Go No Go for Launch?...Lets see your rocket launchers and related accessories!

At 2:53 PM ET weather is good for launch. Gantry arm has retracted on the Lionel 175 rocket launcher:

Anyone see anything unusual in the above photo?

LOL, Arnold

Arnold, Are you launching the Space X or a large drone?? 

I'm afraid I don't have any rockets to share.  All my vehicles stay on terra firma.  

I'm watching, Arnold. Am I going to see Florida or your basement?

MELGAR

I have a launch video, but it's to long to post it here.

Melgar, the launch will not be from my basement. I turned my Cape Canaveral into the Polo Grounds about 6 months ago. LOL 

Let's hope and pray it goes well.

I will be watching. As for my Cape Canaveral, the big security guy is on duty, the aliens are corralled in District 9, and the anti-aircraft missile is ready for launch. Nobody messes with us.

The crew is looking for a NASA approved uncoupling track...

Very nice O Scale launching pads. They are a huge hit, especially for kids.

Well I must be in the same Age Group as you gentlemen. Me a keen follower of the Space Race and seeing Duke Snyder as a Met in the Polo Grounds.

Hello Mel!

Paul, a former CT kid living across the Street from the NH New Canaan Branch, now in Pleasant Prairie, WI. 

That was a picture-perfect launch this afternoon and a renewed beginning of US space exploration. Kudos to Elon Musk and Company and the new public/private consortium producing state of the art launch vehicles! GO USA!

 Key turn on my mark!

While the narrative that gave form to the RI Rocket was ballistic, that same technology gave birth to space exploration.... here’s my beloved Rocket!

3, 2, 1... Go for launch!

Click this link to see the O-Gauge rocket launch in slow motion video  https://www.youtube.com/watch?...amp;feature=youtu.be

Sorry Arnold, I could not get the video to insert into this post.  But it has lots and lots of smoke!!

I also have two sets of the MTH rocket car with the sections that assemble to make a Shuttle booster rocket, with one set removed and made into an assembled rocket to display in my trainroom.

I have no model of Crew Dragon because I cannot find one in 1:48, so I am in the early stages of scratch-building one.  

T. Albers-great launch scene. My entire family got a laugh!

Lee-awesome collection-all I can say is "Wow"!

Got you covered on that video posting. Very nice tribute. Glad to see the prototype 1st stage landed somewhat more gracefully.

Thank you @Gilly@N&W

Thunderbirds are "O"!  

Mitch 

As a kid, I always watched the space launches and splash downs. I remember when they televised one of the first space walks. My interest has always continued... I was getting dressed to go to work when the first shuttle went up (was a little late getting to work that day!!!). In spite of that, I never had any interest in any of the space cars. I did get a 3349 Turbo Missile Car with my first set, but I don’t think that counts. But while I was doing some long overdue cleaning in my basement, I came upon these...

Found a couple of Life Magazines too. As the old song said, “those were the days, my friend”!!!

This is an excerpt from one of my earlier (2010) videos showing the Lionel 175 rocket launcher in action. The launcher is buried in a mountain under an artificial retracting lake ala James Bond.

TJ

@Apples55 posted:

As a kid, I always watched the space launches and splash downs. I remember when they televised one of the first space walks. My interest has always continued... I was getting dressed to go to work when the first shuttle went up (was a little late getting to work that day!!!). In spite of that, I never had any interest in any of the space cars. I did get a 3349 Turbo Missile Car with my first set, but I don’t think that counts. But while I was doing some long overdue cleaning in my basement, I came upon these...

Found a couple of Life Magazines too. As the old song said, “those were the days, my friend”!!!

Paul, Mary Hopkins would be glad you remember the song too!!

We did not have a television when the Mercury project was going on, and watched some of the Gemini launches and splashdowns.  My uncle, Dad's brother, was a career aerospace engineer for Boeing.  He was in Cape Canaveral (Kenedy) through the Apollo project.  Boeing had a contract for the booster stages, so we gad special interest in those.  My grandma was interested.  It is sad she passed on less than two week before the first lunar landing.

I had HO trains then.  I couldn't afford Lionel, and was enamored by what modelers like John Allen were doing in HO.  It never occured to me to combine the model I built of the Apollo capsule, LEM, with my trains.  It was massive compared to the trains, standing about 2 feet high when the LEM was in its housing and the capsule was on top.  I did use my matchbox cars and trucks on the layout as they were proportioned very close to HO.

