3356 Horse Car and Atlas Track

Pete:  That's a LOT of horses.  

That electromagnet isn't going to be able to work with the 3356 horse car, unless I'm mistaken.  The 3356 uses a sliding shoe to actuate the vibrator motor that makes the horses "move" from one end of the car to the other, and that sliding shoe is off-center of the trucks, so you would need to install control rails in the Atlas track sections that the sliding shoe can make contact with.

Or did you install a ERR Mini-Commander in the car so you can activate it anywhere, anytime without a control track?

The Atlas track should fit right inside the hinged locating arms of the corral, either the outer or middle rail fits into notch in the locating arm; can't remember which it was.  You would need to trim away the roadbed at least where the track would be installed in the locating arms; recommend you take the corral off the layout and place a section of Atlas O track inside the locating arms and then measure the distance, and this will help in determining how much roadbed needs to be trimmed.

John.....the electromagnet is for a plunger-activated log dump car for the Sawmill. In picture 1 you will see a control rail that needs to be installed. 

The other thing I could do....since this is the end of a spur track, is to use regular O gauge for this area with an OTC contractor.

Peter

Hi Peter

(Finally, I can help!! First time for me!)

I have Atlas track with Flexxbed from Hobby Innovations, somewhat similar to what you have. I did not use the "feet" from the corral, but folded them up (you could remove them). I then put a 1/4" piece of styrofoam (a sheet I cut from some packing) and slid it underneath the corral. Then I placed the corral by trial and error at the right distance. It continues to work well after 2 years.

One tip: I wound up buying a separate accessory transformer to run the corral, because I had to have the voltage a bit different than other accessories (ice house, milk car, etc.). The corral is real touchy; some of the horses get rambunctious and fall over if the voltage isn't right.

Sorry no pics readily available; I can see if I can dig one out of "the archives" if you would like.

Bruce

I use Atlas track on cork roadbed and the Atlas control rails. I think I had to experiment with the height of the corral until I got optimal performance. After that, I added the scenery materials around it and it has been operational for over ten years with no trouble.

I think you'd want the base of the corral to be equal to the top height of the roadbed.  Atlas O track is the same height as O-27 and the corral was designed with that track in mind by default (the rubber pegs underneath are mounted from the factory recessed into the base but are reversible so that the base stands up higher to match the profile of regular O tinplate track).

Thanks, everyone.......I am looking forward to getting this working......last time I had it wired up was on the old layout in Oct/Nov 2003.

I will post a video when I have it done.

Peter