Very neat, Jeff!

Jeff,

What an inventive idea of recycling!  Not only is it "green" by recycling, it's low cost - what a combo!  Thanks for sharing.

Rick

Good Idea!

I have a similar chassis I have saved just because I thought it might have a use in model railroading.

I never thought of making a tranfer table drive though.  Good idea, thanks for sharing it.

One thing I wondered about.  Is the motor that moves the carriage a stepper?

Clever!

A very clever idea!

Charlie

Welcome

Welcone, Jeff. That is indeed a great idea. Are you indexing the transfer table in some way, or are you just going to eyeball the track? What type of control are you going to use? This idea might be great for an article. We love pictures of layouts. (Hint, hint.)

Roy

Thank you Rick, 14, Charlia

Thank you Rick, 14, Charlia and Roy for your kind comments.

It's not a stepped motor, so I've decided to go with an on/on DPDT switch for direction and a momentary push switch to run the motor, this way I will not burn it out, it's a 5.9v DC motor so it's proberly easier to power it by battery? I was going to stop it at each end with a micro SPDT switch but I'm not sure how to wire it up? Because it's 47mm between the tracks and the tracks are 65mm long I will be just able to use 3 connecting tracks.

Regards Jeff. willowcreekrr.site40.net/index.html

Transfer table indexing

Eons ago I made a sliding transfer table, (actually a 6 track sliding yard) and made an indexing gizmo out of a NO (normally open) micro switch with an arm with a wheel riding the edge of an aluminum channel. Filed rounded slots where I wanted the table to stop so the wheel on the switch would fall and stop the transfer motor. To compensate for variations (=sloppiness) I installed the approach track first and, after having the monstrosity working I put the tracks on the table exactly at each stop aligned with the approach. A pushbutton overrid the microswitch to star it going to the next rack. As the whole thing was under scenery neatness was not a priority.

Thanks.

You put a lot more work into the project than I have pipopak.

Regards Jeff.

Work

'Was younger then... (sigh!)

Update for those who are interested.

Here is an update on my transfer table for those who are interested.

Regards Jeff.

High lead

Looking forward to the finished scene, Jeff. What did you use for the high lead thread?

Roy

G'day Roy

G'day Roy, The thread on the high lead is there as a test to see if the Skyline will run down to where I want it to.

Oh, the thread is some industrial cotton that I use for whatever, It's a light brown and looks not too bad.

Regards Jeff.

G'day Jeff

Now you've got me started. This type of railroad equipment has me interested. I remembered I had put away 12 CD/DVD drives of this type that had been rejected due to faulty electronics. The motors and gearing all seem to be functional. On the drives I have (I just disassembled one today) the CD tray movement mechanism is in good shape and has about twice the travel distance of the head movement mechanism. Since the head movement mechanism traverses on a diagonal rod, rather than parallel, I will probably use the tray travel mechanism. This will require using a better guidance than in the drive itself, because the tray can move sideways just a little and may cause track alignment errors. There are two microswitch limiting switches I may need to reposition. I may not do too much with it soon, because I am changing over from a 4' x 4' layout to a modular layout similar to Scarpia's (I'll start with two 2' x 30 inch modules and use his Ikea Gorm shelving solution), although my RR is N scale.

Thanks for posting your project here - I think I'll have fun with mine.

G'day Bill...

G'day Bill, in my case it was " necessity is the mother of innovation", I hope you show us some pics when you build yours.

Regards Jeff.

Would one of these motors

Would one of these motors have enough torque to rotate with a large 6 axle HO locomotive on it? Like a modern diesel for instance?

G'day all, well my first post, I thought that some here may like to see my N Scale Transfer table that I have been building out of a DVD head unit,

I scrapped an unneeded DVD/CD Player that was given to me, as it was not Digital it was not of use to the owner anymore and was being thrown out.
Lots of little screws, cogs, 3 motors and lots of dodads that I can use later, but the prize was the slide table that moves the head that reads the DVD, It's 47mm between the tracks and the tracks are 65mm long.
I've decided to go with an on/on DPDT switch for direction and a momentary push switch to run the motor as it will travel from one end to the other with a micro SPDT switch at each end of the run to turn it off, I have tried it with my Consolidation 2-8-0 and tender and it moves nicely. It's far from being finished but we will get there. The cogs at the side will be covered over with a square of paper corrugated tin and a control cabin needs to be made, inside cogs ect will be painted black to hide them.

Regards Jeff. PS: My layout is placed in Australia, in the bush at a logging sawmill era 1929.