Not a whole lot of progress on the automata front this week. I spent a lot of time working the railroad this past weekend. Weather was really nice so visitors are starting to show up.

Anyway I did manage to get the excavator for "Call Before You Dig" close to done. I need to adjust the boom at the lower end to coordinate with a revised design of the gear train assembly. I also do not have an operator In the cab yet!
The dowel extension on the front corner is temporary!

Well, I got started on my new piece this week. Usually I'm fairly practical and work on the mechanism first but his time I could not resist starting with the top works. On the right is a photo of the arm of an excavator which is part of the piece. The boom is 1/2" wide and the bucket is about 2-1/2" long.

When completed the bucket will pivot and the arm tips giving it a reasonable digging motion. 

Spent a few days getting the leaf litter off the garden railway and doing the initial weeding. All-in-all things survived the winter fairly well. I had to do a little ballast repair but things were not in bad shape. The highlight of the annual opening  is donning the bathing suit and reinstalling the two submersible pumps in the lake that feed the railway ponds and rivers. If you are wondering if the water is still very cold - I'd say about three octaves cold!

The first train of 2012 ran this past weekend, a CP rail RS3 pulling a short haul boxcar and caboose. It could have been a lot sooner but the "Urban Terrorists" kept me busy in the wood shop.


While puttering away on the garden and working a few a few leftover automata bits, I was still able to start a little prototyping for my next original piece. It requires an excavator boom. In the photo you can see one of the prototypes hacked together from masonite. It is a worthwhile investment to make several mockups in that it allows me to see which adjustments make the motion most realistic and integrate with other parts of the piece. This one uses one rotating 1-1/2" disc with a pin running in a slot to move the boom and oversized 7/8" cap acting as a cam to move the bucket. Overall it gives a fairly realistic motion.