Raleigh Mercier writes
. .. . . . . I have seen only one scale layout that did anything more than
shuffle cars and that was Frank Titman's old D&W located on Arch Street (I
believe). He built an operating coal mine that had a tumbler mechanism that
contained exactly one hopper load of coal (real coal, not the plastic stuff).
The filled cars were then run down to the river where they were dumped into a
barge (actually a concealed funnel that channeled the coal down to a bucket
under the layout for reloading into the mine building. A No. 752 "Seaboard Coal
Loader" in disguise I'd say!
> > > > > > > >
I would guess that Raleigh did not participate at a certain major S scale
modular set-up several years back, was it Valley Forge, Pittsburgh, or where I
don't remember. It was a Train Show connected with an NMRA national
convention. But the following is intended to support his premise.
We had a very large, all scale, layout, consisting of modules from many clubs
and individuals. My module was there, maybe yours too. On one of the
branches of this great modular railroad Doug Miller had a module that featured
an operating rotary coal car dumper. It really worked. One person had to
there constantly, operating it. The coal hoppers, AF with scale trucks &
couplers, American Models, SHS, whatever, one at a time, were uncoupled, pushed
up a ramp, run into a device which grabbed hold of the car and rotated it and
dumped the coal into a barge in the river below. (I hope that's right; it was
years ago.) Whether real or simulated coal I don't remember. Doug had made
the rotary dumper from copy machine gears and other miscellaneous parts, and
was at one time selling them.
Dave Wehrwein, a friend and neighbor of mine, still recalls with pleasure and
pride the hours he spent operating that dumper at the train show, and the 3-4
person-deep group that was constantly gathered around that module, watching the
cars being rotated and dumped. And Dave is a real SCALE modeller, has no use
for toy trains.
All of which is intended to say Raleigh's right, we in "scale" could use some
realistic operating accessories.
Tom Hawley -- Lansing Mich
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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