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Hi All!
Joe Comeau and I have spent the last two weeks collaborating on a little
project, and we are now proud to present … The Handcar!
http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/sullis3/Trains/Handcar/0movie05.mov
http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/sullis3/Trains/Handcar/000handcar.jpg
The overall gallery can be seen here (after moderation):
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=35356
Included are movie clips of the car in action, pictures, LDAW images and a .dat
file, as well as some source photographs and drawings.
As you can see, the fun part of this is that it actually works. It's intended
to look as though, by pumping madly, the 'figs are just barely keeping ahead of
the train. We have high hopes for its appeal in train shows!
Although the platform is only 4x10, it is still larger than we would have
liked. Additionally, the prototype cars only had 4 wheels, but in addition to
the pumping wheels (the rubber-tire ones) we needed at least a full pair of
train wheels in both front and back to guide the cart. Therefore - the cart
ended up with 8 wheels total. Ahh well!
There are a number of points worth mentioning:
(1) The minifig legs are obviously the NBA 'fig legs. What might not be clear
is that the springs have been removed in order to remove as much resistance and
friction as possible. It turns out, thankfully, that removing the springs is
not really a modification - they can be (carefully) taken out without damaging
them, and therefore reinserted at a later time. Don't' get me wrong, it's a
bit tricky - the springs are sleeved into deep channels in the hip section and
the main leg - but it is possible. I used a sharp knife to pry them out, but
I'd recommend some fine tweezers instead, since I crimped the springs slightly
(though not irreversibly).
(2) The motive system, unfortunately, cannot be generalized. This became clear
as we started playing around with the design in conjunction with various
engines. The reason is simple: the front end of each train is different, so
there might be different requirements for each handcar. In the case of the
movie clips in this gallery, the cowcatcher simply pushes the cart along via a
smooth tiled surface. It turns out that this was necessary as the cowcatcher
stuck out quite a bit forward of the leading truck - as a result, in curves,
the cowcatcher actually passes beyond the outer rail, and we couldn't use our
preferred method, described below:
If a train has its front truck right at the leading edge of the train, however,
there is a much better way to push the handcar along - magnets! By affixing
two magnets with like polarities facing, it is possible to push the cart along
without any contact between it and the engine whatsoever! I was able to
demonstrate this fine on straightaways, but once it hit a curve the magnet
mounted on the cowcatcher went far afield of the handcart and made a mess of
everything.
Another means we considered were clear studio-stunt rods at, or just below, the
level of the tracks to push the cart This would also keep the cart a little
bit ahead of the engine.
(3) As for the LDRAW .dat file, there are a couple of notes worth mentioning.
Firstly, the side bracket pieces (32530) to mount the pumping rod to are
unofficial parts, downloadable at:
http://www.ldraw.org/cgi-bin/ptdetail.cgi?f=parts/32530.dat . The lightsaber
blades shown as handles on the cart should actually be cut pieces of
flex-tubing; the flexibility allows the handle to be bent a gripped by both
hands of the minifig. Also, in the RL version of the cart, I cut small, tiny
rings of pneumatic tubing to sleeve over the thin neck of the wrenches, in
order to make them more nearly the same diameter across the entire length of
the handle. Other than those items, the .dat file should be clear enough.
Lastly, the LDRAW file was thrown together pretty quickly … I'm sure there are
pieces out of order, and possibly even parts that aren't attached that should
be. It's pretty close, though.
Anyway, there you have it. Please let us know what you think - any feedback,
suggestions, or questions are welcome!
Shaun and Joe
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Message has 3 Replies:
 | | Re: New MOC: Working Handcar!
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| (...) Way cool! (Pretty humorous too) I'm really impressed with the size. You were a little disappointed with the overall size, but for what it does, it's a very clever MOCs. It's also the first one that I've seen that works on a layout using (...) (21 years ago, 5-Mar-03, to lugnet.trains)
| | | Re: New MOC: Working Handcar!
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| Shaun and Joe, Thank you for making me laugh until my stomach hurt. I've watched the video about 20 times! I will try to build one for the next WAMALTC train show. Great! Bob (...) [snip] (...) (21 years ago, 5-Mar-03, to lugnet.trains)
| | | Re: New MOC: Working Handcar!
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| Very cool! Don't worry about it being oversized though. You should see an O-gauge handcar! :^P The little guys with the Studio heads are a great touch. and the basketball legs are a stroke of genius, I must say. I can't understand why you need three (...) (21 years ago, 6-Mar-03, to lugnet.trains)
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