64 replies to this topic

[Pitt Man]

I thought I'd share my Pittman motor collection with all of you. I've been collecting these jewels, er...clunks for a few years now.

My favorites have always been the "padlock" style, i.e. DC65's and 85's. I've limited myself to collecting only DC motors with permanant magnets. Several of these you may never have heard of, or seen before, but they were used in the model railroading hobby.

This is by no means a complete collection, there are still over a dozen more motors I'm aware of, and don't have a sample of yet and probably oodles more I don't know about.

Most of these are NOS with boxes, but a few others that are harder to get a hold of, are used. I am by no means an expert on Pittmans, just a casual collector. I also have a few duplicates and a couple of 6001's in running moldy oldy cars. (There's a NIB 6001BB on it's way)

Hope you enjoy,
Bob




Top left to right

Row 1
DC86 12v w/17 laminations
DC106 12v (monster)
DC86 12v w/16 laminations

Row 2
DC85 12v
DC85A 6v
DC85A w/6v 7pole Ram armature

Row 3
DC84 6v
DC84 12v w/12 laminations
DC84 12v w/11 laminations

Row 4
DC65 12v brass end frames
DC65A 12v
DC65A 6v



DC195A 12v
DC196A 12v
DC196B 8v




DC703 12v
DC706 10/12v



L to R, Top to Bottom
Row 1
DC71A 12v
DC71B 12v
DC77A 12v
DC80 12v
DC92 (another monster) 12v

Row 2
DC60 12v
DC62A 12v
DC62B 12v
DC66 6v
DC70 12v

[Pitt Man]

Here's another shot of the DC106, just to give you an idea how how large it really is! That's a .156" diameter double shaft.



As a youngster in the 60's, I saw a HUGE Pittman in a slotcar shop. By memory, it was about a 5" cube padlock style with double shaft of 3/8" diameter. MMmmm, perhaps someday I'll find one.

Bob

[Jairus]

Interesting feature of that big puppy... it has "Oil Wicks" near the bearings. This is something I have considered adding to my proxy cars.
Thanks for sharing Bob!

[TSR]

Bob, great stuff!
I believe that we have a couple more not shown here, I will post a picture of one in the LASCM that I have not seen before and have no clue of what it is.

[don.siegel]

Ditto Bob! You're a man after my own heart!

There's also the DC9003, a boat motor that was used in some early slot dragsters; I'll try to post a photo of that monster, and any others I can come up with.

The main ones missing here would be the DC196 and the DC704, the first two dedicated slot motors from the company, that came between a few of the ones you are showing.

Don

[Prof. Fate]

Hi

I have most of your gaps, i expect. I know I have the 60-62-63-63m and 66 and 66-6. The problem being that most are loose because they were RACED and are't labeled!

I have a 196 as well, but I think I put bushings in the carrier. And a couple oddities a couple of 196As with 196b axle carrier and brushes and ball bearings instead of bushings.

When I was a kid, I never thought they would be "collectable"....
]
Fate

[idare2bdul]

Hi

I have most of your gaps, i expect. I know I have the 60-62-63-63m and 66 and 66-6. The problem being that most are loose because they were RACED and are't labeled!

I have a 196 as well, but I think I put bushings in the carrier. And a couple oddities a couple of 196As with 196b axle carrier and brushes and ball bearings instead of bushings.

When I was a kid, I never thought they would be "collectable"....
]
Fate

Wouldn't have made much difference would it? There are racers and there are collectors. Some of us are unable to leave it unopened in the box.

[The Bugman]

Wouldn't have made much difference would it? There are racers and there are collectors. Some of us are unable to leave it unopened in the box.

ditto !!!!!!!!!
i bought it im gonna play with it,,,,,,,

[TSR]

What is good about the Pittmans is that first, there are still plenty of them around, second thay are still very reasonably priced except for few rarer examples and third, they last literally forever...

