Avast Ye Lubbers, a new wind powered inspection car for the pizza

[vsmith]

Arrgg! Ye Monkey Crew!

New for the pizza, a inspection car that doesn't need coal or gasoline to get around, instead using a sail instead.

Its a Stomper drive, on a basswood frame with an HLW gondola body, the rest is basswood dowels and whatever stuff I could find lying around, the nameplate is an old part from a long dismantled AMT General kit, the belaying pins are small pop rivets, the pulley blocks are scratched from basswood and the sails are tissue paper stiffened with white glue.


Believe it or not this has been done many times around the world,

Examples from the real world:

http://www.copsewood.org/ng_rly/sailbogie/sailbogie.htm

http://www.douglas-self.com/MUSEUM/LOCOLOCO/sail/sail.htm

Perhaps the most widely known version was from "Around The World In 80 Days"

http://www.widescreenmuseum.com/widescreen/popmech_80days_4.htm


Condensed building log to follow:

 

[vsmith]

Quick building log:

Basic chassis, HLW gondola, bass and some balsa wood, some leftover wood trim, and the stomper drive:

Mast added:

Seats added:

Painted, wood stained, belaying pins and stanchions added, beginning rigging:

The main yard is actually a cheap wooden paint brush handle, I pried off the brush, sanded it clean and stained it, lug sail added, rigging well underway:

The name is a leftover from a model kit of the General, if anyone asks, it called the General because of a disagreement in the Borracho Locomotive Works crews, one faction of Johnny Rebs wanted to call it the General Lee, but the Yankee's in the Works wanted to call it the General Grant, in an attempt to quell the dispute the foreman suggested calling it the General Patton, finally the President tired of the intrigue, declared, "its gonna be called The General, and you can add whatever the hell name you want to afterwords yourself"

 

[bobg]

Most suitable for Pugwash, I'd have thought.

 

[garrymartin]

Such things are of course not unknown in suitable area's. Here is an example from the Spurn Point Railway in East Yorkshire.

 

[Neil Robinson]

Deleted, duplicated information.

 

[stockers]

I believe the Swansea and Mubbles also used wind power amongst the 7 methods of propulsion its used in its life.

 

[Rhinochugger]

The 2 ft gauge railway in the Falklands (Stanley Harbour) also had a sail powered wagon

 

[Madman]

Uh, er, Vic, I thought you said wind powered. Whats the battery for? :thinking:
How about using the battery to power a fan to blow into the sail?

 

[trammayo]

Very Emmet! Like it I suppose you could include a plank too (for fare dodgers).

 

[KeithT]

Wind power? Call for Fred. Wind spreading slowly from the Waist.

 

[JRinTawa]

Cute.
Vic, can you give us some more info on the Stomper drive please.

 

[themole]

Very good, Why not build some baked bean tankers next? Alyn

 

[GJFREESTONE]

hi
your attention to detail on the rigging is very good i have seen the replica on the ffestiniog running along the cob .nice to build something different ( imagination is a wonderfull thing)
graham shrewsbury

 

[vsmith]

Cute.
Vic, can you give us some more info on the Stomper drive please.

Stompers were a series of battery powered toy off road 4x4 cars that first appeared back in the late 80's early 90's, cash strapped early large scalers discovered if you could pull the big tires off their thick metal axles, and with very little work(boring out the axle hole a tad) replace them with plastic large scale wheels, and have a cheap drivetrain for small bashes. I came upon this concept late after official Stompers dissappeared, but found out they are still being made by Chinese companies and sold as various 4x4, construction or army vehicles. Though of late the ones I have found have thin metal axles and mounting the new wheels now requires a styrene tube shim, big pain to instal but for a $3 dollar drivetrain I won't complain

Stomper commercial from back in the day:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pko_iTP4sQ

Here is the first stomper bash I did, with full sized wheels:

Here is another full size wheel Stomper based bash:

The sail car shares a drive with another model railcar, it has smaller wheels so it rolls better on sharp curves, but I had to cut the gear housing so it will clear turnouts.

One thing, if you look at the motor mount, there is only one screw holding the drive in place, that because if you build it so, the drives are interchangable, so you can build 3 or 4 models that use the same drive-brick, all you need is to keep a screwdriver handy.

 

[JRinTawa]

Thanks Vic. Don't recall that toy out here, seems like it's breed some useful projects for you.