# American Ditch upgrade



## TOM_1/20.3 (Mar 28, 2013)

Hello again,










I’ve been working on my Car Works American Ditcher 1/20.3 model.
It came with three motors, one for the car itself, one to rotate the crane and a third that ran the gearing and both winches. Since I wanted more control I first disassembled the unit.










I disconnected the two winches from the gearing and installed separate motors for each on a base.










Since you normally can only control one motor with the decoder I connected the gearing directly to the speed regulator. Thus it always runs. To power the other four motors I added four micro relays controlled by the decoder outputs. F5 to drive, F6 to rotate, F7 for the shovel boom chain and F8 for the crane arm. A servo oens and closes the shovel.




















I used jewellery chain and fishing leaders for cabling.























I put it all back together. Decoder, relays and speaker fit into the boiler.










Here a video. The winch motors are a little slow but they work.






TOM


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## Wesley Furman (Jan 2, 2008)

Very Nice Tom. I hope to get mine working someday and this update is great. May I ask what motors did you use?
Wesley


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## TOM_1/20.3 (Mar 28, 2013)

Wesley Furman said:


> Very Nice Tom. I hope to get mine working someday and this update is great. May I ask what motors did you use?
> Wesley


Hi,
I used DC3V 6V 12V N20 Micro Speed Reduction Gear Motor with Metal Gearbox from worldsky2013 on eBay. Since it only runs 60rpm at 12volts, I would suggest a slightly higher gearing.

TOM


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## Lorna (Jun 10, 2008)

I agree, very nice. I have not tried mine out but this is a great idea.


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## Wesley Furman (Jan 2, 2008)

Tom,
Thanks for the quick response. I'll look into the higher gearing. Your info was really easy to find on EBay.
Wesley


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## Naptowneng (Jun 14, 2010)

Tom- Very nice model and the mods you did to it look really good
Thanks for posting

Jerry


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## CliffyJ (Apr 29, 2009)

Wonderful work Tom, truly an(other) inspiration!


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## placitassteam (Jan 2, 2008)

Beautiful! The controls look very smooth. I'm not sure I would want them to run much faster.


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## Lorna (Jun 10, 2008)

Does any one know if this one:






was built from scratch or a modification of the the model. Really neat to see the ditcher working with live steam


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## Wesley Furman (Jan 2, 2008)

Lorna, 
The live steam was probably built by *Jim Hadden* of Poison Creek Locomotive Works, Utah. I found a lot of pictures of LS Ditcher models with the same similarities and his name as builder associated with them. 
If memory serves me right he made a run of 10, Correction, 6 per Jeff Young , "Garden Railways", August 2009.  
Wesley


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## TOM_1/20.3 (Mar 28, 2013)

*New video*

Hello again,

I refilmed the video and edited it with iMovie. Hope you like it.






TOM


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## Doug C (Jan 14, 2008)

Yowser ! it works too  

Really do enjoy the sound too. 

Fantastic project, thanks for sharing !!

doug c


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## TOM_1/20.3 (Mar 28, 2013)

Doug C said:


> Yowser ! it works too
> 
> Really do enjoy the sound too.
> 
> ...


Thanks Doug,

I used the sound from the german 2 cylinder Glaskasten locomotive. Fits well.

TOM


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## tmejia (Jan 2, 2008)

Tom,

Once again your modeling skills continue to amaze me. I really enjoy looking at and reading about your builds. I look forward to the next one.

Thanks for taking the pictures, video, posting and editing.

Tommy
Rio Gracie


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## Dave Meashey (Jan 2, 2008)

Tom;

Wonderful modeling. Thank you for sharing the video. I had to smile, as it reminded me of the classic children's book about Big Mike and his steam shovel, Mary Ann.

Best Wishes,
David Meashey


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## TOM_1/20.3 (Mar 28, 2013)

dave meashey said:


> tom;
> 
> wonderful modeling. Thank you for sharing the video. I had to smile, as it reminded me of the classic children's book about big mike and his steam shovel, mary ann.
> 
> ...


hi david,
thanks. That and i think i can were my favourite books as a kid,

tom


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## Lorna (Jun 10, 2008)

Agree, very nice modeling an inspiration.

On a side note, while mine is parked against other 1:20.3 equipment, I note just how BIG it is. Wider and taller than most anything. I am guessing this is because the real things were built to one size and narrow guage trucks used for when less than standard gauge?


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