Newport & Rock Falls: Another Retro Micro-Layout

[chicken45]

And this is related to the Atlas book how...?

It's a degree beyond the book itself. I was referring to your website name hosting those images.

[DKS]

It's a degree beyond the book itself. I was referring to your website name hosting those images.

Hmmm... kinda scary getting a peek at how your brain works...

[wcfn100]

And this is related to the Atlas book how...?

Birth of N scale - Birth of Venus.

I assume.

Jason

[DKS]

Progress on the layout. Modest, but progress nonetheless.



Went to work on the rolling lift bridge. No hope of finding an original drive motor for one of these (wouldn't want one anyway--they're godawful noisy). Made a new drive from a piece of 1970s tech: a remote control volume drive. Back then, when you adjusted the volume from the remote, a motor turned the volume knob on the receiver. Strange but true (freaks out the young-uns who have never seen such a thing).

I had a couple of these drives in my scavenged obsolete tech drawer, and used one for the bridge. It's perfect: a double-worm drive makes it nice and slow, it runs on 3 volts, and it's virtually silent. I just coupled the kit's original crank to the potentiometer shaft with some telescoping K&S tubing, and Bob's your uncle.



Since the new mechanism is smaller than the old one, I cut down the building that covered it--fortuitous, as I always thought it looked more like a WWII munitions bunker. Here it is ready for painting:



Next is the bridge itself. Should have some more posts to make before the weekend is up.

[wm3798]

I want one.  The drive, I mean.  I have the bridge... two copies actually.   Maybe I bash a side by side version for a TTrak harbor scene...
That would be a fun operational hazard for those pesky roundly rounders... 

[DKS]

I want one.  The drive, I mean.

While it's tempting to sell you the other one I have, it worked so well I'm kind of reluctant to give it up, as I can imagine all sorts of other things I can do with it... Sorry...

Maybe I bash a side by side version for a TTrak harbor scene...

Do 'em skewed, like Boston...

[peteski]

Made a new drive from a piece of 1970s tech: a remote control volume drive. Back then, when you adjusted the volume from the remote, a motor turned the volume knob on the receiver. Strange but true (freaks out the young-uns who have never seen such a thing).

I had a couple of these drives in my scavenged obsolete tech drawer, and used one for the bridge. It's perfect: a double-worm drive makes it nice and slow, it runs on 3 volts, and it's virtually silent. I just coupled the kit's original crank to the potentiometer shaft with some telescoping K&S tubing, and Bob's your uncle.

Very clever.  That mechanism also has a clutch (for when the volume knob is adjusted manually).

I don't seem to recall remote-controller volume knobs in the '70s.  However I have a small JVC compact stereo system which has one of these remote-controller volume knobs. But that system is from either  late '90s so or early 21st Century.

[peteski]

While it's tempting to sell you the other one I have, it worked so well I'm kind of reluctant to give it up, as I can imagine all sorts of other things I can do with it... Sorry...

Go to eBay and search for motorized potentiometer - lots of them are available. Or do the same on Google.

Do 'em skewed, like Boston...

I remember those - no more.  Well, 2 bridges remain, but I don't think they ever raise. That entire area is so different now. 

[DKS]

Very clever.  That mechanism also has a clutch (for when the volume knob is adjusted manually).

I don't seem to recall remote-controller volume knobs in the '70s.  However I have a small JVC compact stereo system which has one of these remote-controller volume knobs. But that system is from either  late '90s so or early 21st Century.

Yes, the clutch is excellent for model animation as well, since it can prevent damage to the model.

As for the era, I may be remembering it wrong. 80s to late 90s, probably, but I kinda don't think the early 2000s--electronic systems had taken over by then, surely. In fact, I had an 80s receiver that had already graduated to electronic volume control. Well, whatever. It's old tech that's useful for modern modelers.

[peteski]

Yes, the clutch is excellent for model animation as well, since it can prevent damage to the model.

As for the era, I may be remembering it wrong. 80s to late 90s, probably, but I kinda don't think the early 2000s--electronic systems had taken over by then, surely. In fact, I had an 80s receiver that had already graduated to electronic volume control. Well, whatever. It's old tech that's useful for modern modelers.

But an analog motorized potentiometer is a gimmick which can be embraced by purists - the analog audio signal is fed through an old-school potentiometer, not some electronic solid-state attenuator.   BTW, I Also have '80s component stereo system (AKAI) with Vacuum Fluorescent "computerized" display, and no knobs. All the adjustments are done via push panels.  It was the latest-tech in the '80s. This is the receiver:

[DKS]

But an analog motorized potentiometer is a gimmick which can be embraced by purists - the analog audio signal is fed through an old-school potentiometer, not some electronic solid-state attenuator.   BTW, I Also have '80s component stereo system (AKAI) with Vacuum Flouorectent "computerized" display, and no knobs. All the adjustments are done via push panels.

Yes, I remember the purists having a field day... until digital tech improved immensely, and then they shut up. I didn't give a crap. I had a receiver from the early 80s that had a touch-sensitive "volume bar"--just touch anywhere along the linear graph to set the volume. No knobs or buttons. Kinda funky. Until it totally crapped out after about two years...

 

[peteski]

Yes, I remember the purists having a field day... until digital tech improved immensely, and then they shut up. I didn't give a crap. I had a receiver from the early 80s that had a touch-sensitive "volume bar"--just touch anywhere along the linear graph to set the volume. No knobs or buttons. Kinda funky. Until it totally crapped out after about two years...

I also owned  another AKAI receiver which had a  similar volume control "bar".  Touching anywhere on that bar would gradually bring the volume to the appropriate level.

[DKS]

I also owned  another AKAI receiver which had a  similar volume control "bar".  Touching anywhere on that bar would gradually bring the volume to the appropriate level.

Yep, that's the one I had. POS, sorry to say--made an annoying "chattering" noise as the volume changed, then it died. But tech was relentless. In college (early 70s) I had a programmable turntable--you could select the tracks to play and in what order (it had an optical sensor over the cartridge to find the tracks). One decade later, I had a turntable with two linear tone arms and could play any tracks in any order on both sides of the record. But that's also when CDs hit, and I bailed on vinyl in a hurry. Ah, those were the days...

[VonRyan]

I take partial credit for the miracle bridge drive because I pulled said potentiometer out of the electronics parts drawer and asked what it was. If it hadn't been for my rampant curiosity DKS may never have arrived at this solution.

I then went on to demonstrate my ignorance of basic model animation physics 

Perks of working for DKS:
> getting to watch the creative process as it happens.
> Morgan.

[DKS]

I take partial credit for the miracle bridge drive because I pulled said potentiometer out of the electronics parts drawer and asked what it was. If it hadn't been for my rampant curiosity DKS may never have arrived at this solution.

I then went on to demonstrate my ignorance of basic model animation physics 

Perks of working for DKS:
> getting to watch the creative process as it happens.
> Morgan.

Quite true on all accounts! Especially Morgan. (Don't ask.) Cody was witness to the entire process from beginning to end. Kinda scary, huh?

As to the "physics" part... Cody asked why the brass tubing was so long. To make it shorter, I'd have had to cut the shaft of the pot shorter, and there would not have been enough material for a solid mechanical connection sufficient to hold the brass tubing rigid and straight, owing to the fact that the pot shaft was mostly a half-shaft, ground down to index the knob. Just one of those things you learn after failing so many times...