The Very Last White River and Northern Railroad

[Chris333]

Here are yellow ones for about $100:

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The multi colored ones are $300.

[peteski]

I should model that...

Will you use a slow-speed motor sequencer?   

[CRL]

Nah... he’ll run it piggybacked off the distributor.

[DKS]

This late addition is indirectly the result of some brainstorming on the Railwire. When I decided to do the neon open sign for what was planned to be a florist, it inexplicably made me think of a laundromat instead. I was going to make one for the Black River & Western, although this new one has much better interior visibility. The idea was to have a bank of dryers along one wall, with spinning clothes in some of the units.

Work got under way on 16 September 2020 with the gear train required for this little parlor trick. I started by mounting a series of gears from a few mechanical toys to a sheet styrene frame using tiny brass brads press-fit into holes drilled in the frame (below left). The colors of the gears are not arbitrary: green ones are active units on the lower level, blue are active units on the upper level, and red are idler gears. The pattern of in-use versus idle units was too symmetrical for my tastes, but this was out of necessity owing to the need to have all of the running dryers turn the same direction using a single drive train. I could have been more random if I'd had the real estate for a deeper unit having multiple gear trains, but given the dryers were set against an external wall in this case, I had no options.

   

I was also going to power the dryers using the same motor that operated the neon open sign, but that one was already very close to its load limit; with another mechanical load, the likelihood it might stall was pretty high. So the dryers got their own motor (above right). This had the added benefit that I could built, test and refine it as a completely self-contained unit. And, if I was so inclined, I could control it separately, although I chose not to.

   

Once the mechanism was functioning properly, I addressed the cosmetics. The dryer drums were all made from ¼" styrene tubing; as these were all cut by eye, I made many more than I needed (above left), then picked the ten best of the bunch. The five "active" drums were bonded to their respective gears and stuffed with "clothes"—tiny bits of shredded napkin, some colored with markers (above right).

   

The face of the entire array of dryers is a single piece of white 0.020" sheet styrene having ten holes made with a paper punch (above left); into the holes I bonded ~0.030" long slices of shrink wrap tubing, again cut by eye (above right). Unfortunately, the only tubing that precisely fit the punched holes was bright yellow, so there followed the tedious process of painting them all silver (below left).

   

I then attached a sheet of acetate to the back of the dryer faces, and bonded the inactive drums to the acetate (above right). For more visual interest, as well as to hide the gears behind the two idle drums on the lower row, I added piles of dry clothes, which were tiny crumpled balls of shredded napkin (below).



After a quick test run, I installed the dryers in the building. Note that, at the angle of view, most of the cosmetic shortcomings disappear.



Now I need to finish the rest of the laundromat...

[glakedylan]

superb! looks so real. you have really nailed another one
this is all going to be some amazing when you get it all together
so much animation in such a small world
beyond impressive!


kudos on another brilliant endeavor!


sincerely
Gary

[craigolio1]

I am humbled.

Amazing.

Craig

[johnb]

The 64 Thunderbird was the first car with sequential tail lights. Mercury Cougar got them in 67. The Shelby GT500 got them in 68. Then the Chrysler Imperial got them in 69.

fixed it for you

[DKS]

fixed it for you

Nope, 65.

http://automotivemileposts.com/autobrevity/sequentialsignals.html

[craigolio1]

Nope, 65.


http://automotivemileposts.com/autobrevity/sequentialsignals.html

Thanks very much.(  Sarcasm) That was a good read. Now I have another website to waste my free time on, haha.

[Sokramiketes]

Ahaha, great.  When you do the washers, I could picture one hopping up and down from an unbalanced load.

[Philip H]

Ahaha, great.  When you do the washers, I could picture one hopping up and down from an unbalanced load.

TWSS

 

[DKS]

Laundromat, and you can add a washer out of balance rocking and rolling!

DFF

Ahaha, great.  When you do the washers, I could picture one hopping up and down from an unbalanced load.

I've spent a fair bit of time in a laundromat (four years' worth of washdays), and I've never witnessed this. They have sensors that shut them down if they get unbalanced. Also, some washers are bolted into place.

[Point353]

In addition to a switch to activate this latest animated element, are you also going to install a coin slot?

[DKS]

The fishermen animation constitutes the last planned effect. Unless I come up with another idea, or someone makes an excellent suggestion, this is it. I can then move on to other things.

The effect is pretty simple: a low-RPM motor rotates a disc that has irregular bumps along the edge. A spring-loaded lever rides along the bumps, and a length of fine monofilament is attached between the end of a flexible fishing rod and the lever. For the Mountain Vista, the mechanism needed to be very compact, because the water level where the animation would go is only a half-inch above the layout base.

Subsequently I added a little twist that I don't recall ever animated, at least in N Scale. That's a fisherman holding up his prize, and the fish is wriggling. So, how would the fish wriggle? The fish is made of silicone, which is applied over ultra-fine wire that descends through the ground and connects to a gear. As the wire is turned, the rotating silicone creates the illusion of a wriggling fish. The principle of the mechanism is similar to that of the barber pole.

   

For the fishing figure, I had to drill a #80 hole endwise into his hand so he could hold the pole (above left). I bonded very fine nylon monofilament to the pole provided by Preiser and kinked it at the end of the pole. For the figure holding a fish, I had to drill a #95 hole vertically through his hand for the rotating wire (above right).



I made the mechanism with a low-RPM geared micro-motor, three gears and a cam ring (above). One end of a lever rides the irregular cam shape (below left); the other end has a screw mount to facilitate attaching the fishing line (below right), as well as to make it adjustable, since tolerances are surprisingly tight owing to the very small movement involved.

   

The figures are mounted on a base that will be incorporated into the scenery when the time comes.



Note that this scene is located toward the middle of the layout, so it's not up front for close scrutiny. Also, scenery will be strategically designed so as to help hide the wire that makes the fish wriggle.

[eric220]

Mornin’! Nice day for fish in’ ain’t it? Hu-huh!