The Very Last White River and Northern Railroad

[DKS]

Fired up the Teeny Train this afternoon. I was on the verge of returning it as defective--it seemed DOA--when all of a sudden it started working. It evidently takes several seconds to initialize (or there's some inexplicable initial delay built-in) before it starts to run.    And it's a bit more jittery than expected, but not objectionably so.

[martink]

... It evidently takes several seconds to initialize (or there's some inexplicable initial delay built-in) before it starts to run.    And it's a bit more jittery than expected, but not objectionably so.

I believe they did that to make it easier to set up their trains, so that you can line up the carriages before it all starts moving.  In practice that is easy enough to do on the fly, but like many "features" in software everywhere, I suppose it seemed like a good idea at the time.  The jitter comes from the coarse 1mm step size, and was one of the first things I had to rework on my version: 0.25mm gives much smoother motion.

[Sokramiketes]

Would you mind sharing the artwork for the track image overlay? I’ve got the small loop too.

[DKS]

Would you mind sharing the artwork for the track image overlay? I’ve got the small loop too.

Here you go.

http://davidksmith.com/modeling/layouts/LastWhiteRiver/images/kiddie-ride-art.pdf

[Sokramiketes]

Much appreciated!

[DKS]

So the saga continues. The next challenge was to create the rolling stock, and what I ended up with was quite different from what I'd envisioned from the outset, both in terms of appearance and fabrication method. It was several days of trial-and-error before I managed to assemble cars that ran consistently, because it required a nearly-perfect combination of magnet type/placement/orientation, car weight and surface friction in order for anything to work; I built the locomotive five times, and the passenger car three times. Each of the cars began with four 0.0635" x 0.125" disc magnets bonded to a 0.020" x 0.250" strip styrene base. They're coupled together with a 0.020" brass wire link—fortunately, when properly coupled, a pair of cars would run more smoothly than they might individually.

   

   

LOCOMOTIVE: For the most lightweight shell possible, I made the "boiler" from a pill capsule (what Micro-Trains uses to store coupler springs, top left) sliced in half, and mounted to a 0.010" x 0.125" strip styrene body. Then I added a great big headlight and fins inspired by the 20th Century Limited. Looks pretty goofy, but hey, it's a kiddie ride!

   

   

PASSENGER CAR: To keep the weight of the passenger car down, I used bits of vacu-formed rolling stock nest (top left) for the seats, with seat backs and car sides made from 0.010" x 0.125" strip styrene. I also made fake truck sides from 0.020" x 0.060" strip styrene with journal boxes made from 0.030" square strip stock.



FINISHING: I painted the train orange (Valspar Flat Dark Palomino), similar to the railroad's Great Northern Overton coaches, so that the two rides were tied together by a common paint scheme. Seats, floors and trucks received Floquil Weathered Black. Once finished, I populated the train with an engineer and five children. I may one day make some decals to letter it.

[amato1969]

Love it, and the techno soundtrack.  The engineer looks so chill!

  Frank

[glakedylan]

DKS, this has turned out so well.
the smoothness of the movement as the train glides along around the track is top notch
i like the design of the loco and passenger car
you nailed it!


sincerely
Gary

[CRL]

There’s something vaguely Buck Rogers about your locomotive there, but it sure runs smooth.

[Point353]

Would there be enough room under the hood of the loco for a small button cell battery in order to power an 0201-size LED for a headlight?

[davefoxx]

The Buck Rogers reference is perfect, because in the late-1950s and early-'60s, the U.S. was in the jet era and the space race.  Aerodynamic and space-related themes were everywhere, including automobile designs.  Kudos!

I'm impressed with how smooth the kiddie ride runs.  It corners like it's on rails!    But, just think about how good it would look with one more passenger car.  Collect more fares!

DFF

[DKS]

Love it, and the techno soundtrack.

Fun fact: I composed/produced the tune.

the smoothness of the movement as the train glides along around the track is top notch

A lot of that is due to coupling the two cars together--they're out of phase with each other just a tiny bit, and this creates a quasi-half-stepping effect that makes the motion smoother than it would be with just one car, or two cars following each other but not connected.

There’s something vaguely Buck Rogers about your locomotive there, but it sure runs smooth.

Absolutely. I thought the same thing. It's the main reason I added the 20th Century Limited inspired fins...

Would there be enough room under the hood of the loco for a small button cell battery in order to power an 0201-size LED for a headlight?

Possibly, but it would mean rebuilding the loco to install it--not gonna happen--and then there's the problem of turning it on and off... the loco is just too tiny for a reed switch and the necessary electronics to control it with a wand, and I can't see handling it regularly in order to throw a manual switch. Not to mention having to design it so that the battery could be replaced. No thanks!

But, just think about how good it would look with one more passenger car.

I'd originally wanted to have two passenger cars. But there's a very specific reason I stopped at one, which I will reveal in due course.

[RAILCAT]

Fantastic. You are the man.

[peteski]

That is smooth (and so is the background music)!

[eric220]

Not to add to the temptation for a headlamp, but with all those fluctuating magnetic fields, would a small induction loop pick up enough power to light an LED?