry on one of the narrow gauge pages reckons he has a final drive in pieces and will count the teeth for me, its just a single thread worm drive. Have been looking into 48v forklift motors, pretty cheap secondhand and they look similarly sized to the original motor. 

[Roman]

100% keen to come do some back breaking labor on some old timey machines in an illegal gold mine 

[HighLUX]

This guy exudes Erics dodgy gold mine

 

[doullama]

What a brilliant watch, mine will of course be much wetter, crudely shored & poorly lit

[doullama]

You have to love the internet, how else could you find the reduction ratio of the final drive of an obscure british mining locomotive in 2 hours from the comfort of the couch. Ratio is 31:1. Now I just have to measure wheel diameter and I should be able to figure out necessary RPM for 3.1mph/5kph, which is plenty for what it is. In its original form this would pull 16.5 ton on the flat, down to 3.7 ton on a 1:50 grade. I'm hoping to achieve at least 300kg towed at 1:20 or greater, the line at waikino is very steep..

[doullama]

Here is a picture of the complete, identical engine at waikino for reference.

[doullama]

Note to self - the original motor did 2200 rpm flat tack. Thanks british narrow gauge foamers

[crash]

I there's an old mine cart on a farm I go to occasionally, probably same size. Next time I'm there I'll take some pics. Near Methven, Canterbury. 

[doullama]

On 24/02/2024 at 21:47, crash said:

I there's an old mine cart on a farm I go to occasionally, probably same size. Next time I'm there I'll take some pics. Near Methven, Canterbury. 

Probably, 2 foot was a common gauge for small rolling stock. In the day you could buy pre-made track sets and switches to put together like an oversized model train set! There's a few old industrial wagons out at waikino just sitting on "display" that are begging to be restored and run on the tiny mainline

[crash]

Thought I had a pic!