Rotary Dumper

The major parts are assembled here. On the right; under the track, is the servo and gear to drive the 12 tooth Tamiya (metric 48) pinion gears i replaced the little red ones from the kit with. The dumper has a hole cut in the bottom with reinforcement styrene added to guide the coal towards it. A light has been placed inside the back bottom edge of the dumper to illuminate a photo resistor. There is a servo under the left side track to hold the car axle in place. On the far back left is the car positioner. It is a styrene box with 2 pieces of track (1 above the other) to hold a 2 wheelset cart that supports a metal rail which holds the servo that drives the little cart and another servo (not on the cart yet) which will raise-lower an arm to push the cars into position. The box itself is 8x24 inches and designed to 'drop' into a hole in a 'standard' 2x8' module. A photo resistor will be placed on the side of the dumper to sense the start and end points of rotation. Another photo resistor will be placed under the track to sense the end of the train. (actually the last car will not be dumped ... keep reading) Switch(es) will be used to turn on/off the controller, 'reset' the servos into starting positions, and whatever ends up being needed. Another servo might be placed across from the positioner at the end of the next car to add a last little push, as the cart pusher can only push to the edge of the dumper and the car needs to be about half an inch inside the dumper so the coupler will be at the correct place for rotation. Gee, it was easy to make it rotate, when i scratch build the wood chip dumper it will be a non-rotary coupler, shove it into the middle of the dumper with a locomotive operation.