When Trains Fly in the Sky!

That's a pretty neat project.

Great videos of the layout and accessories. This kind of exposure to railroads and especially model railroads is priceless for the industry and the hobby.

...waiting for the LED pictures...

What a great idea and exposing this terrific hobby to the younger generation is fantastic.

Great Job KEVIN.  I too am a retired Industrial Arts Teacher here in Pa.  This was my first year of retirement and it was great!  You're going to love it.  Love what you did with the kidos.  I hope you sparked an interest with some of them on model trains.  I use to bring in my Shays and show the kidos how they transported lumber with the Shays going up grades.  Had a small oval to show how it ran, they loved it and peeked their interest on logging, transportation, and model trains.  Even had a few kids join TCA, because of the closeness of YORK and I took personal days to go every year then talk about it to my classes for a day or two.  Keep up the good work and make sure those kidos have 10 fingers and two eyeballs at the end of the year.

Thanks for the compliment laz57! Glad to hear your first year of retirement is going well. I'm looking forward to my last 5 years, they're going to fly by I know but looking forward to the ride. Especially when I can run trains along the way.

No safety net?

Just kidding   WHat a wonderful project - Great job!

There's an interesting story about no net

I'll leave that to Kevin.

Noticed the 30 hertz flickering with the LEDS. Our eyes have enough persistence, but the camera responds quicker. For Videos, we could use a full wave bridge and the flickering would be 60 hertz, or better maybe just a filter capacitor. 

Fantastic.  What a great way to recruit into the hobby.  Your students show some great skills!   I was a little worried as we approached the HG bridge.  Clearance looked a little tight but it made it through.

I also like your position  "Industrial Tech. CAD Drafting/Cabinetmaking Instructor".  Pretty broad!

c.sam

The Norfolk & Western tender behind the Mallet took a dive along with 6 MTH Harley Davidson freight cars. The distance from the tracks to the concrete floor is 8'6" which we figured is approxiamately 408 Scale feet. It was strickly operator error. I had a MU train on the tracks. I was fiddling around with the 0-8-0 switcher in the middle of the train one day. After placing it back in the middle of the train I addressed the switcher and not the train and you guessed it, it pulled the cars behind the Mallet and luckily uncoupled the tender and they all fell to the floor. Chuck says the tender landed like a cat, wheels straight down. All I had to do was replace the trucks and all of the freight cars were repaired except for one tanker.

I knew it was not a matter of if but when. I'm sure that there will be another in the future. I think having the trains appear to be suspended in air far outweighs the net or solid bottom idea.

Did anyone catch the bungee jumper on the Hellgate Bridge in the 3rd Video?

From what I have heard kevin gets his students to think outside the box. He has had them building grandfather clocks, avant garde modern clocks, other projects of things that interest them, and now a railroad  with rail bridges and buildings around the ceiling of the classroom. He is also a great guy to have in our club( central illinois tinners) with a lot of useful solutions to our problems!

stan