# HO Action Cars



## Jkohan (Jan 2, 2018)

How come there are no real action cars in HO, like there are in O gauge? I think it would really add to a layout. What there is available in HO is pretty lame. Any one have a suggestion as to a great HO action car? I would like to see an HO Milk Car with platform and a Log Car with a mill.


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## J.C. (Dec 24, 2016)

there have been a few action cars in ho , but as you stated they are kind of lame. the best bet for action is to build them yourself a bud has a working log unloader (should say had he passed last year ) there are also several plans for coal unloaders both rotary and throw types. other than hoppers and log cars and maybe gon and flat loads there isn't much you can do in ho with out a excusive amount of work.


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## Shdwdrgn (Dec 23, 2014)

My favorite car as a kid was the mantua/tyco unloading hopper. Easy enough to reload without the layout as well. I've collected quite a few of them in the last couple years and am re-styling the cars. I also did away with the special track section and plan to use magnets to operate the doors when I get everything set up.

Tyco also had both a hopper and a log car with posts, both of which tipped the bed to drop their load. And they had a box car that was loaded from a dock and then would spit out the boxes at another stop.

I think the real problem is that everyone these days wants the realism... cars that look exactly like the prototypes, so there's no room to add mechanical features which make the cars functional but can take away from the realistic appearance. At one of the train shows I saw an S scale setup where the guy had loaded up pretty much every operational item made. It was pretty cool to see, and that show is coming up again in February so maybe I'll see him again.


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## J.C. (Dec 24, 2016)

Shdwdrgn said:


> My favorite car as a kid was the mantua/tyco unloading hopper. Easy enough to reload without the layout as well. I've collected quite a few of them in the last couple years and am re-styling the cars. I also did away with the special track section and plan to use magnets to operate the doors when I get everything set up.
> 
> PM me if you would be interested in 4 of them.


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## LateStarter (Mar 12, 2016)

When I was a kid, a friend had a Lionel (or AC Gilbert) cattle loader.
The plastic cattle would vibrate up a ramp, and fill a stock car.
At another stop, they'd vibrate back out the other side to a down-ramp.
It was very cool.
I've never seen another one since.


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## Shdwdrgn (Dec 23, 2014)

Hmm maybe it was O scale that I saw? He had one of those. I think there was felt on the bottom that caused the cattle to move in a specific direction?


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## LateStarter (Mar 12, 2016)

Well it's all lost on me now.
But every time I saw an industrial vibra-loader (for feeding assemblers with pins & screws) it made me think of it.
Same principle I think.


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## Shdwdrgn (Dec 23, 2014)

Well what do you know? I found a pic of it on my phone!


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## LateStarter (Mar 12, 2016)

Wow!
It's amazing you found that.
Kudos!


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## Shdwdrgn (Dec 23, 2014)

Considering I didn't even have the same phone when I took the pic... yeah I was amazed too. Is this the same one you were thinking of?

All right, so somebody must recognize this. Is it S or O? Because I've seen some old 2-rail O track before, so it is throwing me off.


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## LateStarter (Mar 12, 2016)

Probably not Lionel. That's all 3-rail I believe.
Maybe S-gauge. The tracks don't seem O-gauge width, but it could be. Can't tell by the pic.
But as far as 'does it look like what my friend had' it was just too long ago to remember.


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## santafealltheway (Nov 27, 2012)

Jkohan said:


> How come there are no real action cars in HO, like there are in O gauge? I think it would really add to a layout. What there is available in HO is pretty lame. Any one have a suggestion as to a great HO action car? I would like to see an HO Milk Car with platform and a Log Car with a mill.


hmm.. m aybe you could tuck a micro servo into a car to make it doe something cool. i wonder if a decoder could controll it..


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## LateStarter (Mar 12, 2016)

My idea of an action car is a scale model of a _rail grinder,_ with LED-simulated sparks.
Not sure if that'd require DCC circuitry or not, but it doesn't sound very complicated to me.
It'd need to be pushed by a DCC loco that's capable of smooth slow speeds, but that's normal these days (my SW-1500 will crawl like a sloth).

