Emerald Night #10194 running gear improvements

ecmo47

Hope the mods don’t mind, but I wanted to consolidate the info on improving the performance of the #10194 Emerald Knight. My running gear turned out a little different than other suggestions but I have captured the changes on a LDD file. Notes on changes below:

1. Use LDD file to build steps 1-4.
2. On step 5, the 2x Light Bluish Gray Plate, Modified 3 x 2 with Hole are ½ a lug forward of original placement.
3. Follow steps 6 -9.
4. On step 10, move the 30363 (Black Slope 18 4 x 2), 1 lug forward.
5. Do steps 12 and 13.
6. Replace step 14 with LDD instructions to build new steam chest.
7. I added 2x61678 (Black Slope, Curved 4 x 1 No Studs)
8. On page 55 (step52.5) replace the 32523 (Dark Bluish Gray Technic, Liftarm 1 x 3 Thick) with a 1x2 Lift arm. This compensates for the Modified 2x3 being forward of original placement. Does not affect operation.

Note: I could not get LDD to mesh the 12 Tooth Bevel Gears. The two gears shown on the ouside of the frame, go on the inside to mesh with the Bevel gears on the central axle. It is critically important to make sure that the powered axles are aligned the same way. When looking at it from the side, both axles need to look like this (+, +) and not like this (x,+).

Thanks to TheLoneTensor for pointing me in the right directions for the fixes and for getting me inspired with his nice MOC of a Berkshire.

Please PM me for the LDD file and I will send it to you.

Pitfall69

Looks like you made some improvements to the the name of the train as well ;)

ecmo47

Someone asked a question regarding the gearbox for the Berkshire steam engine above and how to prevent the drivers on either side from jamming, so I thought I'd share the solution here. I used the same gearing concept as the Emerald Night, but extended it to power two axles, thus keeping everything in sync. A pic of the gearbox is attached.

Note, this also employ's ThomasB's gearing improvement for the EN http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=28273&st=75

Incidentally, If you have #10194, you should seriously consider...

1) The mod above
2) This mod: http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=37468
3) Swapping the 5L drive rod lift arms with 7L lift arms

Those three, relatively minor upgrades serve to make the engine run much more smoothly.

ecmo47

^ TheLoneTensor links post.

ecmo47

Nuts! Make that "Night".

ecmo47

ecmo47

ecmo47

ecmo47

^ Last shot shows how the axles MUST be aligned to ensure the driver wheels rotate smoothly once the siderods are attached.

Dad

Pitfall69 said:

Looks like you made some improvements to the the name of the train as well ;)

You're bad!!!!

Pitfall69

Dad said:

Pitfall69 said:

Looks like you made some improvements to the the name of the train as well ;)

You're bad!!!!

I thought everyone knew this already :-)

Pitfall69

Improvements look great!!! Sadly, I do not own and EN :( Although, this may be useful as I'm designing and building a similar train.

ecmo47

Mods...Thanks for fixing the the title since the whole point was to consolidate info that could be easily found in the future.

ecmo47

Parts list.

Brew

Hi all, resurrecting this thread to ask if someone has solved the issue I am having with the train wheels slipping on 9V tracks? I suppose I could add rubber o-rings to the wheels, but I thought I would ask before I tried that.

CCC

Increasing friction by rubbing the wheels with sandpaper can help too. Or reducing the weight you are pulling.

wunztwice

I just found this thread, and will be trying it tonight!  It might also be noted (although I am sure many already know, since the original instructions show it) the importance of 'quartering' the drivers.  That is, off-setting the drivers on opposite sides (engineer's side vs. fireman's side) by a quarter turn to ensure the drive rods are not in the exact same position.  In the real world this not only reduces surging and the beating the engine would take from that much weight but also make sure it could always get started moving from a still position.

Hope that helps someone!

GoufCustom

Recently purchased a used EN, and gave all of these modifications a try, just waiting for my XL PF Motor to show up to get it going. These are all great ideas, thanks for pulling them all together in one place.