Post 43 9/4/2017 edited 3-29-2023
Automating the Manual Lionel 6-12774 Lumber Log Loader Building to allow moving logs from Mountain to Lionel 464 Lumber Mill (revised 3-29-2023)
Lionel Log Dumping car, a 9303 or 3451 are too low to be used to discharge logs to my Lionel 464 Lumber Mill log feeding platform. Both 027 track and Lumber Mill are at grade. I have found a Lionel Coal Dumping car, 9304 or 16600 are high enough and can be used to dump logs to the Lionel 464 Lionel Lumber Mill loading deck. Maybe not realistic but workable on my layout!
The fact I can now discharge logs from a coal car to the Lionel 464 Lumber Mill makes me more interested in automating my manual Lionel 6-12774 Lumber /Log Loader. This will allow loading logs from my wooded mountain, in a car and unloading the logs on to the feed platform of the Lionel 464 Lumber Mill and then sawing the logs into lumber with the saw mill for double action tasks.
The small Lionel 6-12774 Log Loader Building fits well adjacent to my mountain, next to my automated coal mine. The coal mine was kitbashed from a Bachmann, Coal Station 1975, on page 2, in Post 15 here. I think the loggers on my mountain drag, roll or haul the logs to the Log Loader from the mountain so space is not needed to transport the logs from grade to be loaded into a car like the fancier Lionel 164 and 364 Log Loaders.
Well, with the rainy weather from Hurricane Harvey I had some inside time to automate the Lionel 6-12774 log loader.
The first task was to glue the Log Loader Building kit building together and reinforce the building shell with corner braces and more plastic on the flimsy front where the logs are stored. I will use the small wooden logs from the Lionel 464 Saw Mill instead of the cheap hollow plastic logs that came with the log loader kit.
Next I added some reinforcing beams on the legs holing the log loader building to take the wobble out. The building will be heavier now with an automation mechanism. I used hard balsa wood and 5 min epoxy glue.
I had a Radio Shack 12 VDC solenoid on hand from a long time ago. I added a Radio Shack 4 amp full wave bridge rectifier to change it to 12 VAC operation. I doubt if RS has them anymore but junk O gauge switches have two 12 VAC solenoids that one could possibly use for this purpose and eBay has similar solenoids from China.
The next issue to figure out is how to make the solenoid dump the logs. The original tilted the bottom of the building to let the log roll out. I lost the device that came with the kit to make the logs dump. All that is needed is a way to knock out a prop that keep the floor and logs from rolling out. The prop is used to flatten the tilt of the log table to hold the logs. The prop must be knocked out to let the bottom tilt. I decided to make a tilting prop mechanism from a small hinge. Since I did not have one, I made a hinge out of two small pieces of pipe strap.
Picture of the homemade hinge
The hinge will be straightened out with a pull on a short piece of string and the logs will be loaded by removing the roof.
The solenoid would just pull another string, on the top half of the hinge, when activated. That will jerk out the top half of the hinge to the dump logs.
Picture showing solenoid and hinge in up position, J B Weld was used to hold the solenoid and hinge in the building; the white cord is keep solenoid piston from coming out. 
The roof was glued together and bracing added to hold the roof angle as it will be removed and reinstalled often.
Picture shows cord to reset the hinge prop to UP position
Picture: Note braces in corners and 1/2 inch black base foundation added to bottom feet due car being too high to dump into.
I added flood lights to the corners of the log loader building to illuminate the car being loaded and the inside of the building. Mini Christmas tree lights and sockets were used with aluminum flashing for reflectors. I used two 7 v bulbs in series to lengthen bulb life with 12 v lighting transformer. Adjusting the amount of bulb sticking in the building allows some light to stay in building. The Log Loader is not anchored down to allow moving to be the proper distance from the Log Loader to the railcar to be loaded.
I added some light weight card board to the log tilting rack to keep light from going to bottom of the bottom exposed log loader building. 
Video of operation is above or or go to the Youtube link below as my videos sometimes do not work on OGR Forum !
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...amp;feature=youtu.be
Converting the manual Log Loader Building to be automatic and remotely operated is an easy job, and the Log Loader Building is easy to reset and load and works every time.
This is a much cheaper and less space consuming log loader than the Lionel 164 or Lionel 364 log loaders but these two will take logs after being dumped from a log dumping car at grade and raising they via chain lift or up a ramp by belt to be dumped into another car.
Charlie
