Large Scale Central

Leaf Blower video

Videos
#1

Testing out the newly approved leaf blower. I was using a 12 volt closed cell battery and cut the caboose body down to fit it. The battery died on me so I ended up getting a 18volt 2000mah battery that I can use in my Dewalt drill and recharge with the dewalt charger. The battery was larger so I had to remodel the base where it sits to lower it and cut out the back of the caboose which required something to be extended back there so I used some scraps from the parts bin and built a fuel tank.

I also added weight to the front truck and put in a screw to limit its side to side movement.

Still tinkering but I think it is working pretty good now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1dsiI_cKgg

#2

Nicely done !

#3

Todd - I love it. You can probably use it if we get light snow also. Of course in New England we mostly get the white wet cement.

Nice video.

Scott

#4

Scott Suleski said:

Todd - I love it. You can probably use it if we get light snow also. Of course in New England we mostly get the white wet cement.

Nice video.

Scott

Thanks guys.

It should work on lite snow as well but I have a wedge plow for that and when it gets heavier a rotary. The rotary will share the battery in the blower so that too will have more power this season.

The fan is strong enough to push this blower car backwards on its own. Maybe it should be entered into the next train race?

#5

OK,

Now rotary snow blowers are cool. But seriously a leaf blower. That’s is just frickin awesome. I love the ingenuity of people in large scale. My wife said why do that when you can just use a regular leaf blower… I looked at her stupid and said because he can. This almost makes one want to plant a tree near the RR just so you have to have one.

Whats next an apple chucker?

#6

A regular leaf blower will normally disturb the ballast, and all we care about is the right of way ha ha!

Greg

#7

That is a fine lookin’/ workin’ piece of machinery !!

Thanks for taking the time to post a video of its operation too.

doug c

p.s. alas we like our (#1 chicken grit) ballast :slight_smile:

#8

Here’s another version of a working RR leaf blower. Uses a 12v motor/battery. Only needs to be run at half speed.

https://youtu.be/oyCYWAqASLA

Doc Watson

#9

Greg Elmassian said:

A regular leaf blower will normally disturb the ballast, and all we care about is the right of way ha ha!

Greg

I agree, but I have no choice. My RR is mostly under a 50 foot Maple. I get a TON of leaves. And yes, my front lawn is full of ballast that has been blown there during leaf clean up. I’m due for another load from the quarry. I do use a small Ryobi 18V blower I picked up on close-out for $20 if I just want to clear the tracks. It doesn’t have anywhere near as much power as the back pack unit.

#10

That is very nicely done.

When will you start taking orders and how much?

If you start on an apple chucker I could use one for small peaches.

#11

How 'bout one that peels the apples and bakes a pie, while you’re at it?

#12

Steve Featherkile said:

How 'bout one that peels the apples and bakes a pie, while you’re at it?

Wait - that’s not a bad idea. A work train that picks up apples at the front and processes them as the move down the train on a conveyor meeting up with a crust maker near the rear and baked with an oven heated with the steam feed from an engine pushing at the rear. The best we could get in even 7/8tths would be a tart, but wouldn’t that be a fun whimsy project - and even better if it actually worked (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cool.gif)

#13

Hmmm. A tart. And I thought this was a fambly site. (http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cool.gif)

#14

Nicely done there Todd!

Mine is not so fancy!

#15

Thanks Sean. Your blower might not be as fancy but I think it works better than mine.

This time of year is such a pain. Saturday I used the leaf blower to blast the whole RR, Sunday I used the blower car getting ready to run trains and then walked the whole line pushing the scotchbrite pad to clean the track and after all that my train was still derailing on junk. At least the acorns are not as bad as last year.