DalaGStanator's Customs, Mods and Experiments

Immediately after the success of my TOMY inspired chuffing mechanism, I wanted to try adding it to one of the rolling stock from the Union Express set. I made a new spring due to the imperfections in the first one and (temporarily) fitted it to the blue caboose. This time, the cam couldn't be fitted the same way 'around' the axle and was simply hot glued to it. Due to the sliding axles, it was lightly adjustable to allow the caboose to move backwards without jamming. It worked on just about any surface except the track, likely because I didn't add traction tyres or another rough texture. That, and some mild pressure had to be applied since it didn't roll freely.

While it was louder than the iPhone 4 box, it made an inferior sound and the bottom wasn't hollow enough. The coach would've probably given a better result. I also took the opportunity to paint some of its detail black, notably the fake bogies.



Finally made something for the literal Blue Plastic Tracks again. Inspired by TrackMaster Productions 2016's (terrific) Slate Quarry incline, I built my own winding house for use with my (standard gauge) trucks. At the end of each string for the cables, I attached a wire tie hook that can fit into the trucks' loop couplings or be tightened around their hook ones. He did mention it was hard for him to get it to function properly, so I didn't expect it to be easier. It was initially only able to pull the loaded and empty trucks up/down together, but I managed to fix it after several attempts.



Since I didn't measure the span of two risers with one straight on top, it turned out the spools weren't really aligned with the tracks and I had to rebuild the winding house. The new base has skewers along the bottom to fit into the track grooves for a little more stability. As I thought, it does the job better in every way.

The only problems with the new version are the winding house has to be held down so it wouldn't fall over, and the ascending trucks can't really reach the top. The latter might be because the tracks were too short or the grade wasn't steep enough. Either way, it proved successful enough to show the principle worked for me too.



Another thing I've really wanted to make is a motorised transfer table (traverser), also for Plarail. I looked for the easiest way to control a motor's polarity and found this forward/reverse controller by How to Create. It uses two metal rods wired to the power source, with their other ends wedged into a dial so they make contact with three other conductive pins (two wired to each other with one also wired to the motor, and one to the motor only). Not quite as ideal as a regular three way switch, but easier for me to wire. I then made a smaller version with nails for the conductive pins and found it to be more responsive, likely due to them being closer to the wired rods.

Now I'll just have to find how to build the mechanism and incorporate this into it. In addition, it could also work well in a wide variety of other applications.