14 replies to this topic

[Mike Patterson]

I was leafing through my Allied Electronics catalog today, and I came across some servo motors manufactured by a company called Pittman.

Does any one know if these would be the descendants of the motors from the '60s?

[TSR]

Yes, they are.

[CaptnAndy]

Pittman has made servo motors, DC P/M with both planetary & spur gear boxes since the 50's.

[Larry Mattingly]

Weren't Pittman motors also used to power model train locomotives...

LM

[Mike Patterson]

Thank you for the information, gentlemen. This is sooo much easier than a Google search !

[Prof. Fate]

Hi

Pittmans were used in train and boats first. One of our members, EM is the guy who convinced Charlie Pittman to put "slot car" on the boxes! We both have motors from before that in some of our older cars.

Fate

[Champion 507]

Steve Okeefe has done some quite extensive research on Pittman motors on his website www.theindependentscratchbuilder.com . Check it out.

[don.siegel]

A buddy here just asked me if this is a Pittman motor - and I don't know! I think I've seen these on ebay, but can't remember any more about them - looks like an AC motor, and not like any Pittman I know - and he didn't say where the photo came from, in case you're wondering! 

 

Don 

 

[TSR]

Looks like a Japanese-built motor for a small washing machine. I doubt that it is DC but it could be, with a rectifier system from 110-volt down to 20 or so...

This looks like a large "gas powered" car converted to electric, where the power could come from a battery in the center of the circular track?

[don.siegel]

Yep, it actually came from a page that was covered here earlier I believe, from the toybaron site  - on slot cars as a fairground attraction, and at Riverview in Chicago no less! 

 

http://www.toybaron....Ohlsenslots.htm

[Gator Bob]

Cool ... Big cars !!!  Were they cast?  Wooah....Those are some industrial size tools on the bench.

 

I always hated worm dive HOs ..... cause ya can't spin the motor by the wheels to feel the mesh and the magnet pull. lol

[don.siegel]

Bob, if I understand correctly, these were Ohlsen tether cars adapted to electric drive to make a fairground attraction, and they seem to be used in somebody's basement too! So that would definitely be a cast body. Hope that motor had lots of torque! 

 

Know what you mean about the worm gears, but they were pretty common at the time. 

 

Don 

[TSR]

The Ohlson & Rice gas cars are the same size as the Thimble Drome (Leroy Cox) gas cars, about 9" long and made of cast aluminum. Adapting them to electric power and running on a circular slotted track must have been indeed for some kind of fair attraction where people would pay money to "race" them. The two guides and the large weight mean that with limited power, they could not turn over.

A bit bizarre but hey, what the hay...

[sub006]

AIR the first Revell upgrade motors for their 1/32 cars (RP-66 and RP-77?) were model railroad units, maybe  Pittman and perhaps rewound for rpm rather than torque.  They looked similar, and gave a slight improvement over the stock Mabuchis, but their increased weight probably held them back.

[Ramcatlarry]

As I recall, the first revell used the pittman clone motors, the mabuchi came later.  The RP-66 (DC-60 family) and the RP-77 (DC -70 family) with smaller than the pittman full magnets, usually were slower than the similar pittman with the same wind armatures.  Used a lot of DC 65- 6 volt armatures in those days...in many of the DC-60/62 motors as well as the DC-65 motors....AND the 195/6 motors... also used the 196 endbells on dc-60 series frames.