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Checking in – What’s our current status here?
Is Greg lined up to build one of the buildings once we give him dimensions?
Did someone else say they wanted to do the other one?
need another build day?
I’m thinking that another build day might be a good idea. How does April 7th sound for the next build day?
Unfortunately, I can’t make either April 7th or 14th. The next available Saturday for me would be April 21st.
Walter (@whitesidewjw), I’ve continued to work on this since we last met. I didn’t want to mess with the drive/switching mechanism that we had built (and working), so I built a second drive/switching mechanism to be able to play around with the speeds and to streamline the profile wherever I could. Speed is pretty good now and the profile is a little smaller, but I haven’t come up with any improvements to the switching mechanism (it still “jumps” a little when throwing the switch). Tom (@tfdesigns) has offered to help with some ideas on that whenever we meet again.
I’ve also started working on the upper station house, since that will be the most challenging in terms of fitting it around and building in accessibility to the drive mechanism. Again, I’m making good progress there (couple of pics attached), but still have some things to work out. Greg (@greg) has offered to help me on the upper house once he’s on spring break.
I know you want to work on the lower station house yourself. If you’re ready to get started on that, I think I can give you some suggested building outline dimensions based on what I’ve built so far on the upper house. Neil had also expressed interest in working on one of the buildings, if you’re looking for help. I think he lives in Mt. Lebanon.
>> here’s the video to give you a feel for the current speed, which I think is pretty good.
I agree (I had previously advised Bob that the original prototype was too fast, which turned out to be the same conclusion he’d already reached), I don’t see any need to change it at this point. I assume you are running off a train controller and that it’s running at full power.
I think the speed looks great. The small “click” at the end should be mostly concealed by the gatehouse so I would not worry about that either. The mountainside will need heavy foliage – sounds like a job for Ben (and maybe me).
I assume you are running off a train controller and that it’s running at full power.
@bengood921, right now it’s running off of a Power Functions battery pack while we get the bugs worked out, but it can be easily switched to a train controller for an extended run like at a display event.That looks really good! I want to set another build date. I’m going to be out of town the weekend of the 21st. How does Saturday the 28th work?
Saturday the 28th certainly works for me since I was planning to go to the Q2 meeting anyway. What if we got there earlier (like maybe 10 AM if that’s OK with Josh) to work on it before the meeting, and then leave it set up so the other LUG members could see it?
This thread has been quiet for a while, so I thought I’d give you all an update. Those of you who were at the Q3 Birthday Party on Saturday saw Walter’s Lower Station House on the table. I took it home and had a chance to set it up with the rest of the incline this morning, and am happy to report that everything fit well with no clearance issues as the cars ran in and out of the Lower Station House. Don’t you love it when a plan comes together!!
Speaking of plans, Walter and I are looking to display this for the first time at Greenberg’s in November. Before that, we’ll be working on a display layout that will probably involve 6 LUG tables in a 2 deep by 3 wide grid. We plan to have the Lower Station at standard LUG table height, with the incline and hillside rising up from there in the “2 deep” direction. Plan is to have a couple of trains running on the 2 tracks between the Lower Station and the hillside, and then loop back under “Mt. Washington”. What we have so far (and you can see in the photos) covers 6 baseplates from the bottom to top, and is 3 baseplates wide, so we still have some room to add either at the bottom, or the top, or both. Once we generate the layout we’ll be looking contributors to help out with some “Station Square like” buildings, freight trains or cars, some landscaping, etc. We welcome any suggestions or contributions that will add to the display.
As someone that has only seen this once in real life ….
I gotta say…. Spot frak’n on ….
Wonderful build ?I agree with Simon, it is an impressive likeness of the incline. So there was no problem with the cars hitting the roof of the lower building? Nice work!
It came together nicely. @rcgrier3406 did the lion’s share of the work though, so a big shout out to Bob. T. Frost, and Josh also helped with the mechanical tinkering and conceptualizing the delay mechanism.
It might be cool to have a bunch of runners going by it on a road below like the Pittsburgh marathon.
What we have so far (and you can see in the photos) covers 6 baseplates from the bottom to top, and is 3 baseplates wide, so we still have some room to add either at the bottom, or the top, or both.
That really came together nicely. Great job! Once suggestion – it looks like the top of the roof of the lower station is level with the bottom of the upper station. So from the front, the action of the cars going up and down would in effect be hidden by the lower station roof. So how much work would it take to go one more baseplate deep and raise the upper station another level?
So how much work would it take to go one more baseplate deep and raise the upper station another level?
… or another option might be to drop to the lower house by another level … which might necessitate it being not only lower than but even out in front of the LUG table
Once suggestion – it looks like the top of the roof of the lower station is level with the bottom of the upper station. So from the front, the action of the cars going up and down would in effect be hidden by the lower station roof. So how much work would it take to go one more baseplate deep and raise the upper station another level?
I’ll look at that @timf. As it is right now, it’s more of a problem for the kids than it is for the adults. Plus, once you get off to either side a little, it’s not a problem at all. One concern I have is the overall height. Right now the upper “grade” level is 18″ above the lower grade level, with the upper station house extending about a foot above that. If we set the lower level at standard LUG table height (30″), then the upper level grade is at 48″, and the top of the Upper Station is at 60″, or 5 ft. Going one more baseplate deep on the slope would raise the upper level about 4″ at the 30 degree incline slope.
… or another option might be to drop to the lower house by another level … which might necessitate it being not only lower than but even out in front of the LUG table
We want to keep the Lower Station House and the track at the same level @greg so we can runs trains under the incline track, so if we do that we would lower all of the LUG tables for that entire level.
Another possibility is to combine both ideas and get the additional elevation by lowering the legs of all of the lower level tables by 4″. That would improve the visibility of the incline cars and tracks while still keeping the overall height of the display at around 5 ft.
Thanks for the suggestions.
Here is what I was thinking: let’s say you took that lower building completely off the platform where it is now and continued the track all the way to the edge of the platform, the train would still be able to pass under the track because the track will still be in the same location. You could include the lower building by adding a nightstand or a stool that is just big enough to hold the base of the building, but is shorter than the display table.
You could include the lower building by adding a nightstand or a stool that is just big enough to hold the base of the building, but is shorter than the display table.
One of my 2×4 tables that we used at Summer Trolley could work for that. We might need to obtain and custom cut new legs for the correct height.
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