Photo of my most recent Disney project - Monorail

[idrivealumina]

 

[hakepb]

That is too cool!

And a nice wide angle shot, too

 

[mamaCta]

My husband has always dreamed of being able to do that.

 

[cjstarr]

Way to cool, my DS has been wanting one also.

 

[boBQuincy]

Sweet layout and a really cool point of view for the photo! Was this a "camera on a stick" photo (an idea I am thinking of trying for getting photos over people's heads) ?

Here is what we do when the landowner (DW) does not grant right of way for a large monorail layout... less monorail! Not a good photo and you can see my messy workbench but it gets the idea across.

It runs on radio control. I am working on a N scale layout of DisneyTowne station where the monorail and railroad come in on opposite sides of the platform.

 

[idrivealumina]

Thank you all very much. I had been thinking about this recently, and just decided to do it. I love having these for running around the Christmas tree, but having it up for a month or so was not enough.

boBQuincy, I actually had the camera on my tripod for this picture. I would love to hear/see more of the N scale set up. Do you have a website or another thread. In my searching the boards for monorail stuff, I seem to have run across a picture of the N scale monorail. Seems monorail info is somewhat scarce anyhow. Please let me know.

IDAL

 

[Pooh2]

Very cool!

 

[boBQuincy]

boBQuincy, I actually had the camera on my tripod for this picture. I would love to hear/see more of the N scale set up. Do you have a website or another thread. In my searching the boards for monorail stuff, I seem to have run across a picture of the N scale monorail. Seems monorail info is somewhat scarce anyhow. Please let me know.

IDAL

Do you really drive a Lumina, and what type?
To avoid boring the rest of the group I am sending you a PM about my monorails. The website is: http://monorail.suzieandbob.com/index.html
Search on "n scale monorail" and my site usually is one of the first listed, there are not many of these out there.

True, there is not much about monorails. I am in touch with a few others with "single track minds" and we share information.

 

[KCmike]

Ha Ha. Great shot and what a fun toy to have. I feel if I were alone and had no wife and kids I might really geek out on all things Disney.

 

[Experiment_626]

Do you really drive a Lumina, and what type?
To avoid boring the rest of the group I am sending you a PM about my monorails. The website is: http://monorail.suzieandbob.com/index.html
Search on "n scale monorail" and my site usually is one of the first listed, there are not many of these out there.

Bob! I was just looking at your site a few days ago without having any idea that it was you. Didn't know we had any other model builders here. I'm a mostly sci-fi modeler and not so much on model trains per se, but I was trying to research the feasibility of turning Disney's larger-scale monorail toy into a serious model — accurizing it, as we say. I was able to determine that, at minimum, I'd need to buy two trains and cannibalize them into one to match an actual WDW monorail (because the real thing has an additional passenger car as compared with the toy), and it would likely result in a static model. Not sure I'm up for trying to make one that could still run.

SSB

 

[boBQuincy]

Bob! I was just looking at your site a few days ago without having any idea that it was you. Didn't know we had any other model builders here. I'm a mostly sci-fi modeler and not so much on model trains per se, but I was trying to research the feasibility of turning Disney's larger-scale monorail toy into a serious model — accurizing it, as we say. I was able to determine that, at minimum, I'd need to buy two trains and cannibalize them into one to match an actual WDW monorail (because the real thing has an additional passenger car as compared with the toy), and it would likely result in a static model. Not sure I'm up for trying to make one that could still run.

SSB

Yep, same bobquincy, who else builds radio control N scale monorails ?
I asked the Disboards moderators for a modeling forum but they must have not thought there was enough interest to create one. There are some websites that are for Disney modelers and others that have some Disney modeling threads: Burnsland and HobbyTalk have some content and :
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/disneyworldmodelersclub/
has a lot of interesting ideas.

C'mon, don't give up with a static model, make that monorail run like Disney intended!

Photography content: my DisneyTown station diorama will be used for photos and video of my models.

 

[Experiment_626]

Yep, same bobquincy, who else builds radio control N scale monorails ?

Well, I was just looking at the content —
I didn't pay attention to names at the time. I was looking to see whether anyone had tried to do what I have in mind. Haven't found them, if so.

I asked the Disboards moderators for a modeling forum but they must have not thought there was enough interest to create one. There are some websites that are for Disney modelers and others that have some Disney modeling threads: Burnsland and HobbyTalk have some content and :
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/disneyworldmodelersclub/
has a lot of interesting ideas.

I'll check that last. I've been an active member of Hobbytalk for 11 years, but have mostly haunted their sci-fi and movies boards. Which forum there do you think would be most helpful?

C'mon, don't give up with a static model, make that monorail run like Disney intended!

While that has a certain appeal, I don't have any place to put such a thing even if I could build it. And the truth is I'm much more interested in making a model that's as accurate as I can make it than in one that moves under its own power (though I might consider giving it working lights if I could find a way to simulate the strobes …). My dream would be to make an accurate model on a similarly accurate beam —
probably scratch-built, as I think the track used by the toy is too narrow — on a base with a sound board which would play "Please stand clear of the doors; por favor mantenganse alejado de las puertas." But I'll settle for accurate in appearance!

Photography content: my DisneyTown station diorama will be used for photos and video of my models.

That will be refreshing. I swear I'll go bonkers the next time I click a link to see someone's photo of details they built into a model, only to encounter a blurry mess. Back up enough to get proper focus and then crop! How can I be expected to admire details when I can't see them!?

Scott

 

[boBQuincy]

Well, I was just looking at the content —
I didn't pay attention to names at the time. I was looking to see whether anyone had tried to do what I have in mind. Haven't found them, if so.
I'll check that last. I've been an active member of Hobbytalk for 11 years, but have mostly haunted their sci-fi and movies boards. Which forum there do you think would be most helpful?
While that has a certain appeal, I don't have any place to put such a thing even if I could build it. And the truth is I'm much more interested in making a model that's as accurate as I can make it than in one that moves under its own power (though I might consider giving it working lights if I could find a way to simulate the strobes …). My dream would be to make an accurate model on a similarly accurate beam —
probably scratch-built, as I think the track used by the toy is too narrow — on a base with a sound board which would play "Please stand clear of the doors; por favor mantenganse alejado de las puertas." But I'll settle for accurate in appearance!
That will be refreshing. I swear I'll go bonkers the next time I click a link to see someone's photo of details they built into a model, only to encounter a blurry mess. Back up enough to get proper focus and then crop! How can I be expected to admire details when I can't see them!?

Scott

We might have to take this offline or to another board before we get busted, but...

Here is a supplier that does pretty convincing strobes:
http://www.miniatronics.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=2_6

HobbyTalk's Model Railroading forum has a thread titled "Monorails, anyone?". The poster named WBNemo1 is a Jungle Cruise skipper at WDW who has done 3D printed monorails.

Disney's model has a strange shaped beam (to make the model cheaper, I believe), it is kind of a truncated triangle on top of a rectangle. Someone on Monorails.org made a scale Disneyland beam for it and then of course the model could not run anymore. However, I have CAD drawings of a mechanism that fits in the model and runs on a rectangular beam exactly to scale for WDW. I even made some beam from vinyl molding. For power rails try code 55 model railroad rail, it looks pretty close.

The sound board in the model could be put in the base and connected to a larger speaker, it would probably sound good.

boB