New "Snailways" bus terminal from Lunde

[Mark5]

Cool old school bus station:

http://www.lundestudios.com/nscale.htm

[jmlaboda - RIP]

Definitely a beautiful bus depot!!!  Reminds me on depots I have seen over the many years I road buses all over the U.S.

[peteski]

Nice!  I'm glad Lundes are still producing kits.  When I spoke with Bob last year he wasn't sure that they would continue producing kits (due to their age).  Good for them (and for us)! 

[Ngineer]

Just a technical question:

Were these bus stations near train stations? Or were they located in towns that DIDN'T have train stations? To provide transportation for people in remote towns who hadn't access to train stations?

   Javier

[Ed Kapuscinski]

They're usually found in any decently sized town. Historically they were competitors with rail travel, but they were often located near a station. After highways generally won, bus terminals and train stations were often located at the same spot (and same building). In New Orleans, for example, they share the same facility: https://goo.gl/maps/9RZiCTBNubk

Harrisburg PA is the same way too: https://goo.gl/maps/pZWmJKssjs82

[wcfn100]

I wouldn't look at any modern scenarios and try and apply them to the Lunde Bus Depot.  I think you also have to put into numbers what you'd consider 'near'.  Being from Minneapolis where an original Greyhound Depot still stands (albeit in a different function), I can tell you it was 8 city blocks from the Great Northern depot, which was the big one, and much further to the MILW depot.

Mdeling Waterloo Iowa which is a decent size town in Iowa, I've never come across a major bus terminal.    I wonder if having 3 class 1's and trolley system kept the long distance buses out.

Jason

[Nato]

                        Now if we can just get a N Scale version of the Grayhound  Silver Sides Bus Mini  Metals did for the HO Walthers  bus station, or an N model of the Scenic Cruser Mini Metals did in HO. Nate Goodman (Nato). 

[peteski]

                        Now if we can just get a N Scale version of the Grayhound  Silver Sides Bus Mini  Metals did for the HO Walthers  bus station, or an N model of the Scenic Cruser Mini Metals did in HO. Nate Goodman (Nato). 

Bryan Bussey has an N scale ScenicCruiser bus available on Shapeways. It is quite pricey though. I'm going to do the Grayhound decals for it (when I finally get to that project). 

[thomasjmdavis]

There are also some nice bus models available in resin,  I think our friend @Rasputen makes one (hope I remember correctly, but I think I have one he did in my "things to do" room- it used to be a box, but things have gotten out of hand).

On Lunde buildings in general, I have 3 (aparment/hotel, bank and Chadwick tower).  Very impressed by the quality of the casting, and love the way they do the windows on a sheet- saves hours when painting them, and everything lines up perfectly.  Just wish more of their HO line was also available in N.

My observation from having lived in several small towns is that in general, both the train and bus would be located downtown, close enough to be walking distance or a quick cab ride.  While Greyhound did compete with railroads, the bus station also often served some more local lines, that went to towns not served by the railroad.  And even Greyhound no doubt realized that some portion of its riders were taking the train from Chicago (NY, LA, KC, Valparaiso, etc) to the local large town or county seat, and were proceeding on from there to places not served by the railroad, or took advantage of inconvenient rail connections (the local to grandma's leaves in 11 hours after the express arrives, but the bus is in 2).

[160pennsy]

Cool old school bus station:

http://www.lundestudios.com/nscale.htm

If the only TomyTec/Walthers operating bus system & roadways had added the "turn hard right into the stall, stop for a minute or two, open doors to let passengers board, close doors, backup & then go straight forward" feature, then using this new Lunde bus station in conjunction with the TomyTec operating buses would be a slam dunk.





This added feature might help all the builders of NTRAK, T-TRAK, Fremo N, Modutrak, Route 160 modules (as well as all the home layouts) add some unique vehicle animation to their train operations. Then we could continue with the following sample vehicle animation sequence which would require some kitbashing of the TomyTec roadway with wire underneath that can let the bus function normally when running over train tracks and maybe a small computer to run it like the Rasberry Pi or Arduino:.

