Video

Hahaha.. naw just an EMD SW1 locomotive. I do not think people have made electric versions of this before simply because the motors and gearboxes are hard to fit into this size compared to the more common hydrostatic pump motors.

I think the train would have floated away lol

The track is not quite in gauge in some places. In others, this car comes off if the track has too severe a twist for it to navigate

Waits through all 120 cabooses expecting a different car in it.. that is dedication!

The meter acts like a switch; when it isn’t measuring it doesn’t allow current to flow

Yep

It’s a train! And yeah, I probably should do a longer video. Thing is, without brakes it’s pretty hard to use on such a short piece of test track.

I’m currently in a bit of a transitional period and my server is offline as a result; I’ve been looking at different motors and driver boards and the biggest issue is finding high quality VFD drivers that support engine braking via a similar interface to the Syren50. I’ve considered using the sorts of motors and drivers that FIRST robotics uses but my concern is that I’d rather use a higher voltage than 12 volts to reduce the current and heat loss.

Aaron’s track has 3 different profiles, one of the strongest ones being Culp rail. It’s similar to scaled down 115 RE

We did a pass with the leaf blower before raking; it didn’t make the cut in this video. A lot of sticks and leaves were in the stones so it was better to rake

I’d say that a lot of the container trains I’ve done video on in the past are predominantly containers only but I’m not sure.

Thanks!

It’s a simple passing track at one end of the railroad that I visited. Cars are often parked on it.

Hey, yeah, happy to talk about it. It’s mostly an experiment. The plastic I’m using is about the most robust material that is available to me as far as plastic is concerned and is unlikely to be short lived if done properly. Metal ones would probably be the next step. Old ones probably could be recycled if you really wanted to, but any impurities in the plastic would need to be removed in that process. I would not say that the way I’m making them on the printer is any cheaper than if a mold was used. It’s more frustrating if anything. I did try two different plastics but there are only so many options for this printer that are suitable for this sort of use. Many plastics available do have strength tests available to read about.

@@JaredDunbar thanks Jared gor your fast answer. 👍

Yeah, the Amazon seller marketed them as LED lights but they certainly were NOT LED lights.

@@JaredDunbar Sigh. Amazon is slowly becoming like ebay and other sites, selling fake/cheapo stuff. They removed the ability to ask questions about products, and the comments are all from different listings, making them irrelevant/misleading.

They would have probably used it at a higher speed than we do at the fair if it was from overhead belt in a factory (a hit and miss engine runs slower). Material is donated so it’s more important to show the process than produce the result. If you operated this in production today you would not be able to run it for 8 hours at a time without hearing protection because it generates over 100 dB of sound level, which is above OSHA limits.

It’s probably just incidental from the capacitance of the bulbs. I didn’t do anything particularly special there. Maybe the use of a relay makes it behave differently from if I used solid state controls though?

@@JaredDunbar Yeah, if it's using a buck converter or any switch-mode regulator, it'll have a capacitor. I doubt the relay will make a difference, but if you use a solid state switch/relay and attempt to dim it using PWM, the switching regulator and/or relay might not be happy.

It has a tiny board from Dfrobot that has a lithium battery charger onboard which makes it easier to operate. I’m not sure what processor it was but it’s not WiFi capable unfortunately.

This is a visit to Aaron’s track at the Mill Brook Railroad. He’s constantly in a state of doing maintenance on the track, and a lot of it is done reactively.

I always have fun helping Aaron with the railroad. There’s so much to tinker with and work on.

That’s possible. I’m not sure yet, still working out the design still.

It was nice. The highway is higher up than the access road so I think it came out better on camera the way it happened. I didn’t even know it was there, it was just along our trip from Waco to DFW and turns out it was a great catch.

There’s an option in the config for “easy Waila mode”

Thanks! I’ve got a few more from my trip to Texas that I need to look at uploading.

Ok, looking forward@@JaredDunbar

We certainly gave it a good wack later! For this one we were trying to make it evenly flat after the initial whack.

@@JaredDunbar I know what you were doing, but you can achieve the flatness while also smacking the shit out of it

I do. I remade the wheels in a more durable plastic that I think is durable enough, but now I need to make new trucks for them to go in that are strong enough to support the beating that they will receive. Those trucks will certainly get a video here once I start testing them.

@@JaredDunbar i messaged you on messenger or something of that like itll be easier to talk there

@@JaredDunbar i recently bought metal wheels and was wondering if those would work with the 3d printed truck frames and wanted to talk more about that

It’s near Tysons, Virginia