# Faller chassis?



## mowyang (Mar 24, 2008)

Came across this photo on a German site and am really curious to know about that odd gearplate. I think it's a Faller chassis, though pictures of Faller chassis that I've seen before have the gears in a row like on a tjet. I'd love to see what the chassis looks like under that gearplate.


----------



## hojoe (Dec 1, 2004)

That's a tjet chassis. I bet that gearplate is homemade. Never seen another like it.
hojoe


----------



## Dslot (Sep 2, 2007)

The *Faller Chassis Variations* thread has info and pictures of a lot of metal-topped Faller chassis designs, but none quite like that one. The Fallers there all seem to have their rearmost gear on the centerline, so the "homemade" explanation seems reasonable for this one, unless one of our experts on Faller or another exotic maker can provide better info. That sure does look like a stock Tjet under it, though, and amateur machining on the metal top.

-- D


----------



## urnuts (Jul 3, 2012)

*Thought I read something.....*

Here about that.
They engineered it that was so that no matter the "something" the chassis would fit or work.
Something about gear size/placement but it was the way Faller engineered it.
I know.... not very helpful but I remember thinking that it was smart engineering when it was explained.
At least that's my recollection.
What was the question?


----------



## Rich Dumas (Sep 3, 2008)

It looks like the cluster gear shaft is not centered on the rear axle, if it was a regular crown gear would have to be reversed to mesh with the drive pinion. In that case the motor magnets would have to be reversed as well. Since the cluster gear shaft does not appear to be centered some sort of strange spur gear (or possibly worm gears) would have to be used for this arrangement to work. In any case the only advantage that I can think of is that there would be more more body clearence at the back of the chassis.


----------



## Bill Hall (Jan 6, 2007)

Off setting the gear cluster shortens the "wheel base".


----------



## RjAFX (Oct 26, 2014)

Bill Hall said:


> Off setting the gear cluster shortens the "wheel base".


That's the first thing I noticed when I opened the thread and saw the photo....short. Who, when, or where I dunno.


----------



## Dslot (Sep 2, 2007)

Grabbing a copy of the pic to stretch the contrast, 










I noticed the name of the file:
bauer_zink_tjet_chassis_svenmuenchen.jpg

So, maybe the top came from a Bauer car. That'll take a bit of googling. The machining of the relief and the non-flat surfaces still look homemade.

-- D


----------



## Dslot (Sep 2, 2007)

Here is the mystery chassis with a Tjet for comparison.



















Oddly, the space saved by offsetting the cluster gear does not seem to have been used to shorten the wheelbase. The rear axle is in the same place as always. Since the pinion shaft is now out of line with the axle, there must be a different final gearing arrangement, so a different final gear ratio. Wonder what it is.

It appears that the purpose of moving the cluster gear might have been to get it far enough forward that it does not interfere with the sloping rear deck of a short body. Note that the back shelf has been trimmed, but the axle has not been moved.

It also appears that the gearplate is thinner than a stock Tjet's so the overall height has been reduced a bit.

-- D


----------



## Rich Dumas (Sep 3, 2008)

If you drilled new rear axle holes to shorten the wheelbase the rear tires would rub on the chassis. It would be nice to see a picture of the top or bottom of the chassis. I did notice that the armature pinion gear is a 9 tooth.


----------



## Hittman101 (Oct 21, 2009)

Is there anyway we can get pics of the bottom of the chassis and of the gear plate.


----------



## RjAFX (Oct 26, 2014)

If the side by side is dead on then being shorter is an optical illusion. When I look at the original chassis picture it looks shorter, and the second they do look to be the same length. I'd like to see a bunch of pictures of that thing.....

Mind you.....I have but one tjet to my name.


----------



## foxkilo (Mar 27, 2008)

This one has an original backplate. 
It is a so called zinc chassis. Created mainly for the Faller trucks to give them a gear ratio of 1:25 and to accommodate such ratio Faller choose a double layer gear cluster. They can drive very slow. It came in quite handy with container traffic and the like.

Mario


----------



## RjAFX (Oct 26, 2014)

Mario .... pictures man pictures.

Variation of this?


----------



## Bill Hall (Jan 6, 2007)

*"Immer Langsam"*

It's cute. Y'all should be having deja vu. We did all this way back when ago. I kinda sat back and sandbagged, waiting for Mario to que the pix on this one ... giggle

My perspective is all screwed up. As a youngster I came back to America after seeing what COULD be; in the attics, cellars, and playrooms of Western Germany. It served to inspire and influence my modeling hobbies over the course of my lifetime. I still marvel at it some 50 years later. 

Faller allowed modelers to create entire working scale empires. Model Motoring was a joke by comparison. Then again, maybe not; there was really no comparison. Two totally different worlds that were similar, but light years apart. They were apples and oranges. 

