Yellow Jacket

This is a “heads-up” for all of you Z scale modelers.

The “Bumble Bee has been a long time fixture as a Z scale model locomotive. So now I am going to tell you about the “Yellow Jacket”. If you have dialed into Searails new Nn3 venture you would have seen the new astounding Searails 25 ton Nn3 switcher!
See: SEARAILS PRECISION SCALE MODELS

The Searails 25 tonner is a cast brass N scale narrow gauge locomotive that is only 1 1/4 inches long. What does this mean for Z scale? At the present moment a 25 ton Z scale switcher is a little too tiny for the power truck currently under development but, how about a 35 ton Z scale GE switcher?
See: www.northeast.railfan.net/images/ge35.jpg

Lajos Thek, chief designer for L. G. Thek Brasswork had been given the challenge for designing and building a power unit that will fit the cavity of the Nn3 25 ton cast brass switcher. Way back in his mind Lajos has been thinking for years about a small compact power unit to be used for Z scale locomotives. This power truck is the fruit of his imagination. The power truck is only 8mm wide and a little less than 1 ¼ inches long. It is a little shy of 15mm high from rail top to top of motor, which is a little under 0.6 inches. This is a power truck that operates with any type of Z scale controller, from the ever-popular Marklin Blue Box to any sophisticated DCC throttle. For those of you who have been keeping up, that includes controlling your trains from your smart phone.

Yes! A Z scale industrial switcher that is only 1 1/4 inches long with gearing that gives it the strength to haul a complete train all over your Z Bend Track layouts. If you want to haul really long trains all that will be required is additional weight on the wheels. Lajos has been constantly seeking to build smaller and smaller power trucks. By doing so he has developed the ultimate power truck for any type of locomotive. Even small steam locomotives. This unit can be modified to power the ubiquitous Marklin 0-6-0 giving this famous little switcher tremendous pulling power with slow speed control.

Lajos has long been thinking of a building a Z scale speeder. Maybe not as small as one of the tiny little personnel speeders but more like a maintenance of way speeder. One that transports a crew to far off job sites together with their MOW supplies.
See: Speeder - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Or, how about a huge locomotive like the U50. See: espee.railfan.net/nonindex/u-...-yardclerk.jpg or try: tinyurl.com/4dxhqkc Can you imagine 4 power trucks in a single locomotive with a whole lot of lead and a DCC decoder? Couple up a 125 or a 150 car train and it will destroy your MTL couplers.

Soon L. G. Thek Brasswork will be posting an on-line video of this remarkable piece of motive power. Like the automakers who like to disguise their new cars before they officially announce them, this power truck is wrapped up inside of a yellow envelope. Thus, I named it the “Yellow Jacket”.

This little creature can fit inside of the hood of the Zthek SW-1. The SW-1 hood narrows down in front of the cab windows to afford the engineer a better forward view of the track. The new power truck fits completely inside of the wide portion of the hood. The hood of the Zthek SW-1 model is at a scale width. The only part of the SW-1 model that is not scale size was the cab. The cab had to be enlarged in order to accommodate the Marklin motor. For those of you who have been dreaming of having any locomotive in Z, from steam to diesel, your locomotive can now become a reality.

If you have, in your stable of Z scale locomotives, a beautiful Z scale steamer that should haul super long trains but it just doesn’t have the traction, one or even two of these power trucks installed in the tender will make that “display” locomotive into one of the star performers of your layout.

There will be a grand announcement soon. Place your orders quickly because the production staff seem to think that they will be swamped.

The boss at L.G. Thek Brasswork seems to have no control over his team. The video of the Yellow Jacket was to be released a short time later but Lucas, Production Manager of L.G. Thek Video Promotions. just could not be held back. He waited until everyone had gone to bed and at 12:17 am this morning he
released this You Tube video:

www.youtube.com/user/LGT220

The bare power truck can only haul the Gunderson car plus 2 MTL cattle cars. Add the Yellow Jacket superstructure and it hauls 20 cars. That's all that we had. The Gunderson car is heavy but the two log cars are very light so they make up for each other. To attempt to go faster only causes the power truck wheels to slip.

Prototype 35 ton industrial locomotives do not go out on the road. They are limited to operate only on the tracks within the company grounds. Their pulling power is very limited. They are operated by only one person. The Union has allowed locomotives 44 ton and under to be operated without a fireman.

Bill,

I'd would immediately buy an unpowered Z scale GE 25T! That way y'all could
design and get the chassis and wheels ready and be ahead of the power curve for
when Lajos has the motor ready. Heck, I'm ready now to purchase two unpowered Z
scale GE 25Ts!

John Bartolotto

I see ghost cars, "Generals", MOW trucks,galloping gooses, dancing in my head!!

this is going to be soooo cool...open up a lot of ideas