Again, it'd be a perfect candidate for sound... in real life it's deafening.


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## Jkohan (Jan 2, 2018)

I wonder if there are really no HO action cars is due to the high profit margin the O gauge action cars bring. The difference in cost between HO and O is amazing. It would have to follow suit that the same would apply to HO action cars. Miniaturization of electronics is normal today. I believe the ability is there to make action cars in HO, it is just the reluctance of the manufactures to do so. I bet if one company did start to make a decent line of HO action cars sales would take off. Who wouldn’t want to have these working cars on a layout. The other manufactures would begin to make them also. Why should O gauge have all the fun with action/working cars and set ups ?


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## DavefromMD (Jul 25, 2013)

It's S scale, American Flyer. I had that growing up. I had several of the operating cars/industries pictured in that. I had the log loader (toward the upper right) and the barrel platform with fork lift (toward the left). I did not have the cattle yard but I did have a box car loading ramp where there was a little man who pushed the metal boxes down the ramp into a box car in one door that had a roller conveyor that carried then down to a second door. The second door had a mechanism that could unload the boxes by shooting them out onto the platform. I also had a mail car that had an arm that would pluck a mail bag off of a post and toss one out onto the mail platform. There was also a milk car and cans that worked similar to the box loading car.


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## Shdwdrgn (Dec 23, 2014)

santafealltheway said:


> hmm.. m aybe you could tuck a micro servo into a car to make it doe something cool. i wonder if a decoder could controll it..


Absolutely. Look into Arduino and DCC, there's a number of different decoder programs out there, and these little computers will easily run motors, servos, etc. The chip I'm currently working with (ESP32) is only about 3/4 x 1 inch, has a dual-core 240Mhz processor, around 32 pins that work with digital, analog, SPI, I2C, and other interfaces, contains wifi and bluetooth radios, and you can get them for about $4. But if you want miniature, the attiny85 is available in an 8-pin surface mount chip and gives you 5 I/O pins to work with.

@Dave - thanks for the clarification. I *thought* it was S, but after the discussion about similar cars in O scale I just wasn't sure.

@Latestarter - do you remember the toys where you'd push a button to get a wheel spinning, and it would create sparks behind colored film? Seems like you could do something similar to that for your rail grinder. Maybe some flint strikers and a spinning disk of sandpaper? Why fake it with LEDs when you can make real sparks?


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## JNXT 7707 (May 5, 2013)

Strange that no one has mentioned Life-Like HO action accessories. Log unloaders, crossing switchman, and others. There's a ton of it out there, both in online hobby shops and ebay. 

They are of course geared more for play value rather than the ultra-fine detail stuff the hobby manufacturers think we all demand


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## LateStarter (Mar 12, 2016)

Shdwdrgn said:


> Maybe some flint strikers and a spinning disk of sandpaper? Why fake it with LEDs when you can make real sparks?


Now that's a flat out inventor's brain-schematic right there! :appl:
"Genius is the mother of sick minds".
(No offense). :laugh:


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## Shdwdrgn (Dec 23, 2014)

Thanks  I was also thinking, why not make a rail grinder car that is also a track cleaner? The cars I can find pictures of appear to be large, heavy machines, providing a lot of space for cleaning chemicals and weight for pressing the pads onto the track.

...Or if you really want to go crazy, rub down the track with alcohol pads and then light it with the spark generator. Flaming rails, now there's a crowd-pleaser!


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## LateStarter (Mar 12, 2016)

Shdwdrgn said:


> Thanks  I was also thinking, why not make a rail grinder car that is also a track cleaner? The cars I can find pictures of appear to be large, heavy machines, providing a lot of space for cleaning chemicals and weight for pressing the pads onto the track.


That's always been my original plan..
The CMX Clean Machine is the perfect candidate. The dome fill-cap would be under a lift-off center-cab.

And I'll pass on the alcohol fire starter.
Or I could just use lighter fluid.


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## mjrfd99 (Jan 5, 2016)

I possibly unloaded a million milk cans from my childhood Lionel milk car. They had the best accessories and action cars IMHO.


