A FEW YEARS BACK I SEEN A ADD SELLING A DRIVE IN SET UP FOR HO THAT HAD A WORKING LCD SCREEN! NOW THAT I WANT TO GET ONE - I CANT FIND IT FOR SALE ANYWHERE!!! HAS ANYBODY EVER SEEN THIS ADD BEFORE??? AND DO THEY STILL SELL THEM OR IS A DREAM I HAD ??? [:D]
please no CAPs . You might get some one to answer you. Sorry I don’t know where one could be. Joe
LOL… Personal DVD player from Walmart would be lots cheaper. I remember them, seemed at the time they cost about as much as a new notebook with a DVD player. Haven’t seen them since so they may of not made it. Fred
you CAN get LCD screens that are small, i’ve seen them a few inches swuare… but the easiest route would be get ahold of a DVD player. they have generally 5-7" (wide)screens, that will look like a decent movie screen. also make sure that it ACCEPTS video feeds, so you can take a VCR or something with your ‘movie’ on it (provided you cannot burn DVDs, or arent going to just use a standard movie).
easiest way to mount it (i think) would be to put the player beneath the parking lot, and then just have the screen come up where you want it to be.
No, I remember that too. I’m guessing it didn’t get a lot of sales because I haven’t seen that either. The problem with a working drive-in theater is that to be realistic, it could only be run during night operations since that is when drive-ins operated. Also, a drive in would be a space hog if you added the parking lot and I think it would be unlikely that one would be located near a railroad since a passing train would be very annoying to the patrons.
Blair Line makes a static drive-in which consists of the screen and entrance that could be used as a back ground structure with the parking area hidden behind the screen and fence. I was tempted to buy it but I can’t find a logical place on my layout for it.
PS. If you had a working drive-in theater and you are running fast clock operations, would you speed up the movie to match your fast clock. If you didn’t, a two hour movie would last a whole day.
Just throwing out an idea - instead of a drive-in, how about a cut-away movie theater building?
I’ve seen pics of buildings on the edge of a layout that are cut away to reveal the interior to view from the aisle. You could do the same thing and it would be a lot easier to hide the LCD screen or whatever you used.
It would also get around needing darkness to be realistic.
Mike Tennent
I believe that kit was produced by Miller Engineering, the guys that have all the EL signs. Besides the LCD TV it used as the screen, it had chase lights and ‘neon’ (actually some of their EL sheets) signs. It was pretty cool actually, but expensive because of the LCD TV. Price on consumer electronics like that have come down a lot since that kit was introduced, it shoul dbe possible to duplicate it for less than the original one cost.
I also rememebr an old MR article from the 60’s or maybe 70’s where someone made a drive-in theater and had an actual movie projector (8mm) under the layout projecting on a screen via a mirror arrangment like a periscope. Only problem was you couldn;t get authentic perios blockbusters in 8mm format - witht he LCD TV you can hook up a VCR or DVD player and play whatever classic movie you wanted. ANd watch TV while working on the layout [:D]
–Randy
I think your best bet would be to buy a cheap portable DVD player. You could mount the “player” part under the layout (you may need to do some advanced soldering depending on the cable lengths, certainly you’ll need to detach the screen and remove the surround in order to fit a new “scale” one). Better still might be one of those kits to add screens to a car (the type beloved of MTV that fit on the back of the front seat headrests) - the screens are already detached and would be less hassle to de-case and fit into a layout. Hope these ideas are of use!
A possible solution to the space needed for the parking lot etc would be to place the “screen” close to the edge of the layout, with only the first few rows of parking spaces modeled and the rest “off the front edge.” Given that a drive-in screen would likely be way up there on the “way cool” scale, I would guess that one wouldn’t want it way back there in the background.
As to putting a drive-in near the tracks, here’s a link to a photograph taken by O. Winston Link. I always thought this was a really great photograph. As an aside, I don’t think the couple in the foreground even noticed the train!
I, too, recall this item and agree with rrinker that it was probably offered by Miller Engineering. Advertising for it was very short-lived and because of the price I expect very few were sold. As I recall, the item went for something like $600-$800 !
CNJ831
The couple in the foreground was OW Link’s assistant and his girl friend.
Wallmart carries some cheap (what else) portable DVD players including the one linked below.
