@dkdkrd posted:Well, my comment was regarding the motor's use with a rotating radar screen...no light.
I'm right there with you on how to apply a nice motor drive to a beacon. That ol' bulb/LED in the center is the bugaboo. Some sort of off-center gear drive, with a crown or ring gear on the beacon top, maybe? I dunno...I always end up going to the beer/wine fridge to get some think-drink...hoping the lightbulb bubble will turn on! So far...
But, then, the lubrication has always been rewarding in itself.
Actually, as I mentioned in another thread re the beacons, the one solution I saw on a tour of layouts re the dimpled bulb (394) version of the beacon tower reliability/operation was clever enough. A cheap-o clip-on miniature personal fan attached to the ceiling grid over the layout, carefully pointed toward the beacon to provide just enough breeze to keep the top spinning...satisfactorily.
I've also modified a 394 beacon tower to replace the center metal wire running from the base to the top platform with a small metal tube. Providing some seals here and there, drilling some holes in the beacon base casting, I can keep the lamp lit while gently blowing from the bottom of the tube. In fact, the first time I did that with a can of compressed air (for blowing dust off your keyboard, et al.), I actually LAUNCHED the vane-topped beacon straight up into the workbench light!!
(Found out my septuagenarian reflexes weren't so bad after all!!) Set the whole thing aside as a 2-do when finally establishing its location on the layout, then coming up with a practical, silent, regulated air source. (Hmmm, maybe the spare tire in the shed could find a useful 2nd life!)
Tell you what. If I figure out a way to use that nifty Faller AC motor with the beacon, I'll let you know.
FWIW...
KD
BTW...Never took pictures of the Disney radar tower with motor-drive. I'll have my loving wife...and photographer/computer geek (who, prior to our marriage owned her own Cessna 172, had an instructor's license...let her medicals lapse when the plane was sold...and I came along!
...and found her to be an enthusiastic co-hobbyist!!!
Thanks for the info.......Yes, that dimpled bulb worked great, from Marx to Lionel it never failed.
