I have had a long history trying to come up with a vacuum car that would actually vacuum the track. My first model shown below was a combination vacuum/ balast-er car made from an Allis Chalmers car, that had some height over the tracks to fit the vacuum and the spreader. This car was pre-3D laser printing and laser cutter. There was a 9V battery in the front end that powered a small impeller. and a pipe in the rear to hold an spread ballast.
Sad to say that this did not work out. However, Lee Willis' vacuum car using a portable MooSoo vacuum was enlightening. So I set out to design a car to fit the vacuum and like Lee's have spaces for the battery charger and other accessories to ride with the car. I wanted the vacuum to be removable so I could use it beyond the tracks.
I needed to create a car that could fit the MooSoo. The car would be laser cut out of 1/4" clear acrylic. I needed a scoop attachment to the MooSoo to make a right-angle turn down to the tracks; that I 3D laser printed.
For fun I added a rear control dome, with a space for an operator to sit in front of a control panel with four(4) screens (fake not real) to view the track; illuminated with four lights again pointed doing to the tracks ( real). Below is the cardboard laser cut mock-up. I cut in cardboard before committing to expensive acrylic. (Covid has made acrylic costly and scarce.)
Below is the Scoop attachment. Note the brush that comes with the MooSoo attaches to the scoop to loosed the dust before the vacuum. A bit of over-kill since the MooSoo is real powerful!
Here are the various rear end dome control areas I designed and discarded; the last one is attached to the cardboard mock-up. As I said, I plan and cut first in cardboard before laser printing the acrylic. Each dome has 4 front lights and two top blinking LEDs not yet wired; see the mini pipe where the wires will be inserted going up to the LEDs.
These are drawings from Rhino6 of the items to be 3D printed in relation to the Acrylic to be laser cut.
See fake monitor screens on the panel.
Here is closeup of the front MooSoo hold down, it too has two blinking LEDs that will be wired from the below c-slot. Both front and rear trucks have pick-ups where the wires will move in the c-slots.
For side panels, I first designed a truss (top) but later designed side panels to resemble UP's EC-4. (Below.) The EC-4 text over the "futuristic arrows" is TODAY'S DATA, TOMORROW'S TECHNOLOGY" not the usual "Building America."
The panels will be cut from yellow acrylic and fit into the line of slots on either side of the MooSoo. The Arrows logo will be cut in vinyl or a sticker from a Silhouette or Cricut. (Haven't decided which)
Next step is cutting the Acrylic. I'll be back.
