I am a mainly railway modeller with a secondary interest in things that float, but I thought this little project might be of some interest here. Many railway modellers choose to build a static canal scene into their projects. This one, however, actually works... including the lock... in 1:480 scale.
While the main focus of this 6 foot by 2 foot layout is the long-vanished railway station of Dauntsey in south-west England, it includes part of the nearby hamlet of Dauntsey Lock and a half-scale-mile stretch of the old Wilts and Berks canal, including the eponymous lock. Quite a few liberties have been taken, such as assuming the canal was still in use in the 1930s when it actually closed around 1900, and practical issues with the length of the lock chamber forcing all the boats to be significantly shorter than they should be.
The layout is fully automated, designed for exhibition display. The canal section features a slow, stately procession of narrowboats entering the scene at the upstream end, queuing as required before passing through the lock, then continuing downstream out of scene. They return via a hidden path behind the backdrop. When running at the correct 4 mph, it takes about 20 minutes for each boat to do a complete circuit, although this was cranked up to a racy 6 mph for the video. A full cycle of the lock takes close to 2 minutes rather than a more realistic 15-20 minutes.
The boats are driven by a linear motor drive system. The track is built of custom printed circuit boards with small embedded coils acting as electromagnets. This is my own version of a commercial product from IDL Motors (teenytrains.com), and is used with their permission. When powered in a suitable rippling sequence, any small object with one or more magnets gets carried along as if by a wave. The boats are 3D printed with paper sides, with the necessary magnets hidden underneath. The water surface is painted paper (self-adhesive label paper) stuck onto the track, then coated with gloss varnish.
This is my third linear-motor-powered layout, and the first featuring boats. Each one has tried out a variety of new techniques, so the results are generally imperfect but improving. The close-up video is also very cruel - these boats are barely 1 inch long, and designed for a viewing distance of 12 inches or so.
https://youtu.be/2VCJt3OyS1I
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Topic: A Working Model Canal in 1:480 Scale (Read 2468 times)