Though not on the layout, still under construction!  Years go by...…     But, do have what is needed to defend the layout interests.  I have more than one 175 rocket launchers, all in various states of repair needed.  Will build one complete and have others, with construction cranes, in stages of being built on the launch complex.  Good way of making use of older/incomplete items.

Jesse  TCA

Mark: Several of my Italian family members worked for Grumman in Bethpage (Long Island), NY. One of our Italian neighbors in Woodhaven, Queens and later in Hicksville was part of a team that completed the wiring of the Lunar Excursion Module which was built by Grumman. The LEM, of course, was the vehicle that actually landed on the Moon, and whose upper section brought the astronauts back to the Command and Service Module for the trip back to Earth. I was 27 and a graduate student at Auburn University in 1969 and well remember the televised landing of the LEM and the first steps of Neil Armstrong and those immortal words!

Art, That's neat you knew someone who worked on the LEM.  I didn't know what company/companies built it.

My childhood train layout had a connection with Grumman through one of my uncles who worked on the line. He was able to legally get a few small scraps of airframe aluminum from which he constructed a sliding control panel which had two wood sloping side panels for control switches and a flat wood central base for my ZW transformer. The whole outfit slid under the train table on aluminum rails when not in use.

@texastrain posted:

Though not on the layout, still under construction!  Years go by...…     But, do have what is needed to defend the layout interests.  I have more than one 175 rocket launchers, all in various states of repair needed.  Will build one complete and have others, with construction cranes, in stages of being built on the launch complex.  Good way of making use of older/incomplete items.

Jesse  TCA

That is an amazing collection, Jesse. Now just imagine how much fun You could have with modern Legacy controlled versions   Except for the exploding box car - one of those came with my set... pretty useless in my opinion. I remember a commercial for the rocket with the capsule/parachute. 

Great topic Arnold!  Rocket propulsion is near and dear to my heart having spent over 30 years of my 45 year career working for Rocketdyne the company that designed and built the large booster engines that propelled Americans into space from the Redstone A-7 through the Space Shuttle Main Engines. 

Here’s a slo-mo video of my Missile Defense car protecting the Christmas train. 

Well that video doesn’t look very good. Let’s try again. 

Strike two. Any ideas what I’m doing wrong?

John

@CA John posted:

Strike two. Any ideas what I’m doing wrong?

John

Looks good to me.

A few new pics of Cape Warrenaveral:

Not sure how many of these were made in B&M livery but I enjoy it.

@Richie C. posted:

Not sure how many of these were made in B&M livery but I enjoy it.

 

I've been looking for a depressed center flatcar in that color.  Is that factory? 

Mitch 

The Orion will be a worthy successor to the Saturn V!

@M. Mitchell Marmel posted:

I've been looking for a depressed center flatcar in that color.  Is that factory? 

Mitch 

Yep - it's "B&M Blue" and I got it NIB from a dealer at the Big E show in Springfield, MA.

It's an MTH Railking depressed center flat car with rocket load.

https://www.mthtrains.com/30-76698

@Richie C. posted:

Yep - it's "B&M Blue" and I got it NIB from a dealer at the Big E show in Springfield, MA.

It's an MTH Railking depressed center flat car with rocket load.

https://www.mthtrains.com/30-76698

 

Ah!  Thanks!   

Mitch 

@T.Albers posted:

3, 2, 1... Go for launch!

Click this link to see the O-Gauge rocket launch in slow motion video  https://www.youtube.com/watch?...amp;feature=youtu.be

Sorry Arnold, I could not get the video to insert into this post.  But it has lots and lots of smoke!!

That is an original PW 175 correct?  Can you please tell me what you used to make the smoke?  That is awesome and I want to add it to mine.  It just arrived today!

Hi @TrainManMike,  sure I'm glad to help.  I installed that Post War 175 rocket launcher back in 2013 and never got around to posting a write up in this OGR forum about how I made smoke come out.  But since @Arnold D. Cribari wanted photos of launchers with lots of smoke, hopefully he's okay with me explaining how it was built in his thread.

