Tank Loco Baltimore&Ohio economico (about 1947)

[tintoytrains]

Buono Sera -unfortunately I can not write more than that in the Italian language. I could use German as my mother tongue, but English is more common.

I own a tank loco Baltimore&Ohio economico, released in the late 1940s: L B&O Ec.": Come sopra, ma con inversione a mano -that´s the description in a catalog leaflet: http://www.ekkehard-brunn.homepage.t-on ... oCat10.jpg or view attached picture.

I would like to ask, if somebody ever has seen such a "inversione a mano" -this must be a difficile thing, as the coil is not a double-wound one, where the switch is using the first or the second winding to change the magnetic field and with this the direction of the loco. The coil in this loco economico has only ONE winding, so that the lever for this manual reverse must use the coil this way for one direction, and with the current going backwards through the same coil for the other direction. That is not a switch, but a lever to be pushed:

If You want to change the direction of the loco, You must send the current backwards through the coil. That´s only possible with an manual lever, as Lohmann http://www.ekkehard-brunn.homepage.t-on ... wender.JPG or view attached picture. in Germany has had. You push such a lever, so that in the first position the current is starting from contact 1 through the coil to contact 2, and in the second position starting from contact 2 to a contact 3, which is connected with contact 1, so the current is once GOING to the contact 2 and once STARTING from the contact 2.....

Got it????????????????????????? With my English?

Anyway, I am looking for information about such a manual lever, or a loco with this lever.......

Best regards
tintoytrains

[Talgo49]

Herzlich willcommen,

As you see this is all my german. I am not an expert but, if I understand correctly your question, what you suggest is right. In the early AC motors the direction of the motor was done by simply inverting the direction of the current (i.e. the field) in the winding of the stator. This was done with a slide switch, which you can clearly see in your second photo; this switch was actuated by a relay in the standard locos and manully in the economical ones. You can get all the information you need in the section dedicated to the Rivarossi motors in the Rivarossi Memory website, where the model of your motor is SL-93.

Best regards
Gianni

[Talgo49]

Hello, it's me again,

I just gave a look to my message and I am afraid that I forgot one sentence and that this might cause a misunderstanding. The part relevant to the switch and the rotation is correct but what is missing is that, as far as I understand, in the stator there were two opposed windings and not only one. In other words the rotation of the motor was performed by switching the power from one winding to the other; on the other hand the idea of switching the direction of the current in only one winding does not make sense since the motor used AC.

Gianni

[tintoytrains]

Hello Gianni,

thanks for Your reply.

Yes, usually the inversion is effected just by using two different wires wound to a double-wound coil. The switch is used either manuelly or by overtension to connect with the left wound wire of the coil or the right wound wire of the coil, so that the field is changing the direction, and so the motor is changing the rotation, and the loco her direction.

If You have only one wire wound to a coil, You need to use this wire let´s say from forwards and the same wire backwards. I have tested this just now with AC and it is working perfectly. If I connect the coil the other way round, the rotation is changing. As I do not have any switch, I was connecting the wires directly, just by exchanging the connection of the two ends of the wires of the coil.

If my coil is original -and I think it is-, then You need a switch, which is able to send the current -let´s say- from left to right, and then from right to left, through the same one wire of the coil!

I have checked the web-site with the motors, and my one is not there: the first one is looking like my one, with its bottom from bakelite, and with no tin piece underneath (which are to see in the next version), but when You enlarge the picture, You can see at the left one wire looking just like a circle, and on the right two wires, so this coil is a double-wound one: two coils in one. such coils are used my Marklin, Rivarossi, Piko and lots of other makers, who are using AC.

Unfortunately I have sold the loco with the pictured lever, which is to push, but I have tried to find a solution for changing the current going through one wire by using a switch like used later in these B&O locos, and it could work, on my paper.... Actually these switches are used to send the current to the first, and with a break without any current, through the second wire.....

We need an expert on old Rivarossi locos -also to exclude the possibility that my coil is not original!!!!!!

Regards
Ekkehard

[tintoytrains]

It´s me oncemore, Ekkehard (tintoytrains)!

I have up-loaded a picture, where clearly is to see, how small this coil is, and that there are only 2 (black) ends of the wire of the coil, so this coil is defintely only one-wound, and is changing the rotation when connected this way or the other way round, either with AC or DC).

Regards
Ekkehard