NWSL makes a truck called the "Stanton" drive. Looks promising, would free up the inside of the loco for sound decoders and weights. They are DCC compatible and come in various wheelbases. Anyone ever seen these or tried them?

Here are some photos from their website at http://www.nwsl.com/motors-power-drives/stanton-drive





They don't come with sideframes, but apparently it is easy enough to attach them for whatever loco you have.



Now, they are somewhat expensive, MSRP is $85 according to an ad in NMRA magazine. And it doesn't say if that is for one or a pair.

Just wondering if anyone has seen these or used them or something similar.

Looks like a re-release of the PDT. As I recall, the price made them prohibitive for anything but special locomotives. Back when MR had construction articles, I remember a few situations where the author used a PDT because they wanted the loco to have a detailed interior - such as a street car, or a detailed cab on a road switcher. I wonder how powerful they are, and how noisy (I wonder if the motor vibrations would more easily get transfered to the track)

Kevin, I was wondering the same things... enough power to pull a twenty car train, and how noisy. On the noise issue, seems they would be pretty quiet. No external drive shafts and univesal joints and such. On the surface, it seems like a great idea. But the motor in there must be pretty tiny, which leads to the "how much power" question.

Still, I am salivating at the prospect of having tons of room in a CF7 shell!

Gary S Wrote:Kevin, I was wondering the same things... enough power to pull a twenty car train, and how noisy. On the noise issue, seems they would be pretty quiet. No external drive shafts and univesal joints and such. On the surface, it seems like a great idea. But the motor in there must be pretty tiny, which leads to the "how much power" question.

Still, I am salivating at the prospect of having tons of room in a CF7 shell!

...and no flywheels. Do you still have all those model railroader back issues? I remember an early 1990s article about someone building an SW1 from two PDTs. A 20 car train may be pushing it - but 10 cars on level ground sounds reasonable. Perhaps send an email to NWSL and see what they say.

Those are a near perfect replacement for old Tyco shells the way they are shaped. I had a friend in High School that used a pair of the old PDT's to power a Western Pacific GP-20 (high hood) that he kitbashed (remember this was the 1980's) from a Tyco GP20 shell and lots of detail parts. He used these so he could model open hood doors and made a miniature EMD 567 block to show through the open hood doors, thus necessecitating the need to have the shell totally open. It ran *ok*, but was not a really good puller. And forget about MU'ing them to another unit (he had Athearn and Atlas engines then). So, his WP GP20 toiled around by itself switching the yard at the club. Did ok like I said, but its slow speed characteristics were really poor. Not to say they haven't improved it since then, this looks like a PDTv2.0. I think though for the small motor, lack of flywheel and desire for slow speed operation, I'd pass on a road unit or switcher application. Now an interurban or trolley I'd use it in a heartbeat.

Back in the 70's, I got a couple of the original PDT's with the intention of using them to build a Class A Climax. Must say I was more than a little disappointed with their performance. They would go from 0 to 60 instantly and I had a lot of trouble with power pickup on them, even when both trucks were wired together. Needless to say, the project never got off the ground.

I'm sure that they have been vastly improved since then and I'm thinking that if you powered them with DCC, the performance should be pretty good. As I recall, the original PDT's came in several different wheel base lengths and I'm guessing that the new ones do too. I know that they weren't sold back then in pairs, so $170 for a pair of them, is a bit steep for me!

I have an SS Ltd. model of a really small Mack Model "BR" switcher. I was going to use a PDT or a Flea to power it back in 1977 when I bought it and use the little guy so switch a the Mack truck plant that was sheduled for Allentown, PA back in 1989 when I was beginning the build of a 22'-8" x 34'- 10" basement sized railroad. Ah! Unrealized dreams! I had spent too much time planning and then job loss after a hostile take-over of my "forever stable" employer forced the sale of the home and a big move to a smaller living quarters.

While unpacking 53 boxes of model railroad stuff after this last move and the determination to build a decent railroad before it was time to take the eternal dirt nap, I rediscovered this little gem. The real estate to be the location of the Mack truck plant was re assigned to GERN, but there still might be room to squeeze in a Mack truck plant -- what else will I do with the 26 1923 Jordan Mack truck cab/chassis that were stock-piled to populate the "fresh build" area where flat cars are loaded for shipment and the little Model "BR" would position the Flat cars for pick up by the local peddler freight. A cursory check indicated that the PDT and Flea were both out of production.

With this find, Gary, I just might resurect the concept of a Mack Truck Assembly. I'll just have to use som "modeler's license" and move the plant to Lehighton ... it's only a dozen or so miles up the Lehigh River ... why not?

Thanks for the find Gary! I'll have to get out the roll of Canary Tracing Paper and try to cram the Mack Assembly plant into that tight corner of the layout ... somehow.

If it pulls well enough I'd say why not? Could save a huge hassle and open up a lot of space inside loco shells for decoders or even detailing. There is an article in the latest issue of Model Railroad Craftsman that has an article about a guy who detailed the innards of a GP7 motor and all. It's meant to be a static unit, but with a couple of these dudes, you could get operational again, complete with compartment doors that open and close.

I bought a pair of the PDT's back around 1980, I'm guessing. I wanted a RS2, and the only one available at the time was a toylike thing, maybe AHM. I had purchase done for $5.00 It ran badly, to be nice. The shell wasn't bad by the standard of teh day. So I bought the PDT and found I had to scratch a frame and proceeded to do so. Early runs without a body weren't to promising. Quick starts as noted previously. Rather poor electrical contact, again as previously noted, even wired together. Then Atlas came out with an RS3, so the project was shelved. I have them in a box somewhere. I've wondered if I could use them on a tender or even a freight or passenger car, I do not remember the wheelbase, thought I guess it must have been close to that of a RS2. But as added tractive effort they may be handy. Of course, the new ones may be much netter in this regard.

I have been hunting for a way to power a concept I had. I want to scratchbuild a 1930's trackmobile. If I could remember where the pictures are, I would share them. It is the coolest thing since silly putty.

These things are supposed to be redesigned and better than the old PDTs. But I am assuming that the $85 is for one, not two, and I am not willing to spend that kind of money to experiment with them. I'd really appreciate it if someone would buy several and test them out, so the rest of us would know how well they work. 8-)

Thanks!

I rushed out to the local HEB (supermarket for you non-Texans...), but couldn't find any. Anyone else..??

Not being a Texan ...

I used a PDT to re-power an Athearn RDC and was pleased with its performance (anything would've been an improvement over the rocket-sled rubber band drive). I found low speed control to be quite good and it would pull an unpowered RDC up any of the grades on my layout without problems - that's probably the equivalent of 4 or 5 free rolling freight cars, and it could've easily pulled more. However, it was considerably cheaper than the price nowadays.

Wayne

doctorwayne Wrote:... the rocket-sled rubber band drive ... Wayne

Zero to Warp 10 in a mili-nano second!