Getting Real Column - 9
which begins on the front edge of the layout and curves
around out of sight between the Kansas City Power & light
Building and the Ford Stamping Plant. The animation consists
of a Rock Island SW7 switcher that pushes a loaded coal hop-
per back and forth on this length of track with a three-minute
cycle time.
At the front edge of the layout, a diode stopping section holds
the locomotive just short of the end of track (this frequently
surprises visitors!). At the back edge of the layout, the loco-
motive and car are out of sight behind the stamping plant,
stopping at a second stopping block.
Adding sound to this animation requires synchronizing it with
the movement of the locomotive. The sound track begins
18: An overall view of the coach yard with the commissary
building removed. The rear of the building is open to allow
the sound to be heard.
18
19: In this view the commissary building is in place over the
access hatch.
with the switcher throttling up, then running for a short
while, and back to idle. The idle section is long enough to
extend beyond the three-minute duty cycle. Now all I had to
do is get the MP3 player back to the beginning of the track
each time the locomotive starts.
I came up with a simple low-tech way of accomplishing this.
Since the current reverses each time the locomotive starts, I
connected the track to a Tortoise switch machine. Each time
the locomotive starts, the Tortoise switch machine moves
from one side to the other. I put a magnet on the end of the
switch actuating wire. Every time the switch machine moves,
the magnet moves over a reed switch which sends the MP3
player back to the beginning of the track.
Feed Mill:
The speaker for the Peterson Feed Mill (Decatur,
Arkansas), will be located within the yet-to-be-constructed
19
MRH-Jun 2013
