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Hi all,
I just posted pics of an interesting vehicle I am hoping to build. It is a
special rail-mounted vehicle for picking up and moving the giant radio
antennas of the Very Large Array (VLA) radio telescope in New Mexico. The
pics are at
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=23734
In real life, it has interesting functionality:
1. The flat platform area is raised by hydraulics to contact the bottom of
the metal antenna supports so it can be lifted off the cement piers.
2. The vehicle has 4 separate bogeys. It runs on two parallel PAIRS of
tracks, and is capable of turning 90 degrees.
3. The 90 degree turn is achieved by going to the center of a crossing which
looks like
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and lifting the entire body slightly off the ground with hydraulics,
rotating the individual bogeys 90 degrees, and lowering back onto the
perpendicular track. So, the actual body of the machine doesn't turn, just
the bogeys!
Maximum speed with the 250-ton dish on board is 4mph. As you can see, each
bogey has 3 pairs of wheels. There is a generator on board so that the
electronic refrigeration for the detectors on the antenna can be kept
running while the antenna is being moved. If I recall correctly, they
perform 40 hours of maintenance for each hour of use!
I don;t know when I'll get around to actually building this behemoth, so if
you think its interesting, go for it!
Roy
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Message has 4 Replies:
 | | Re: An interesting building idea...
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| I thought we had someone on .trains from sunny New Mexico? James... you holding out on us? :) Now that would take a large layout, a lot of tan base plates, and a ton of UFO sections for the antennas! SteveB (...) (22 years ago, 20-Aug-02, to lugnet.trains)
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