Ballasting wagon

1352 Views 2 Replies 3 Participants Last post by Dale_the_Noob, Sep 5, 2008

upnick

Discussion Starter · Sep 5, 2008

Hi all,
After considering the ballasting on the layout i am contemplating making a ballast wagon (a large american hopper is ideal to carry a good amount of ballast) to distribute it evenly over the track and have some kind of whacker to shake the ballast down before fixing in another wagon following it.
Has anyone an idea how i could create this action to cause a vibration enough to settle the ballast but not derail the wagon, it doesnt have to be powered wagon from the track as a battery or similar supply could be used on wires.

Know this is only an idea but it would save a lot of sprinkling and create a uniform finish ready for the PVA mix.

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harkins77

· #2 · Sep 5, 2008

Nick I've been thinking about this and there is one way I was thinking why not fill the wagon with ballast and the easiest way to create a natural settling would be to say bang your hand firmly but not too much on the frame of the layout near to where the wagon goes but you would only be able to do a small area at a time.

If you ever had a playstation they had a rumble system in the controllers that gave the effect of say going on the grass or gravel when you use it on a driving game. I think the idea is based on something spinning in the handle on a spindle. But with the layout being in N gauge it is going to be very hard to get the desired vibration to pass through to the wagon.

the other way would be to get a small motor and imbalance the shaft and put some weight on 1 side to make it vibrate.

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Dale_the_Noob

· #3 · Sep 5, 2008

QUOTE (harkins77 @ 5 Sep 2008, 20:34) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>If you ever had a playstation they had a rumble system in the controllers that gave the effect of say going on the grass or gravel when you use it on a driving game. I think the idea is based on something spinning in the handle on a spindle. But with the layout being in N gauge it is going to be very hard to get the desired vibration to pass through to the wagon.

the other way would be to get a small motor and imbalance the shaft and put some weight on 1 side to make it vibrate.

The easiest way to create something shaking is to use a speaker with AC power. The ac power will make the speaker move at 50Hz (240v mains frequency). By adding mass to the moving part of the speaker it will make the object it is attached more likely to move.

Another very simple method is if you have a home AV system with a subwoofer or a pair of speakers which produce decent bass and placed one of these on your baseboard and played some bass heavy music, this will cause vibrations across the baseboard

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