Has Anyone Built a Computer Controlled Model Railroad
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This has always been an interest of mine and I thought that it would be super fun to have a model railroad that was totally automated so that it was more like a living scene, I don't like running trains or anything. Automation would make it so much more fun and a great learning thing for the kids. Just seems like a really fun project.
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I haven't but I was thinking of making one but mounting it to the wall as a living painting
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@wirestyle22 said in Has Anyone Built a Computer Controlled Model Railroad:
I haven't but I was thinking of making one but mounting it to the wall as a living painting
How would the trains cling to it?
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@scottalanmiller said in Has Anyone Built a Computer Controlled Model Railroad:
@wirestyle22 said in Has Anyone Built a Computer Controlled Model Railroad:
I haven't but I was thinking of making one but mounting it to the wall as a living painting
How would the trains cling to it?
Magnetic rails? Are those a thing? I'm assuming they are
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@wirestyle22 said in Has Anyone Built a Computer Controlled Model Railroad:
@scottalanmiller said in Has Anyone Built a Computer Controlled Model Railroad:
@wirestyle22 said in Has Anyone Built a Computer Controlled Model Railroad:
I haven't but I was thinking of making one but mounting it to the wall as a living painting
How would the trains cling to it?
Magnetic rails? Are those a thing? I'm assuming they are
No, they are definitely not. I have no idea if magnets that strong are even possible, if they are they are certainly not affordable. That would cost hundreds of thousands. Pushing physics to the absolute limits.
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@scottalanmiller said in Has Anyone Built a Computer Controlled Model Railroad:
@wirestyle22 said in Has Anyone Built a Computer Controlled Model Railroad:
@scottalanmiller said in Has Anyone Built a Computer Controlled Model Railroad:
@wirestyle22 said in Has Anyone Built a Computer Controlled Model Railroad:
I haven't but I was thinking of making one but mounting it to the wall as a living painting
How would the trains cling to it?
Magnetic rails? Are those a thing? I'm assuming they are
No, they are definitely not. I have no idea if magnets that strong are even possible, if they are they are certainly not affordable. That would cost hundreds of thousands. Pushing physics to the absolute limits.
Are they that heavy? I was thinking something very small. Just an idea.
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@wirestyle22 said in Has Anyone Built a Computer Controlled Model Railroad:
@scottalanmiller said in Has Anyone Built a Computer Controlled Model Railroad:
@wirestyle22 said in Has Anyone Built a Computer Controlled Model Railroad:
@scottalanmiller said in Has Anyone Built a Computer Controlled Model Railroad:
@wirestyle22 said in Has Anyone Built a Computer Controlled Model Railroad:
I haven't but I was thinking of making one but mounting it to the wall as a living painting
How would the trains cling to it?
Magnetic rails? Are those a thing? I'm assuming they are
No, they are definitely not. I have no idea if magnets that strong are even possible, if they are they are certainly not affordable. That would cost hundreds of thousands. Pushing physics to the absolute limits.
Are they that heavy? I was thinking something very small.
I take it you've never used a model railroad before? Those things are made of brass and have motors in them. Motors aren't light. That's a big chunk of metal hanging an inch off of the wall. And you'd need these super magnets to hold itty bitty wheels as their only connection point and not interfere with the motors just millimeters away.
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@scottalanmiller said in Has Anyone Built a Computer Controlled Model Railroad:
@wirestyle22 said in Has Anyone Built a Computer Controlled Model Railroad:
@scottalanmiller said in Has Anyone Built a Computer Controlled Model Railroad:
@wirestyle22 said in Has Anyone Built a Computer Controlled Model Railroad:
@scottalanmiller said in Has Anyone Built a Computer Controlled Model Railroad:
@wirestyle22 said in Has Anyone Built a Computer Controlled Model Railroad:
I haven't but I was thinking of making one but mounting it to the wall as a living painting
How would the trains cling to it?
Magnetic rails? Are those a thing? I'm assuming they are
No, they are definitely not. I have no idea if magnets that strong are even possible, if they are they are certainly not affordable. That would cost hundreds of thousands. Pushing physics to the absolute limits.
Are they that heavy? I was thinking something very small.
I take it you've never used a model railroad before? Those things are made of brass and have motors in them. Motors aren't light. That's a big chunk of metal hanging an inch off of the wall. And you'd need these super magnets to hold itty bitty wheels as their only connection point and not interfere with the motors just millimeters away.
Not since I was a very small child.
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The smaller the railroad, the smaller the rails. Z Scale is the lightest, but their rails are like the size of paperclip wire. Not much magnetic potential in something so small. And their wheels are like specs.
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Also remember that wheels have a single point of contact. It's not a flat bottom with loads of contact surface.
Have you ever seen anything like this anywhere? Like, I can't even imagine an example of something similar that would make you feel like such a thing was physically possible.
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Also, think about train motors. They struggle with even a 3% grade. But going on a wall would mean hitting 100% grades all of the time. Even if you could tackle the magic of getting it cling to the wall, you'd also have to tackle the motor problem. You'd need at least 10x the motors of current model trains to pull even a tiny train up the wall.
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LOL - It could be done, but you'd have to change the whole thing.. instead of the motor being in the train, you could have a single moving track down the middle of the tracks. That track would be powered by a motor in the board/landscape. That single central track could have pins sticking out of it with magnets that would attach to the bottom of the cars. It would completely change the drivetrain, but it should be possible.
not sure you could get any track switching to happen though...
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Yeah I'm sure I'm wrong. Just an idea. Would be cool if you could pull it off somehow
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@Dashrender said in Has Anyone Built a Computer Controlled Model Railroad:
LOL - It could be done, but you'd have to change the whole thing.. instead of the motor being in the train, you could have a single moving track down the middle of the tracks. That track would be powered by a motor in the board/landscape. That single central track could have pins sticking out of it with magnets that would attach to the bottom of the cars. It would completely change the drivetrain, but it should be possible.
not sure you could get any track switching to happen though...
You could do it, but not with realistic tracks. You'd need something attached to the wall that held the train. You'd not have it really looking like a train when it was all done.
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@wirestyle22 said in Has Anyone Built a Computer Controlled Model Railroad:
Yeah I'm sure I'm wrong. Just an idea. Would be cool if you could pull it off somehow
You could do it with a monorail
They grip the center rail. -
You could wall mount a scene, but not with moving trains.
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Funny you mention this, I was just thinking about it the other day. When I was a kid my dad built a train set on a table (about 8' x 6'). N-scale I believe. All electric that went back to levers and buttons to control switches, train speed, etc.... The legs detached so it could be easily rested up on it's side and stored.
You could rig up something like that to a raspberry pi?
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@TAHIN said in Has Anyone Built a Computer Controlled Model Railroad:
Funny you mention this, I was just thinking about it the other day. When I was a kid my dad built a train set on a table (about 8' x 6'). N-scale I believe. All electric that went back to levers and buttons to control switches, train speed, etc.... The legs detached so it could be easily rested up on it's side and stored.
You could rig up something like that to a raspberry pi?
In theory, yeah. There are very few good projects around this. My dad did HO and I did N all through my childhood. I have a lot of N stuff now, too. I'd love to get into it with my kids, but I hate operating them. I like the modeling and making scenes and having it come to life.
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Here is a pic of the table I had about ten or fifteen years ago.
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It would definitely take some creative thinking and a lot of motors! Ideas are endless though, you could script out an entire episode of Thomas and Friends ha
