Narrow Gauge Gazette logo May/June 2020
Volume 47, No. 2

Feature

HOn3 Lambert Goose Improvements

Smoothing Them Out

By Craig Symington, MMR / photos by the author

The inspiration for this project came from an email exchange with Mark Kasprowicz. Mark recommended a really good system of using pullies and belts for improving the drives on Lambert Associates HOn3 Galloping Geese. He credits Mick Moignard for coming up with the idea. While I was making these drive improvements, I decided to make other improvements to my geese and that’s the subject of this article.

Members of the Rocky Mountain Railroad Club have chartered Rio Grande Southern galloping geese numbers 2 and 3 for an excursion to Lizard Head pass. After an early morning start from Telluride, they have made a quick stop for sunrise photographs from the famed trestles on the Ophir Loop.

In the May/June and July/August 2016 GAZETTEs, I wrote about improving the drives and adding lights to my HOn3 Lambert Galloping Geese numbers 2 and 3. At the time, I used the best methods I had available. The end results ran and looked good, but I wasn’t completely satisfied with the results. Since then, I’ve discovered Mark’s drive improvements, Keep Alive capacitor packs, and improvements in LED technology. Follow along with me as I rework these geese and make them the best that they can be.

In the May/June 2016 GAZETTE, I described how I modified the stock Lambert Drive by replacing the motor with a NWSL #1215D-9
resulting in my first generation of the modified drive.
Reproduced here from the original article is the diagram showing where to drill two holes to mount the replacement motor on the stock Lambert Drive system. It’s a simple modification. The new motor simply screws in place with a pair of 1.4mm by 2.0mm-long screws. The motor shaft will also need to be brought out to 1.5mm in diameter using a NWSL #10170-8 1.0mm to 1.5mm adaptor. With the belt drive, gear alignment is no longer an issue.

The NWSL #1215D-9 motors that I used in the earlier articles are still available as of the publication date of this article. Replacing the stock low-quality “slot car” motor with these smooth running can motors made a huge improvement to the running quality of these geese. However, the open gears between the motor and the main drive shaft still created a lot of noise. To quiet the open gears, Mark suggested using pulleys and belts that are available from Nigel Lawton in the United Kingdom (http://www.nigellawton009.com/). Each drive requires a 3mm and 6mm pulley, with a 10mm belt to drive them. Through the website, I ordered enough of these parts to retrofit my entire fleet of geese. Within a month the parts arrived in Canada. The stock gears are easily removed with set screws. The smaller pulley slipped on to the motor shaft that I had already shimmed out to 1.5mm with a NWSL #10170-9 1.mm to 1.5mm adaptor bushing. Some Loctite secured the pulley in place. The stock drive shaft is 2.0mm in diameter and the pulley centers are 1.5mm. I used my reaming tools to enlarge the hole in the 6mm pulley. Once it was a slip fit on the drive shaft, it was secured in place with Loctite while I carefully aligned it with the smaller pulley.

These are the 3mm and 6mm pulleys, as well as the 10mm belts used in the drive conversion. They were ordered from Nigel Lawton through his website (http://www.nigellawton009.com/).
The larger pulley needed its center hole enlarged from 1.5mm to 2.0mm. I carefully used some reaming tools to enlarge the hole.

After waiting overnight for the Loctite to set, I installed the rubber belt between the pullies. Using a DC power pack, I tested the performance of the newly upgraded drive. I was astonished at how smoothly and quietly the drives had become! This was the first time I have ever used a belt drive in my modelling, and it certainly won’t be the last. We North American modelers are often guilty of overlooking tools and techniques the overseas modelers use. This project goes to show how much better off we’d be if we keep an open mind to these “foreign” techniques.

The is the second and hopefully final generation of the Lambert drive with the new pulleys and belt installed. Replacing the stock gears with the belt made a remarkable reduction in noise. The drive is nearly silent now.
Train Control Systems offers some outstanding Keep Alive capacitor packs. The really small KA2 model is excellent for HOn3. I used a KA2 in Goose 2 to replace the stock capacitor that came with the Soundtraxx Tsunami decoder that was already installed in it. In Goose 3, I used the larger KA3 Keep Alive to replace the first generation Soundtraxx Current Keeper.

When I originally worked on my geese, there wasn’t the variety of DCC Keep Alive capacity packs available like we have now. At the time, the only power backup option for the Tsunami decoders I used was the first generation Soundtraxx Current Keeper. These units were too big for my model of Goose 2, so it always lacked a capacitor, and was subject to temporary power losses. Over the last couple of years, Train Control Systems (TCS) has come out with a nice variety of high capacity Keep Alive packs. The small size of their KA2 pack is an excellent option for HOn3. It’s almost exactly the same size as the stock capacitor that comes with Soundtraxx Tsunami decoders. The stock Tsunami capacitor doesn’t compensate for power loss but can be replaced with a Keep Alive capacitor to serve that purpose. For my Goose 2, it was a simple capacitor swap and it finally had protection against temporary power loss. In my Goose 3, I replaced the older Soundtraxx Current Keeper with a more modern TCS KA3 unit. This Keep Alive upgrade made another dramatic improvement to my goose performance.

With the drive and capacitor upgrades on my geese complete, I set about test running them on my layout. The improvements were truly remarkable. All of the improvements I did made very smooth, quiet and reliable running geese. My geese were running near perfectly, and there was no comparison to the jerky, coffee grinder sounding, stock models that I started with. I’m very satisfied with the results!

Before I install small LEDs, I dip them in clear canopy cement. Once dry, this clear coating over the LED helps prevent the wiring from shorting to the brass model. When I’m threading all those LED wires though the brass headlight castings, I’m very careful not to pull the LED too far into the casting to cause a short. I’m also taking care not to chaff the wires as I pull them through the tight #75 drill holes. Once all the wires are threaded, I use my multimeter to check for continuity between each lead and the brass body. If there is no continuity, then there probably isn’t a short.
I made my own LED tester by soldering a pair of AAA batteries in series with a pair of clips on the end. On the tape holding the batteries together, I have marked that the red LED wire, or long wire for magnet wire LEDs, goes to the blue DCC decoder wire. It also reminds me which way to clip the LEDs since they are polarity sensitive. If you try making your own tester like this, make sure you don’t apply too much heat to the battery when soldering; it could explode. In this photo, I’m giving the three headlight LEDS on Goose 3 one final test before I wire it up to the decoder. Typically, I’ll check the LEDs many times during installation.

Test running my geese revealed one last thing from the original upgrade that I wasn’t completely happy with. The LEDs I used in those original articles have a yellow/green hue. At the time, these were the smallest LEDs available and the only ones that would fit in the goose headlight castings. Since then, there have been great advances in LED technology. I decided to replace those early LEDs with newer 0402 LEDs that cast a proper white light.

I’m really glad that I had this conversation with Mark which inspired me to revisit my goose fleet. Because of their temperamental nature, I’ve rarely run my geese over the years. Geese 2 and 3 are not perfect, but compared to how they ran before, they now run great. I’m looking forward to upgrading my remaining Lambert Geese, and running the entire fleet during a future operating session. Thanks Mark and Mick!

If you’d like to see before and after videos of my geese, check out my YouTube channel.

This is a photo from the original Goose 2 article. At the time, the only LEDS small enough were ones that I imported from Australia. They had a yellow/green hue to them that was much more apparent in person. I’ve included this photo for comparison to the new white LEDs in the photo below.
This photo shows Goose 3 with the new 0402 white headlights installed. They are much more realistic looking than the original LEDS that I used in the earlier articles.

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