[Allan Feldman]

Hi Guys
Just a question. I have some Pittman motors DC 65 12V, DC70 12V, DC704 12V and DC195 12V nothing special. But their boxes are Green. I was told these were for model railroads rather than slotcars. Would there specifications be different from a slotcar motor or is it the same?? The address is Pittman Electrical Developments Co Sellersville Penna. I quote "Pittman the motors manufacturers use in their products" "Precision Power plants"
Regards Allan

[Tex]

Hi Guys
Just a question. I have some Pittman motors DC 65 12V, DC70 12V, DC704 12V and DC195 12V nothing special. But their boxes are Green. I was told these were for model railroads rather than slotcars. Would there specifications be different from a slotcar motor or is it the same?? The address is Pittman Electrical Developments Co Sellersville Penna. I quote "Pittman the motors manufacturers use in their products" "Precision Power plants"
Regards Allan

Are the armature stacks "twisted"?

[don.siegel]

Well, yes and no Allan - how's that for a wishy-washy answer?

First, theoretically, the DC704 was already a slot car motor, not used for model trains.

For the others, the 6 volt versions are of course different, but to tell you the truth I don't know if there is any difference in the specs between the strictly choo-choo motors in the earlier boxes and the later red boxes. I do know there were some variants in each model, since I've been several different types of the DC195 for instance, and I kind of assume that motors like the DC70 were improved over their long careers...

I have some of these MIB at home, so will try to remember to take a look when I can.

Don

[Prof. Fate]

Hi

Actually, our blogmate Allan Schwartz, aka "Ecurie Martini" was the guy who talked Pittman into saying "slot cars" on the box!

One of those obscure, not in the mags stories, back in the early 60s, EM and I in different parts of the world were using the pittmans often to motorize the merit and strombecker bodies in 1/24. When the 703 came out, it was so suited to the small club tracks of the time that we all jumped on them.

As far as I know, the 703 and 4 were used in locomotives, but as replacements.

Anyway, back to the story, I was so unhappy when I saw my first commercial track. Those HUGE straights! My 703 and 4s would top out in about 6 feet! One of the cars I had then was this somewhat customized Corvette with a 704 stuffed under it. I flared the snot out of the body, and really shortened the motor.

Ron Knight, of knight bodies, produced a Mercedes 300slr body that was extra wide so that He and Bob Schliecher could squeese the 703s under them in 1/32. (the chassis and car were .....ugly POS monsters!).

I digressed.

I don't remember when the boxes changed color or if the color was tied to supposed market or any of that. Still have bits of cars, but I just don't remember!

Fate.

[don.siegel]

I did find a couple photos in my archives, so thought I'd share them.

Here's the DC-196, which Pittman introduced in 1963, and seems to have been about the most popular motor among the enthusiasts:


And this is the other 195 I referred to, maybe the original version before the 195A:


A 196 with the popular Crane rear end in brass:


I'm not actually sure about this one, but it is a Pittman DC-705 type motor (Ram and Strombecker both copied many of the Pittman motor styles - oops, just checked my caption, it's a Ram 426A, but you get the idea...):


Don

[Tex]

I'm not actually sure about this one, but it is a Pittman DC-705 type motor (Ram and Strombecker both copied many of the Pittman motor styles - oops, just checked my caption, it's a Ram 426A, but you get the idea...):


Don

MMMmmm......... beefy!

[Steve Deiters]

Just a side note on this Pittman string. At our local raceway the drag racers who used them and up to a certian point the roadracers used to put a drop of Holton Trombone Oil on the com of the Pittmans. It was like adding nitro to gasoline in a car as for enhanced performance. They went that much faster for a very short time which made it perfect for drag racing. As a kid I assumed that by lubricating the com you were minimizing the source of parasitic friction loss found with the brush/com interface (since the brushes simultaneously act as a brake on the motor) with this electrically conductive lubricant. The transmission of the electricity may have been enhanced at the contact points, but I was never able to rationalize it.
The Holton oil trick did not work on Mabuchi type motors since it would dissolve the brushes.