The first thing you need to do is make 4 smoke exhaust paths under your Post War 175 launch pad (because there will be A LOT of smoke coming out under your launcher).  I used four 1/2" x 4" pieces of wood under the launch pad.

After you landscaped the openings under the launcher it should look something this.  These little exhaust openings are small enough that my visitors never notice.

I hope you saw that 3" round galvanized pipe in the first construction photo coming up from under the train table.  That 3" elbow goes back to an old fog machine my kids left behind after they grew up.  The fog machine was in my garage anyways, so I might as well be using it for something.

I filled its holding tank with "fox juice" back in 2013 and have never needed to fill it since. The fog machine is mounted up under my train table with 1/2" straps.  Then I placed the other end of the 3" galvanized pipe over this 2" opening.

After the old fog machine is plugged in, it takes about 5 minutes to fully warm up.  You can see the red glowing light on the wired controller in this photo.

Once the red light goes off, the fog machine is ready for action.  While my guests are busy working the vintage rocket launching panel, I have my finger on the fog machines "On" button.  They have no idea what going to happen next.

While they are desperately trying to launch the rocket you can see the 4 exhaust shafts under the launch pad directing smoke away.

Since its an original Post War175 controller the spring under the rocket is temperamental and the rocket doesn't always launch as its suppose too (and the smoke get bigger and bigger!)

Sure, I could stop the smoke at anytime but that's when I really mess with my now frantic visitors.  I tell them if they don't push that little red "fire" button the rocket will explode on the launch pad.  The whole time my finger is on the fog machine button making even more smoke that finally engulfs my visitors and fills the train room.

I have to admit, its my favorite Post War accessory when visitors come over and they always remember the experience.  Also, it usually means we have to stop playing trains for about 10 minutes until the smoke clears out.

I hope this helps with your project.  Let me know if you have any other questions.  Have fun with your rocket launching modification and make sure you are not going to set off any fire sprinklers or smoke alarms in your house!

Thanks

@T.Albers posted:

Hi @TrainManMike,  sure I'm glad to help.  I installed that Post War 175 rocket launcher back in 2013 and never got around to posting a write up in this OGR forum about how I made smoke come out.  But since @Arnold D. Cribari wanted photos of launchers with lots of smoke, hopefully he's okay with me explaining how it was build it in his thread.

The first thing you need to do is make an 4 smoke exhaust paths under your Post War 175 launch pad (because there will be A LOT of smoke coming out under your launcher).  I used four 1/2" x 4" pieces of wood under the launch pad.

After you landscaped the openings under the launcher it should look something this.  These little exhaust openings are small enough that my visitors never notice.

I hope you saw that 3" round galvanized pipe in the first construction photo coming up from under my table.  That was a 3" elbow that goes back to an old fog machine my kids left behind after they grew up.  The fog machine was in my garage anyways, so I might as well be using it for something.

I filled its holding tank with "fox juice" back in 2013 and have never needed to fill it since. The fog machine is mounted up under my train table with 1/2" straps.  Then I placed the other end of the 3" galvanized pipe over this 2" opening.

After the old fog machine is plugged in, it takes about 5 minutes to fully warm up.  You can see the red glowing light on the wired controller in this photo.

Once the red light goes off, the fog machine is ready for action.  While my guests are busy working the vintage rocket launching panel, I have my finger on the fog machines "On" button.  They have no idea what going to happen next.

While they are desperately trying to launch the rocket you can see the 4 exhaust shafts under the launch pad directing smoke away.

Since its an original Post War175 controller the spring under the rocket is temperamental and the rocket doesn't always launch as its suppose too (and the smoke get bigger and bigger!)

Sure, I could stop the smoke at anytime but that's when I really mess with my now frantic visitors.  I tell them if they don't push that little red "fire" button the rocket will explode on the launch pad.  The whole time my finger is on the fog machine button making even more smoke that finally engulfs my visitors and fills the train room.

I have to admit, its my favorite Post War accessory when visitors come over and they always remember the experience.  Also, it usually means we have to stop playing trains for about 10 minutes until the smoke clears out.

I hope this helps with your project.  Let me know if you have any other questions.  Have fun with your rocket launching modification and make sure you are not going to set off any fire sprinklers or smoke alarms in your house!

Thanks

That's awesome!!!!    Thank you for all the detailed info!!