Aerospace Modeling

As a child growing up in the 1940's and 1950's we had no real understanding of space flight.  Sure, we had Buck Rogers and Space Cadets, but Sky King was real life to us, sitting in front of the radio each afternoon.  Dick Tracy had his wrist radio and we had "Atom Bomb" rings with a secret message compartment.  Many of us played cowboys and Indians, had scooters, roller skates, balsa wood gliders and made friends by throwing rocks at each other (an early form of male bonding).  Our early life knowledge of solid fuel rockets was learned on the 4th of July.  My first model airplane was a hard rubber, silhouette model used the the Navy for training.  The late 1940's found the war over, cars had radios and gas was plentiful; 1950 had us at war in Korea.

In the fifth grade I bought my first airplane kit, the Bell X-1 rocket plane piloted by Chuck Yeager.  It was a solid wood model about 6 inches long.  That was followed shortly by a control line model and a .049 cubic inch gas engine.  The plane and engine never mated, but the engine did test runs nailed down to a bench on the back porch.  Many plastic models followed from time to time.

Science was a hot subject; crystal set radios, chemistry sets, electric toys, mostly paid for with paper routes or collecting scrap metal and pop bottles.

Just a start here, what did YOU do before the age of electronics?

Armchair

Lionel O Scale Engine Repair

Had a new guy stop by the Club a couple of Saturdays ago with his childhood railroad train, a 3 rail O scale Lionel from about 1949.  It had bounced around the family for years and finally returned to Harvey.  He had a couple of boxes of cars, track, transformer with reverse and horn buttons.   We tried getting it to run but mostly it would just hum.  Having never worked on O scale before I was interested in getting into the workings, so with Harvey's permission took it home for a better look-see.

Click on Pics to enlarge

This is the Lionel O scale "Scout" locomotive with the rear truck removed.   The 3 rail track is O gauge, 1.25" center to center of the outside rails.  The two long screws that hold the motor/drive assembly are at the end of the track.

Dis-assembly is rather straight forward, one screw on the bottom removes the trailing (rear),  truck, and two small screws on the bottom remove the lead truck, headlight assembly and piston guides.  The motor/drive assembly is held in place by two long screws located on the side of the engine.

The "Motor/Drive Assembly" is shown removed for service.  The motor itself sits crosswise in the engine and drives a gear train to the drivers.  The connecting rod between the drivers is for looks only, the drivers are geared together.  The copper windings in the center are the electromagnet that forms the motor "Field", the vertical coil on the left is the "E" "Reversing Solenoid" with the three position "Reversing Lever" at the rear.  Lionel locomotives used 10 to 18 volt AC current, no + or - polarity to the rails as in HO scale DC operation.  In "Normal" operation each throttle "Off/On" operation would reverse the direction of the locomotive.  A "Second" position would allow constant one way direction in forward or reverse.  The "Third" or "Off" position, would disconnect the locomotive from the power, allowing it to remain on the track while other locomotives operated.
                 

This left side view shows the motor "Brushes" between the drivers and the motor shaft between the brushes.  The unpainted plate above the rear driver has a slot that guides the "E" Reversing Solenoid. 

Armchair      Sept. 6, 2011
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