Any model railroaders here?

[Painted Black]

Looking to ID this motor I've had kicking around for 30 years, Cleaned it up but there are no markings on it. It measure appx 1 1/4 wide x 1 1/2 long.

Any and all help will be greatly appreciated .Thanks

 

[Ace-Garageguy]

Good luck. There were bazillions of small DC motor designs made.

At first glance, it looks like a Pittman or Tenshodo or Mashima "open frame" piece, but not exactly. And there were countless no-name Japanese sorta copies of Pittmans as well.

A lot of those were built like little tanks, and should respond to some tlc, to run like new (though the permag motors may require remagnitization of the field magnets).

That one, in the first photo, is missing the armature shaft bushing on that end...quite possibly all that's wrong with it.

EDIT: After looking at the dimensions you posted again, I see it's considerably bigger than the HO stuff I'm familiar with.

Edited November 29, 2021 by Ace-Garageguy

[Dave Van]

That one would be a tough one to ID.  I may be a O scale motor.....and the issue there is like the early years of the auto.....there were 100's of model train makers that swapped out suppliers on a whim.  Sorry no help here....

[Painted Black]

Thanks guys, I agree with all the comments. I don't really intend to use it, just something to tinker with during modelers block. Will just put it on display in the model room.

[peteski]

I model in N scale (1:160) -- tiny trains, but I have also messed around larger scale trains.

I doubt it is O scale (tinplate) motor. Those are larger motors and don't use permanent magnets since they are AC motors.  This motor is small enough to be from some H0 scale train, or maybe S scale.  A basic permanent-magnet 12V DC motor.  Like Ace said, this one appears to have the front bearing missing.

Other than a curiosity, I would not bother with it.  You can get much better motors on eBay for couple of dollars each.

[Ace-Garageguy]

4 hours ago, peteski said:

I doubt it is O scale (tinplate) motor. Those are larger motors and don't use permanent magnets since they are AC motors. 

Just FYI: while 3-rail "tinplate" O scale is very much out there and becoming more popular again (though somewhat toylike in some cases, like Lionel), there's also "exact scale" O-gauge 2-rail that uses DC motors.

Because it's essentially twice the size of HO, there are some truly spectacular models and layouts in "exact scale" O.

One typical motor is the Pittman DC84/85, similar in size to what the OP listed, also used for big slot cars:

 

Edited November 30, 2021 by Ace-Garageguy

[peteski]

That one does look quite close to the OP's motor.  Good find Ace.

[Dave Ambrose]

I used to use those motors in slot cars. They were very good. Ran like a bat escaping Hades wrath. 

[Painted Black]

8 hours ago, Dave Ambrose said:

I used to use those motors in slot cars. They were very good. Ran like a bat escaping Hades wrath. 

Thanks Dave, never thought to look at slot cars. Getting pretty close at an ID, the Kemtrons look to be built with the same style. On to google again!