[idare2bdul]

Tyco also had a copy. Most of the Tyco's I bought off of Ebay weren't run but had prebent axles.

[The Bugman]

Tyco also had a copy. Most of the Tyco's I bought off of Ebay weren't run but had prebent axles.

arent the prebent axles for better cornering ??

[Prof. Fate]

Hi

when the 196 came out, the midwest group created a special stock motor F1 class for them. Then as now, the concern was how "technical" things were. Well, they were marketing various bodies, so they fixed the rules as a 196 with a 3.5:1 gear and so on. Unlike JK, no one did a kit!

The lancia ferrari dominated, and the only allowed change was narrowing the rear bracket like the commercial unit above. For more modern bodies. Ironically despite the fact that in the mags, in public, Jose Rodriguez was arguing with them about who was "more" scale, the glas bodes they were doing were all bulged a bit to clear the 196!

Fate

[Gary Bluestone]

I never had a box or any info but I think this is the 6001BB. I searched a long time to find a suitable test bed frame until I settled on modifying a Gar-vic. With 16-46 gearing and all ball bearings it was plenty fast but no brakes. I just changed it to 12-50 and went with axle bushings to see if it is more drivable.

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[idare2bdul]

No brakes is a problem but I was shocked at how fast a 6001 was since I had never raced one.

As a kid the Pittman 704 was easy to build a chassis for and very reliable. Not having to set gear mesh was another advantage. If we had been using drill blank axles it would have been bullet proof.

[don.siegel]

True about the threaded axle on the 704, Mike, but actually I don't think I've ever seen any bent axles on this kind of motor, strangely enough. Maybe the tires being relatively close to the motor gives it added protection, and maybe since they don't have crazy speed it also helps...

The 6001 is indeed very fast. I've told this story before, but when I started slot racing again in 74-75, I built a sidewinder 6001 powered GT car and wound up racing it in a Group 12 race at West Seattle - and won the race! Purely on speed, since my cornering was nowhere near as good as the anglewinders (it was a small field too, but still... ). I don't remember the brakes being that bad, maybe this one needs a rezap Gary, and the lower gear ratio should help.

Mike, the Tyco is smaller and not quite the same as these big monsters; that was also the one that was often rewound or a 65X arm used, and these were the last competitive non-can motors, including in the first and second R&C races in 1966... And, "justement" as we say in French, these motors also used a wet wick with ... Horton valve oil! Thanks for bringing that up Steve. I remember reading about this at the time, and wondering into a music company in Chicago many years later and trying to find this stuff...

Don

[Prof. Fate]

Hi

I have never seen a anodized can before! I have several of the motors. The things drop into 26d frames. Ironically, in the day, most of us built hotter 26ds that lasted one race rather than buying a much more expensive pittman that needed the same work. During the darkages, there was a period where a new in the box BB was cheaper than a 26d endbell. This made a curious change that I use the BB in my surviving 26d frames. They run forever.

Fate

[Gary Bluestone]

Hi

I have never seen a anodized can before! I have several of the motors. The things drop into 26d frames. Ironically, in the day, most of us built hotter 26ds that lasted one race rather than buying a much more expensive pittman that needed the same work. During the darkages, there was a period where a new in the box BB was cheaper than a 26d endbell. This made a curious change that I use the BB in my surviving 26d frames. They run forever.

Fate

HI, The top photo came out more real. In fact the can side is a plated steel finish, like nickel or zinc plating maybe even stainless steel, and the endbell is cast alloy. Somehow the reflection off the track made it look anodized. GB

[Allan Feldman]

Are the armature stacks "twisted"?

Richard what do you mean by this?

I have not got complete access to these motors without difficulty. Don will back me if he remembers my hobby room and the lack of space. So if you could explain I will try to reach them.
Thanks

Incidentially I wish all of you a Happy Xmas and great 2009. This year I am hoping to start posting pictures.
Regards Allan