Choo Choo Charlie posted:Post 43
Automating the Manual Lionel 6-12774 Lumber Log Loader
Lionel Log Dumping car, a 9303 or 3451 are too low to be used to discharge logs to my Lionel 464 Saw Mill log feeding platform. Both 027 track and Saw 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 464 Lionel Saw Mill loading deck. Maybe not realistic but workable on my layout!
The fact I can now discharge logs from a coal car to the 464 Lionel Saw Mill makes me more interested in automating my manual Lionel 6-12774 Lumber /Log Loader. This will allow loading logs in a car and unloading the logs on to the feed platform of the 464 Lionel Saw Mill and then sawing the logs into lumber with the saw mill for double action tasks.
The small Lionel 6-12774 Log Loader 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 or haul the logs to the Log Loader 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 task was to glue the log loader 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 beams on the ends of the frame that holds up 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. 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, to jerk out the top half of the hinge to dump logs.
Picture showing solenoid and hinge in up position, J B Weld was used to hold the solenoid and hinge in the building; 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 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.
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.
Movie
Or go to the Youtube link below as my videos never work on OGR Forum !
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...amp;feature=youtu.be
Converting the manual Log Loader to automatic is an easy job, and the Log Loader is easy to reset and load and works every time.
Charlie
Charlie, I found this post but YouTube link didn’t work
