Some help please needed on remote controls

Hi, I have a Martin evens Columbia locomotive and due to the length of the tender I need some remotes. The regulator is the pull forward and back type, and the reverser is the screw in /out type. Both controls are low down on the back head and need to rise up over the tender. Any ideas would be good. Thanks

More to bump your post than anything, but:
How about a pair of bike brake cables for the regulator and a speedometer cable for the reverser? Whatever you do the regulator should be fail-safe to closed. Maybe just a spring at the loco end.

Or if you have a large budget I can design and build you a wireless servo control system

Robert.

I have an idea there is a large model engineering society in America who do this habitually, because of their locos' long tenders and deep cabs. I forget the name of the club but it might be Pennsylvania Live Steamers, and I am sure I found out from an article on them in ME a good few years ago.

So no doubt have some very good methods.

As I recall, (unless from another course) they fit regulator, brake control and reverser with rod-type extensions that are guided by clip-on brackets on the back of the tender. (The fittings are all removable for static display without leaving 'orrible 'oles in the tender itself, and of course for transport.)

A lever-type reverser with the normal spring latch can be operated with co-axial tube and rod, one for the lever itself, the other for the latch lever. I've a feeling I have seen this on a model somewhere, with the handle end given a brass thumb-knob for the inner rod working the latch, so you operate it a bit like a syringe.

A broadly similar arrangement will cope with pull-type regulator-handles. (Having cited it, I think common US practice was to use regulator levers working in a horizontal plane and fitted with a ratchet a bit like a car handbrake lever. I'd guess that was to reduce driver fatigue on very long, steady runs at unvarying regulator settings.)

A reverser hand-wheel that faces fore-and aft (as many do), and rotary regulator handle, can be fitted with a universal-jointed shaft engaging at the loco end by appropriate prongs or clips.

A BR Standard pattern or other reverser hand-wheel in a plane other than vertical and rear-facing would need a bit more thought, such as a bevel-gear or a flexible-cable link from a wheel on the tender mounting.

Similar links can be provided for the brake-valve, if fitted.

Since these are all rod drives, with only as much flexibility as necessary to cope with curves and the normal swaying in motion, they are positive and they copy the normal control movement in the cab, they are positive and do not need return springs etc. that may be required in anything using flexible cables.

The tricky bit is controlling the boiler feed, so you'd need know how to set the boiler up for the intended run at the start. That will depend heavily on the individual engine and intended distance, such as number of laps.

''''

[Whilst road not rail I have seen a four-inch(I think?) scale Showmen's Road Locomotive with a clip-on steering-wheel in a near-vertical plane up on the back barge-board of the canopy. I think the regulator and reverser were as normal but this high-level steering makes life far easier for its owner, whose eye-level is just above the roof when he is seated on the trailer.]

An option is to use Push/Pull cables for the remote controls.

Chap in our club fitted a model aircraft servo to the regulator on a 5"g black 5. Worked a treat. As you are riding behind you can just use linear actuator regulator or geared motor for reverser. evetse

I put extension controls on my B1. The screw type regulator has a long rod to the rear of the tender which is fine. However the reverser is low down, so I made a 3 piece rod assembly with 2 universal joints that I made to suit. Unfortunately the angle from the reverser up to the top line of the tender is really too acute for the universal joint to work satisfactorily so I don’t use it. The tender is not long but my back is very stiff.

Our code in Australia now states that if the remote control is electronic, that it should be fail-safe so it power is lost and the engine will stop.

Edited By Paul Lousick on 13/07/2023 03:23:59