The Very Last White River and Northern Railroad

[peteski]

In the original Gorre & Daphetid’s defense, it was created by John Allen and named in the 1940s.

DFF

I am familiar with John Allen, and with his very famous G & D layout.  Still, that specific name was mentioned in the "tropes" thread in the Crew Lounge, so I figured I would point it out here.  I thought that the emoticons in my post would affirm that I was just having some fun with DKS.

[Chris333]

Here is another good one from the same town (Mineral Ridge)



Mineral Ridge at one time had a bunch of coal mines, a blast furnace, and it's own railroad that started has a gravity railroad taking coal down to the canal boats on the river. The "Mineral Ridge Railroad" is shown in Orange here: https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1KhrthMIDaLhSXyRe9q7mULuZRHy6BRte&ll=41.15159440432834%2C-80.75243900964772&z=14

[mu26aeh]

And how would you go about animating that graveyard..?

Lowering of the casket, distraught mistress throwing herself onto the casket ?

[Ed Kapuscinski]

FBI agents with zoom lenses taking photos.

[davefoxx]

And how would you go about animating that graveyard..?

DKS already did!  Don't you see the ghosts? 

DFF

[Van Horne]

That one was also well done.  As far as tropes go, while you restrained yourself from depicting a burial, the name of that layout was a first-class trope cliché.   

I wonder how many of us have made the pilgrimage to Cielo Vista Terrace to honour that cliché?!

Dave

[DKS]

Made some headway with the river.

[DKS]

I wonder how many of us have made the pilgrimage to Cielo Vista Terrace to honour that cliché?!

Dave

I'd actually planned on flying out there one summer when I was in college. Turns out that was the year he died.

[milw12]

That cow must have seen some real sh!t to earn that thousand yard stare....

DKS, it's always a treat to follow along as you push the modeling envelope. The river looks great along with everything else. It's obvious there's a passion in this project and I believe you will surpass your goals stated at the start of this project-

Having fun following along,

Lucas

[CRL]

@DKS - “Made some headway with the river.”

Understatement of the year!

Beautiful!

[DKS]

I wasn't going to animate the water tower, but over time it grew on me. After all, I'd animated it on the original White River & Northern all those years ago. And then, there's the animated fuel oil column right across from it. The process went quite smoothly on the morning of 20 June 2021.



The first thing I did was remove the roof, followed by the spout frame. I installed two short lengths of brass microtubing right were the spout support pulleys were (above).



Then I made a hinge from brass wire soldered into a T shape and two more bits of tubing (above). I bonded the hinge to the spout frame, then bonded the spout to the hinge (below).



Inside the tank I made a pivoting frame that lined up with the two short tubes entering the tank. I threaded a piece of fine monofilament thread through the hanger on the spout and through the two short tubes, then attached the ends to the pivoting frame inside using two bits of tubing I crimped onto the ends of the pivoting frame wires (below).



The spout lowers by gravity (thanks to the solid pewter casting), and raises via a monofilament thread tied to the pivoting frame and runs out the bottom of the tank through brass microtubing, where it's linked to an eccentric crank on a geared motor (below). Incidentally, the resistor is a dynamic brake to keep the motor from coasting.



A hard stop inside the tank prevents the pivoting frame from being pulled too far back; otherwise, gravity can't lower the spout. I colored the monofilament with a sharpie so it was more visible.

   

[OldEastRR]

You may have explained the grassy arched-stone viaduct next to the steel bridge but I assume that was the old road river crossing, now abandoned?

[DKS]

You may have explained the grassy arched-stone viaduct next to the steel bridge but I assume that was the old road river crossing, now abandoned?

Yup.

[DKS]

The photos of the water tower's mechanism aren't the clearest; the principle of its function is illustrated below. (Omitted for clarity are the tank and the geared motor at the bottom.) The H-shaped part is the pivoting frame; its purpose is to place even tension on the threads attached to the spout, and keep friction to a minimum.

[Chris333]

So nice and simple