Hope your doing well. I have found what others may find really useful in an old VCR I tore apart.
That silent worm gear with motor in there. This is a silent gear and runs very slowly.
This motor is the perfect worm gear to set up a engine turn table. It has to be silent as it is in a VCR. Here is a photo of it.
That gear the worm turns, can have a short post attached to it and up threw the table to a turn table.
Also its a very strong motor to use say a track cleaner or other projects.
The other pieces found in the VCR as well can use them as car loads. sort of remind me of that atom smasher they have in the ground.VCR is a thing of the pass but holds some good recyclable stuff in there.
Gives others ideas right. so what ya think Al.”
“My name is Mardon Callanta from Manila, Philippines.
35yrs ago, I experienced my first train set – a Tyco HO Amtrak set bought in San Francisco while we were there vacationing.
Since we dont have hobby train stuff here in the Philippines – it took me 4yrs of summer vacationing in the USA to gather various tracks and building kits.
My mom lent me her table tennis ping-pong table to set up my HO set and everything was really crude – just a bag of lichen and wire for trees, crudely painted grey on the table to represent roads, a white styrofoam mountain that looked more like a building structure than a mountain, a few unpainted building kits and the tracks themselves.
Thats about the totality of my train experience back then. This lasted for a couple of years, then everything was boxed for good. I think that box was thrown out by one of our maids back then.
35yrs later, I started to go back and try model railroading again. I went for N scale, so layouts could be smaller than HO – and also because I dont have ample space for a 4’x8′ layout anymore.
I started looking into Japanese N scale last March 2013 and got hooked by subscribing into JNSforum – a forum for people modeling Japanese scenery, buildings, etc. Kato became my brand of choice for my tracks and trains which really have an abundance in choosing my concept.
I would like to share with you my first decent layout after getting back into model railroads again.
Its been 35yrs since I’ve owned anything related to model railroading, so please excuse my meager attempt.
I enjoyed your website and have been inspired about doing a small railroad layout and hopefully share to your subscribers as well.
This 30″ x 48″ layout is called Byodo-In 360! The Byodo-In temple became my focal point because of how it was situated like an island around a pond.
My design concept was to replicate the walking path of the actual temple in Uji, Japan – but using train tracks. It is still under construction and it seems there are still many details to add.
Here are some pics and a youtube video (please pardon the poor quality of the video)
As promised I have now done the outstanding sections of the scenic area on Diano Marina, so the layout now at least looks complete, if never “finished”.
The campsite area seemed huge when there was nothing on it, but turned out quite cramped in the end. It was also the last bare ‘working space’ that could be used for cutting, glueing, etc so I’m missing it already.
The station building needs a canopy and various details and I’m waiting for some more little palm trees, but it has filled the gaping hole that used to annoy my better half! Next job is signage and laps but I’m reluctant to add more stuff that blocks hand access just yet.
I have been experimenting with a couple of different track-cleaning vehicles under the wires, without tremendous success, and I read recently a claim that the high-frequency electronic cleaners don’t really remove any dirt, just jump it electrically, and would fry the chips of any digital loco used on the DC layout. Any suggestions?
Rod”
If you’ve missed Kim’s amazing track cleaners – look here first.
“One of your members asked about my motorized scrubber for N scale.
Okay here is the best I came up with, not having any N scale pieces – only a piece of track I think is N scale.
The cardboard is a fake car sort of. That is a RC mini motor. I got 5 in a pack from ebay for I think $2 or 3.
I test ran it with a half drained phone battery at 2.7 volts. Ran well and can add pressure enough to clean very well.
Being so small could do with two running in different direction’s. Mount in an old or new dummy loco or car.pad is the same principale as the Ho scale.When the pad is done pop it off add a new pad pop it back on.
So what you think Al? Think it will pass lol. And these motors have to face hole’s for screws.no bracket.
Kim”
“Hi Al this is the one I have done to show the layout and trains running before I start the big change…
