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In our last ParLUGment meeting, I presented my little monorail train using znap
pieces for the rail.
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=55156
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=55157
The photos are a little bury due to my shaky hand. I already tried to sharpen
them a bit.
It all started at the end of the previous ParLUGment meeting, when we had
'train' as the challenge for the next meeting. Without a single train or
monorail pieces, I needed to look for other possibility.
Using Znap pieces for rail is not really original. On the box cover of 3591,
there is already a model shown which runs on the ground and guided by a znap
rail. Base on that I tried to make a znap-rail train that does not touch the
ground.
The key pieces for the rail are the quarter circle znap curve pieces, gray znap
connectors and stright znap pieces. The quarter circule pieces are only
available in 3552, 3555 and may be 3591.
The resulting train is functional, but is far from perfect. The basic design
is simple - two counter rotating wheels grab the side of the rail to move the
train, while the rest of the train has clamps that hold the train on the rail.
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=55158
As you can barely see in the picture. ^_^; I used a pair of old space balloon
wheels from 6880 to drive the train. The clamps are each made from two 1x2
invert slope and either a 5L half beam or a 6L technic beam. The clamps are
then connected to the train body using 2x2 plate with pin.
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=55159
This picture shows the engine detail. A 9V motor drive a worm gear, which
drives two counter rotating 8t gears. The wheels are hold together against the
rail by a small rubber band. The engine with yellow bricks is an earlier
attempt which had another gear convertion using bevel gears, hence it is bigger
and has a higher center of gravity.
I followed the regular LEGO monorail train layout for the train body. The
front car contains the battery box and the driver. The engine block seats at
the middle and the passenger block seats at the end. I made it 6 wide instead
of 4 wide since at 4 wide the engine gears and the black battery box would be
totally exposed.
The biggest problem I had is the fraction on the rail. If one clamp get stuck
the whole train would stop. At first I used 2L black frictional pins to lift
the rail one block off the ground, but they appears to stuck out a little bit
on the upper surface and introduced a lot of friction. Hence I used 1.5L dark
gray pin and push the short end into the znap pieces. To lift the rail higher,
I would need a bunch of half beams that connects under the rail to enhance the
structure of the rail, since the znap pieces like to rotate when you put a
heavy weight on top of it.
The center of gravity is also an issue, since the rail is very narrow compare
to the train body. These two problems can be solved by hanging the train under
the rail like some amusement park rails, but then it would create a whole new
set of problems.
I also got many ideas from others during the meeting. Jude found that
it can go up a slope if you bend the rail a little bit. Other ideas like
double engine or no engine for static display were suggested.
I hope you can found more use of your znap pieces after seeing my little
experiment.
Play well. ;)
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: Znap Monorail
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| Very cool- maybe I shouldn't have dumped all my Znap! I'd like to see this more as it develops. -- Tony Hafner www.hafhead.com www.pnltc.org (...) (23 years ago, 16-Jul-01, to lugnet.trains)
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