The "Autism Express" in large scale

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
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I wanted to make a custom train to raise awareness and acceptance for those like myself that are on the autism spectrum. This was done on a very tight budget due to my limited income I have to spend on trains. What I manage to have in trains I have gotten thru lots of horse trading, odd jobs for trains and fixing them for a couple LHS’s with trains in payment. I sold off most of my remaining USA prototype HO to score a box of old Kalmazoo G scale trains, two 4-4-0’s, two passenger cars and a few freight cars. I used the colorfull MCRR 4-4-0 as the motive power for the speical train. I stripped the Union Pacific lettering off the cars with rubbing alcohol and a pinky eraser. The new decals came from Cederleaf Graphics via the generosity of some fellow forum members over on a large scale forum. The old 4-4-0 is converted to onboard battery using a 7.2vt, 5500 mah, Nimh RC car battery. Provides a nice speed for over 5 hours on each charge. No RC equipment is installed, just an on/off switch. Cars have people in them and Massoth LED light boards running off 9vt rechargeable batteries. The plastic wheels in the cars have been retained, I find the sound of metal wheels on brass rails on my indoor line to be like nails on a chalkboard (sound sensativity), there is no sound either as I do take the train to an Autism Expo and the sounds can cause issues for other autistics there. So a quiet train is perfect. I still need to find the matching paint style Observation car(anybody have one?). I plan to take the train to as many other layouts that I can and get pictures of it running there. The train also acts as a segway to me making new friends, something I struggle with greatly. Any how, here are some pics and a link to a video of her running on my small garden railway. Mike and Michele T

[URL=http://s83.photobucket.com/user/cadetpwr/media/DSC07651_zpssfzs5xt4.jpg.html][IMG]http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j285/c

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You have made a good looking around the walls display

During the summer at Boothbay Railway Village, we usually have a couple of visits from a group home of 3 or 4 autistic young men in their late teens or early 20s. They enjoy seeing our layout in operation and riding the muesum’s 2 foot gauge trains. As you mentioned, some of them are bothered by the sound effects, which we try to keep at a minumum while they are there. The muesum gives free admission to folks in group homes.

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[:-^]

Great work Mike & Michelle, That’s a great garden layout and like what you have done inside as well.

Haven’t seen you on the Forums for awhile. Check in more often if you can.

Johnboy out…

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I will try to stop by more often. I hang out at the large scale forums more often, the Garden Railways forum here is pretty dead. Mosty active in large scale, although I am slowly building a small (4x7) fold down Marklin digital layout. I changed the large scale line to USA style old timers/logging so the little German trains keep my Euro needs met. For my logging side of the outdoor line, I have 2 live steamers, Turtle Creek Timber #1 is a Accucraft Ruby with a coal fired boiler build by Larry Herget. TCT #2 is an Accucraft Ruby5, the saddle tank version, which is the standard butane gas fired. TCT #1 was an early fathers day present from my wife. #2 should be here soon. I am fairly certain she got me the last one that RLD hobbies had left.