K-line/Marx Barrel Loader improvements - including arduino

I went ahead and modified the barrel loader.  First, I detailed the forklift, men and the platform.  The platform received a brown wash on the "wood" portions and a silver wash on the "grating".  The unit worked ok, but the voltage has to be just right to keep it from being a barrel launcher!  I really wanted the man at the top to have a real job, so I gave him the task of operating the barrel release (I copied the AF loading platform a bit here).  The easy way to do this was adding a servo motor controlled by an arduino. Since one servo was good, two would be better.  This gave the forklift a more believable speed, but it did not dump the barrels.  I copied another AF accessory - the oil drum loader - to make the forklift dump the barrels.  A light pole and building light added a nice touch.  I have not decided where to put it yet, but it works well.  It's not as much fun as the oil drum loader, but still pretty good.

That is pretty darn clever, what you did to the operating mechanism with the man at the end of the ramp operating the barrel "release" lever at the bottom of the ramp. I really like that idea and it is a marked improvement on the overall operation.

Visually you did a good job too. I have one on my layout. The challenge of taking photos on a very small layout can be discouraging though. On mine, I changed the positioning of the shed building, so that the large windows face the front of the structure. I also cut off the ramp on the rear of the accessory: On a small layout, real estate is at a premium and I just felt like it wasn't needed as it wasn't seen. I painted mine stylistically not too differently from what you did with yours, albeit with different color choices. I also took the barrels and painted the simulated bands silver.

Now I do have two of them: On one of them the solenoid stopped working. You'd think that would be the one I retired. Nope. I rigged up a different spring and used a piece of nylon fish line to manually operate it. Low-tech is my area of expertise. It took a little bit of practice to get the right feel for pulling on the fish line to get the operation correct - at least in my liking.

Again, great job on your model. These K-Line Barrel Loader's are not all that expensive so it's nice to see an encouraging thread like this, showing folks the potential for improvements to a low cost accessory like this one.

Thanks for the compliments.  I like your idea of rotating the building, and removing the ramp is very sensible if you need the space.  The fishing line is a great alternative to the solenoid, no voltages to set, no current draw, and only one "line" to install.  Somewhere I read about a similar cable for making operating cars dump.  Low tech or high tech, I like whatever works well.

Years ago, my cousin's daughter and I had fun launching hazel nuts across the living room with the K-Line version and the power turned up too high.

You did a very nice job on yours.

The barrel loader is now in place on the layout.  It is on a standard gauge loop, so I had to raise the height and get an American Flyer sand car to dump barrels into.