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## Jkohan (Jan 2, 2018)

Why don’t we have any of these action cars in HO? Small servos are used in RC airplanes, why can’t they used in HO?


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## Shdwdrgn (Dec 23, 2014)

Oh they can be, and we can find some incredibly tiny motors these days. I have some stepper motors with only a 1/8" diameter body on them. With enough patience you could animate just about anything. For example, imagine a box car rolling up, and the door slides open first before the crates start coming out. The only real trick is in devising a method by which loads can be put into a car in such a way that you can also automatically unload them again.


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## LateStarter (Mar 12, 2016)

Shdwdrgn said:


> I have some stepper motors with only a 1/8" diameter body on them. With enough patience you could animate just about anything.


_*Stepper motors for a car crusher*_

I'm building a salvage yard car crusher...
I've made a bunch of car bodies with aluminum foil pressed and burnished over models to make shells... painted rusty.
I'm wondering if it could be turned into an action item, by using stepper motors to drive the top platen slowly downward to crush the foil cars.
Ya' think?


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## Eilif (Nov 6, 2017)

Jkohan said:


> How come there are no real action cars in HO, like there are in O gauge? I think it would really add to a layout. What there is available in HO is pretty lame. Any one have a suggestion as to a great HO action car? I would like to see an HO Milk Car with platform and a Log Car with a mill.


This is local to me, but here's a couple folks with several of the Tyco Action car sets for sale relatively affordably and still in their boxes. 
https://chicago.craigslist.org/chc/tag/d/fs-ft-many-tyco-ho-scale/6446676037.html

https://chicago.craigslist.org/chc/tag/d/vintage-lionel-and-tyco-train/6433668257.html

Maybe they'd be willing to ship them?

As for your initial quesiton, I think it has to do with model trains falling out of favor as "toys" of choice. Now there's toy trains like "Power trains" and "Trackmaster" which have action features but are not at all realistic and then there are affordable "model" trains like Bachman without much to bridge the gap. 

Lionel and similar products with "action" features are luxury products and thrive on nostalgia in a way that Tyco and Life-Like stuff couldn't.


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## D&HDan (Nov 20, 2017)

American Flyer also that feature, one with people in and out of a car, and I think they had a cattle mover as well. I just found a couple of the people in a box, hopefully, someone can use them. My favorite AmFlyer working car was the mail car. You put a little plastic mail sack on a post, and as the car came by you hit the button and an arm would collect the bag...pretty much like the real thing.


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## Mr.Buchholz (Dec 30, 2011)

Personally, I've always pondered getting one of those HO crane cars and adding a small motor and some electronics to it, or a spotlight car that I can modify with an LED or something. Perhaps I'll find something at the train show next month.

-J.


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## ncrc5315 (Jan 25, 2014)

Jkohan said:


> Why don’t we have any of these action cars in HO? Small servos are used in RC airplanes, why can’t they used in HO?


ESU has a DCC module, that will control RC servo's, with their DCC system, would be nice if other manufacturer's would consider this as well.


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## Shdwdrgn (Dec 23, 2014)

There are various arduino DCC projects already available to allow direct drive of motors, servos, etc. Not exactly plug&play, but these computer modules are getting so tiny that you can easily find something to fit in HO or even N scale for just a few dollars. I'm just starting down the DCC path myself, but I've been working with the chips for a few years and if you get one that already has a USB port on it then there's no effort involved in programming them.


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## tkruger (Jan 18, 2009)

I made an action car a few years back. The Athearn Blue box rotary plow was mad to work using an old can motor, NCE decoder and some leds. Basically set the speed of the low mid and high to be a vary narrow range so it would spin to speed and stay constant regardless of the speed it was being pushed. A piece of rubber tube was used to connect the rotary blades to the motor. Glue mounted the motor. Added an old hopper the rear using a bar cut from a milk jug and painted black. added a cheep MRC steam sounder chip for effects. 

Fun little car to run on the tracks. I am tempted to build a second. Currently I have a plow on one end and the rotary on the other. I have no way to turn the rotary at the lines end.


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