DalaGStanator's Customs, Mods and Experiments

Now for one of my favourite results to date. Ever since Chrisjo last bumped the thread about the TOMY Chuffing Annie and showed us the origin of its mechanism, I've been really interested in trying to make something like it and not just "wishing" I could (as I did earlier in the thread). For this purpose, I made my own coil spring by wrapping metal wire around the shank of a screwdriver so I won't have to look for one (which might not be available in small sizes like this).

I found that this type of spring can only make the "right" sound if it's stretched from one point to another, hence why the previous ones I made didn't work. I tried testing it with a few different surfaces/anchoring points, but none made it sound very impressive. After that, I remembered an old iPhone 4 box which I thought would be able to amplify it given its size and depth. Sure enough, it did.



After stretching the ends all the way to the top, I made a (weak and unstable) chassis right under the spring. Side supports were added to hold the box over it, making sure they were long enough to reach the top while still exposing the wheels. To avoid making a "partial gear" like on Annie, I instead made a metal cam by cutting a wick sustainer into shape (with a small cut at the end so it would have two "teeth"). Due to the absence of gears, it works more like the ChugAlong Express version where the axle touches the spring directly.

Even though I made the spring myself and it has inevitable imperfections, it still nearly sounds like the TOMY mechanisms (only without the reverb caused by the metal board). In addition, it works on multiple surfaces despite having no traction tyres.

I assume it wouldn't be loud enough for a motorised engine with gearing (hence TOMY using an amplifier), so I might need a metal container to stand in for the board. I'm really happy to finally reverse engineer the main part and get it to function correctly (for most of the time) after so long. Now it's just a matter of finding how to incorporate it in a better chassis for an actual truck, coach or tender.