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Al's Automata Blog

New Hodderville Platform Installed

8/8/2012

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This past weekend I reconstructed the platform for the Hodderville station. It is 34 inches long and 4" wide. The figures are made from cast lead.They were acquired from another railroad enthusiast. In order to keep the raccoon, mink, and other mysterious night visitors from toppling the waiting passengers they are screwed to the platform!

The platform is also lit with three light standards for night time operations.
Picture
Picture
Now if only a passenger train would come along these folks might be a little happier. The life of a G scale platform figurine requires almost infinite patience and endurance!


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Who will help me mill the grain said the little red hen?

8/1/2012

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Well, what seemed like should be a simple project just kept on stretching! Here is the finished Mill building waiting for transport to the South Bay Railroad. What started as a new  creek lead to to a 25 foot sluice, a working waterwheel, a stone foundation made with real stones, a scratch-built mill building shown here, and a new mill pond and waterfall.  Well the only thing left is to add the lights and glue a few more rocks in the river and it's done.  Needless to say I have  spent a lot more time on this project than i had planned, but it is a hit with females guests to the railroad.

I'll post a photo next week after i assemble the fi
Picture
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Alan Creek

6/28/2012

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A tenacious ground ivy forced me to reconsider some landscaping on the South Bay Railway this month. Once you get started, things just seem to happen. The result is a new river on the layout. The Alan Creek when finished will be about 16 feet long and flow into a wooden sluiceway that is about another 16 feet long and will turn a water wheel on a mill before splashing into the existing St. John River on another part of the layout.

This photo is the headwater of the creek, a place that will be known as Flat Rock Springs where the water bubbles up from inside a piece of shale before running down the creek. I hope to complete the river portion this weekend and replant the construction area.

Needless to say while this is going on the automata work is getting dusty.
Picture
The birth of a creek
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Horseshoes Under the Trestle

6/12/2012

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It seems the first few hot days have barely arrived this year and the boys are already playing horseshoes!  They didn't even take the time to cut the grass on the pitch. Unfortunately not everyone has the day off. The engineer of the passing mail train looks down enviously from atop the trestle.

When I was a child my grandfather had a cottage at Thurstonia Park on Sturgeon Lake in the Kawarthas. Every time I hear horseshoes clank I remember fondly those summer days when you could hear the sound of men playing horseshoes at the hotel ringing down the shoreline.

I am contemplating adding a stream to the South Bay layout to add a little more interest.


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Spring is here - maybe!

5/8/2012

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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.
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First 2012 weeding. The plants are starting to show life?
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A mockup of a possible excavator arm
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    Why Automata?

    Automata is a creative blend of my life interests , engineering, art  and woodworking. 

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Conquergood Creative
Home     Contact    About   
  • Automata Blog
  • Home
  • Tubing The River Styx
  • DJ's Bee Bop Palooza
    • Roles of Bees in a Hive
    • The Bee Bop Characters
  • Automata Gallery
    • Swimming With The Dolphins
    • A Boat, A Boy, And A Dog
    • The Invisible Audiophile
    • Black Bear Bliss
    • Parking Lot Wars
    • The Chase
    • Baa Baa Bad Sheep! >
      • Baa Baa Bad Sheep Photo Gallery
    • The Penguins' Revenge
    • Cirque de Poulet
    • I'm Thinking & Laura
    • The Bipolar Brain
    • Tempest in a Teacup
    • Inner Demon
    • Sewer Rat Symphony >
      • Musican Profiles
    • The Captive
    • Bored Out of My Skin
    • Waiting at the Clinic
    • The Diagnosis
    • Snowbirds
    • The Not So Early Bird - The Common Sleptin
    • 1 HP Heart Pump
    • The Trojan Cat
    • 7-1/2 Horsepower
    • Howdy!
    • The Bus Stop
    • Rhinoceros Racing
    • It's an Uphill Battle
    • When an MRI Goes Badly
    • A Moment of Silence
    • Who Slew the Chicken?
    • The Dentist's Office
    • Owl Hijinx
    • Horse of a Different Colour >
      • Horse of a Different Colour Features & Specs
      • Horse of a Different Colour Photo Gallery
    • March of the Penguins
    • The Extraction >
      • The Extraction Media Gallery
    • Poultry in Motion
    • School's Out!
    • Pond Life >
      • Pond Life Photo Gallery
    • Rat Co. >
      • Rat Co. Employee Profiles
      • Rat Co. Photo Gallery
    • Happy Birthday Daddy! >
      • Happy Features & Specs
      • Happy Birthday Photo Gallery
    • The Raving Fans
    • The Waiting Room >
      • Waiting Room Photo Gallery
    • Cottage Cabernet
    • Neighbourhood Watch
    • Check Please!
    • Fishing >
      • Fishing Photo Gallery
      • The Mechanism
      • Brutus the Catfish
      • Crawford the Crayfish
      • Bigmouth the Largemouth Bass
      • Buddy the Chocolate Lab
      • Gertrude and Heathcliff
    • Ian's African Lion Safari
    • Call Before You Dig >
      • Features & Specs
    • Crossing The Mara >
      • Features & Specs
    • Migrating Caribou >
      • Features & Specs
    • Rocket Pack Raccoon
    • Urban Terrorists >
      • Exploring the Urban Terrorists
      • Features & Specs
    • Top Gun
    • Miss Communication
    • Hula Hoop Girl
    • Java Jane
    • The Cranky Caterpillar
    • A Case in Point...
    • The Leafs Score!
    • Enough With The Fish!
  • Learning Centre
  • Automata Store
  • Workshop Tour!
    • Sanding
    • Drilling
    • Cutting
    • Measurement
    • Carving Tools
    • Hand Tools
    • Working With Brass
    • Work & Assembly Areas
  • Mechanisms, Tip & Tricks
    • The Why and How Of It!
  • Who Am I?
    • Making Automata
  • Contact Me
  • In The News
  • Links
  • The South Bay Railway
    • Murray's Mill
    • Rivers, Creeks & Ponds
    • Early Days Photo Gallery
    • Layout Photo Gallery
    • Layout
  • Totems
  • Some Other Small Projects
    • Misc Projects
  • Driving Home for Christmas
    • Designing the Float
    • A Penguin Prototype
    • The Human Flock
    • The Float Penguins
    • The Float Video
  • Members Page