Guest spot: David Weedon

Sent in today, and I had to share this before I head off to the monthly meeting/support group. Davids work is reasonably well known on the NZ120 yahoo group, but not much outside that. his layout is a lovely looking model that I would like to visit in the flesh. David has sent in these pictures, and this description as well.

Working Coal Bins

These bins are loosely based on a plan in the Journal
I made the bins from scribed styrene sheet.
The roof is Campbell Products corrugated roofing
There are lights in the office, the upper area and beside the discharge point.

The top comes off so imitation coal can be dropped in.
The power connection is to enable the unit to easily be removed from the layout.

Here is the hopper which lifts out of the bins.
You have to make sure coal will flow down the interior corner valley angles
The motor has a worm and wheel drive from Jaycar.
The screw conveyor body is brass with the internal auger made from an old auger drill bit.
I turned the ends down to fit some brass bushes and made the auger OD match the inside of the brass tube.
It makes a lovely noise as the coal goes through.
It takes about 10 seconds to fill a wagon

Here are the bins in position on the layout with the Y class shunting some bog cast Lc wagons running on peco chassis.
There is a hole between the rails to let any overflow coal go into a plastic container under the layout.
One day I will install a miniature camera so I can easily see when a wagon is full.

I'm impressed by this. I would never have thought of building a loading working coal facility. More pictures gents please.