It has two screens, one of which is pretty slim and could easily be mounted behind some type of faux basewall and act as a screen. A few nicely placed trees along the sides would hide the shell.
Love the O.W. Link photo!
EdW
Is is simply amazing how far down in price those things have gone!! This is the model I was thinking of http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=4184091&cat=133247&type=19&dept=3944&path=0%3A3944%3A133276%3A133247 Of course this one has a bunch of “border” around the screen that would need to be disguised, but what a price!
Yeah, that guy Link sure could take some really moving photographs. He had the ability to snap the shutter at just the right time as well as an “eye” for composition. How can one look at his photos and not fall in love with trains?
I love the idea of a drive-in, but really don’t know how well it would work logistically…not for proximity, but because drive-in screens were little more than a white billboard. You could put an LCD on your layout, but it would look bulky and you’d have cables to contend with.
I like the idea of the projection, and actually this really wouldn’t be that difficult to achieve. The idea of the projector was right on the money. Maybe this is a little beyond what a lot of people would want to do, but there’s no such thing as an LCD that gives off light. They’re all lit from behind somehow. I have LCD projectors and get the basic idea. If a person were to tear apart a cheap old digital camera for the LCD viewer on the back you’d have a nifty little screen that can be adapted to your needs. Use a few white led’s behind it and build a little box, try some different el-cheapo flashlight lenses for focusing, and use a mirror if you don’t want to try to fit the whole thing in your projector building. You’ll be more prototypical by projecting from the projector building, and then you can have a drive-in screen that’s to scale and doesn’t look too bulky, and you really WILL have to turn the lights off in order to make the thing work.
As for drive-ins near tracks, the drive-in screen in my hometown sat right in front of the tracks, seperated by just a few trees. The tracks ran for around 3/4 mile right into the main yard (Mandan ND) so there was a lot of traffic. Thing was, the theatre gave each car a little radio to tune in the sound for the film (I think some drive-ins just let you tune in on your car’s radio). Either way, it wouldn’t matter…can’t hear? Put the window up until the train is gone, the sound is inside your car. I don’t imagine it would be much different than cranking up the car stereo now when sitting at a crossing.
I also love the idea of using those LCD dvd players in a city setting, like a Times Square kind of thing…could look really neat; I’ve seen s
That would be really neat to see. Sadly I never heard of any kits for working drive-ins. The only drive-in kit I know of is by Blair Line and it’s a non-working one. Maybe you could get an El Cheapo LCD DVD deal from wal-mart and make one. Get some trident vans too. When this HO scale vans a rockin’ don’t come a knockin’. [(-D]
Actually, I know of one that used to be right by HWY401 in Pickering ON back in the 70’s & on the other side of the 401 was CN’s Kingston Sub. I think it was called the TeePee Drive-In
It rarely made an impact on the movie viewing or listening but I do remember seeing the Turbo’s fly by at the intermission.
Gordon
The Elmhurst (IL) Model Railroad Club http://www.emrrc.org/default.htm has a working drive-in on their layout. The only picture I could find of it was on their website. I’m not actually sure how they did it, its been awhile since I actually saw it in person but I believe its an old laptop underneath the layout with the screen sticking up through.
Bryan
just use some kids old gameboy. it might look good on a layout.
I was at a show last year and saw one. It did not look bad at all, and they even has sound to the movie they were watching. The cable can go under the layout and the LCD screens are very thin now. The only problem I saw was the movie they were playing was not the same as the time of the layout. I do not think it will be hard to create using the inexpinsive LCD you can find at Walmart. You can use cheep speakers under the layoyut and it should look good! I might even try it on my layout.
[quote]
Originally posted by jecorbett
The problem with a working drive-in theater is that to be realistic, it could only be run during night operations since that is when drive-ins operated. Also, a drive in would be a space hog if you added the parking lot and I think it would be unlikely that one would be located near a railroad since a passing train would be very annoying to the patrons. /quote]
One of O. Winston Link’s famous nighttime photos is of just that situation - the screen (showing an F-86 in flight) was just a few yards from the right-of-way, with N&W 1242 (class A 2-6-6-4) thundering past at speed. (To those who never heard an A at speed, ‘thundering’ is an understatement.)
Judging by the size of the cars present, the screen was roughly 24 feet wide, and set on the top of a concrete wall so the bottom was about eight feet off the ground. In HO, a 2.5" by 3.5" LED screen might work.