Imagine that! A semi that allowed pinpoint control. "Why on Earth would someone want that?" Indeed; it is the operative question, or why would any one want any of the other plethora of realistic modeling marvels and nuance that was intricately engineered by Faller. Because it was WUNDERBAR! 

The zinc is used by toy makers to increase traction. It doesnt matter how high it sits when it's on a gear reduced zinc chassis anyway. The design intent was purposefully "slow and steady". Quoting my cousin Werner, "Ami's think everything is about racing". He's long gone, but his perception still holds a bit of water.

Mario gets lunch money out of petty cash; the rest of ya's are all fired ... er... Fallered!


----------



## foxkilo (Mar 27, 2008)

Hey Bill , how I must your kind of humour.

But even in Germany it was all about racing, racing against the trains.

Faller did somehow a good job but by doing so they lost the point. Instead of correcting the weak points of the Aurora design they overshot. Call it over engineering. Six completly different chassis with subb variants galore. From an engineering point the zinc one is the big picture, really. BTW you can use it on an Aurora base as well, it works. IMHO the best chassis is still the F1.
Rhat one is a screemer, the most refined version of the tjet.

To all out there give those Faller a chance a good can give an Aurora a run for its money.

Love you all.

Mario


----------



## Dslot (Sep 2, 2007)

foxkilo said:


> This one has an original backplate.
> It is a so called zinc chassis. Created mainly for the Faller trucks to give them a gear ratio of 1:25 and to accommodate such ratio Faller choose a double layer gear cluster. They can drive very slow. It came in quite handy with container traffic and the like. -- Mario


Hi, Mario. I'm always happy







to hear from you, and generally take your word for Gospel on matters European. 

But I'm wondering if you've got this one right. 

Bill mentioned we have been through something like this recently; but it isn't forgotten, Bill. On the contrary, I linked to the Faller Chassis Variations discussion in Post #3 of this thread. 

This chassis doesn't look like any of the *many* Faller zinc chassis pictures there (or any that are linked to from there). None of those have the rearmost gear offset. Further, you can see the double-reduction gearing on top of the gearplates on all of them. *This* chassis clearly doesn't have double-reduction gears on top of the plate. It's conceivable it could have them on the *underside*, with the offset cluster pinion turning a larger gear that engages with the crown. That would provide the extra reduction. Something like this:










Additionally, all the Faller zinc gearplates shown feature precisely-machined recesses matched to the diameter of the gear they protect, as we'd expect from Faller.










If you look at the recess on our sample here, you'll see it looks as if it were machined by eye with a single-size cutter, and errors corrected on the fly.











So far, nobody here has come up with a pic or description of a Faller chassis with the gears arranged this way or the die-machining for the top done this way. Perhaps with your easier access to info and photos of European equipment, you can provide one.

Do you happen to know if Bauer had any chassis with metal gearplates? The image has "Bauer" in the title, but I haven't been able to locate one pic of a Bauer chassis through Google.

:wave:Cheers,
-- D


----------



## Bill Hall (Jan 6, 2007)

Farther back.


----------



## foxkilo (Mar 27, 2008)

I am wrong, I beg you all for forgiveness. 
Mea culpa, mea culpy, mea maxima culpa. And now Catholics and latin speakers to the front. I
shouldn't have opened my big mouth before having closer look. That is not a Faller zinc chassis. It is a tjet base with a top plate inspired by Faller. Same, same but different. Bauer had a few trucks in its programm and as they used surplus tjet chassis plus had been selling tjet parts that one could be made by them. I never had a Bauer truck in my hands cause there are out of my price bracket. 
Btw: the man behind Bauer is Juergen Mueller who together with Ralf Hick created the big Faller AMS guide.


----------



## foxkilo (Mar 27, 2008)

I just got info that it is a Bauer and was used in the beginning for their trucks.


----------



## Bill Hall (Jan 6, 2007)

Amazing! So it's still a truck? You're all rehired ... at half pay. 

I've spent hours and hours totally lost, browsing in Fallerland. I've got model railroading fever baaaaaad now.


----------



## foxkilo (Mar 27, 2008)

Pay? What pay? I did not know I got payed for it in the first place.

Hey Bill, tell me more. I got that fever as well. My dream a combined railroad and slocar lay out. Town and industrial zone with a race track. yummy. Trucks getting containers at the container terminal and deloading at a factory. Driving slot cars on flat bed railcars and the lot.
In the moment I try to cöllect all the trains and cars from Fleischmann of around 63-65.
Locos made of really heavy diecast. You know the kind of unbreakable stuff made to sustain and survive us kids. Not only survive. Those locos were weapons in their own right. Throwing them at the head of the boy next door you would have been charged with man slaughter. I love that stuff. KIds of today don't know what they are missing. 
But enough grumbling and ranting.

Mario


----------

