Help moving cattle thru the car

Walt, I don't know if you saw this video or not.  But if you didn't, you may want to.  I'm assuming your cattle car is the similar as this horse car.

I’ll second Zeke13’s video suggestion. Our dear, departed friend Jim Barrett covers a lot of ground in this video.

Zeke, I edited your post to embed the video.

That video is relative to the horse car - they learned their lesson by then. The lesson was, to keep the horses from falling over in the car, they needed sides - which they put for the horses.

Here is a pict of a car I modified with clear plastic...they don't usually fall over.  (I posted a video someplace) The corral is the next thing I need to tackle. AND an separate power supply to vary the voltage to the car is accomplished by using a UCS track. Are you using that, or using the same power supply for car AND corral?? The cattle should whiz along with enough voltage

The feet matter some, but the direction of the cattle and stability is what needs addressing.

Greg

I worked on this accessory a couple of years ago so I can't remember the details to get in running pretty good.  (80% success?).

It depends where the cattle are getting caught to fix it.   Inside the car you have to make sure there is nothing to snag the cattle on and the door mechanisms are properly aligned.  But one item I recall was to make sure the metal ramps that pop down are in contact with the corral   This helps transfer the vibrations to the ramp.

It looks me a few days of on and off fiddling to get it working decent.  Also make sure it's within hand reach on your layout.  It's much too finicky to operate without some help occasionally.

Good Luck

Walt  The thread was this:

Well, after a little work, and installing clear plastic "sides" to the track in the car, the cattle are now willingly and ably marching to the slaughter house. One of the tricks to getting this thing to work correctly is to NOT use the original setup. The metal inserts to activate the car with O track should be skipped, and a UCS track used instead. That way you can vary the voltage for each unit....one transformer input for the car, another for the corral.

With the added sides, the cattle do not fall over. Next, trying to add sides to the corral so they dutifully march into the car - I think getting out will be no problem.. I have a feeling that will be impossible. If that can't be fixed, then next Christmas, the cattle will just exit the car, not get in. No round trip for them.

Video of the action.    Greg

www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4suRHobtTU

Walt:

Three things I have done to improve operation of my 3656 are:

- Remove shell and clean the metal track.

- Add a drop of light oil onto a Q-tip then apply the oil around the leading edge of the cow’s bases

- Maneuver the metal corral plate to achieve maximum vibration. Now, this being a 3656, I do not expect flawless operation and have resigned myself to adjusting the corral plate just about every time I operate the accessory.

These three steps have enabled me to get the cows to make as many as six round trips without any getting hung up or falling over. My two year old grandson’s attention span shifts after about four passes so getting this many round trips works in my world.

Curt

I really appreciate all of these replies.   I will try them all as time permits. 

The car, bought off of eBay, looks like it's never been used and is in great condition. 

@cngw - can you explain how a UCS track would be wired and used and why you prefer it?  Thanks

thanks all of you - I will be playing around to see where it goes.

- walt