1.) Have the bus pull up and stop at the grade crossing if
2.) Train occupancy detection tells the electronics interface that a train is coming and will trigger some servos to move the under roadway magnets
3.) And prior to that event another trigger tells the gate arm to start lowering & starts the flashing LEDs
4.) Once train passes then occupancy detection triggers the gate arms to raise and stops the LED flashing and also the
5.) Servos move the under roadway magnets and let the bus continue on it's way.
6.) If no train occupancy is detected then the bus just travels thru the crossing following the under roadway wire like it normally does on the regular TomyTec roadway.

The above sequence would actually let those NJ International crossing details serve a purpose and give the viewing public a real treat. The kids would have something else to watch beside counting the number of cars in a long train..LOL...Any thoughts on this concept?

[dougnelson]

Nice bus terminal. 

Some towns had less purpose-built bus stations such as the one I created.  The Scenicruisers are paper models I created from the Corgi model.  Hopefully Mini Metals will do it in N.

[160pennsy]

...Any thoughts on this concept?

Except for the reply from Doug....all I'm hearing is crickets!

[peteski]

Except for the reply from Doug....all I'm hearing is crickets!

I have seen a Faller Bus system vehicles set up to cross RR tracks on an NTRAK module at the Springfield show several years ago.  I don't recall if there was a stoping circuit implemented or not, but what I recall is that the process was unreliable because of the vehicle steering mechanism being affected by the flange-ways of the RR crossing. It worked, but not reliably enough for me to consider it a viable solution.  The bus would often stray off the roadway.

My other comment is that you don't need a servo-mounted magnet. An electromagnet will do the same thing and since there are no moving parts, it will be more reliable. The Faller system already makes an electromagnet-controlled bus stop circuit.

[160pennsy]

I have seen a Faller Bus system vehicles set up to cross RR tracks on an NTRAK module at the Springfield show several years ago.  I don't recall if there was a stoping circuit implemented or not, but what I recall is that the process was unreliable because of the vehicle steering mechanism being affected by the flange-ways of the RR crossing. It worked, but not reliably enough for me to consider it a viable solution.  The bus would often stray off the roadway.

My other comment is that you don't need a servo-mounted magnet. An electromagnet will do the same thing and since there are no moving parts, it will be more reliable. The Faller system already makes an electromagnet-controlled bus stop circuit.

Wondering if the TomyTec bus behaves in a similar fashion if a test setup were done? I can see where the bus magnets & electronics might get confused when it comes close to either of the train rails and then starts to follow that instead of the under roadway wire. Maybe this bug can be circumvented by use of a powerful, movable under roadway electromagnet that "drags the bus" over the rails (at the right moment using detection or timers) and overrides the under roadway wire briefly, until the grade crossing is cleared and then bus picks up the under roadway wire on the other side, disengages from the "drag" & continues on it's merry way?

What about any possibility of modify the bus innards (electronics, motor direction control, etc... to provide a way for the bus to back up a short distance?) This is for my initial thought on using the new Lunde angled bus platforms. Has anyone pulled one of the TomyTec bus electronics & motors apart to see how it really works?

[peteski]

Wondering if the TomyTec bus behaves in a similar fashion if a test setup were done? I can see where the bus magnets & electronics might get confused when it comes close to either of the train rails and then starts to follow that instead of the under roadway wire. Maybe this bug can be circumvented by use of a powerful, movable under roadway electromagnet that "drags the bus" over the rails (at the right moment using detection or timers) and overrides the under roadway wire briefly, until the grade crossing is cleared and then bus picks up the under roadway wire on the other side, disengages from the "drag" & continues on it's merry way?

The problem is not the non-magnetic metal track but the flangeway depression. When the front tires go over the flangeway that can make the loose steering mechanism go astray.  It's like the bus is hitting 2 large potholes. If both tires go over the flangeway at the exact same time (its travel direction is perfectly perpendicular to the tangent tracks it is crossing) then the chances are good that the bus will continue going straight. But if it is slightly off (one tire goes over the flangeway slightly ahead of the other one then the the bus can start going off ts path and the steering magnet might not latch back onto the guide wire.  The Tomytec magnet is much larger than Faller's tiny magnet.What I witnessed was with the Faller bus in action, but it might be possible that the Tomytec steering mechanism has a wider range to seek the guide wire.  it might be worth a try.

What about any possibility of modify the bus innards (electronics, motor direction control, etc... to provide a way for the bus to back up a short distance?) This is for my initial thought on using the new Lunde angled bus platforms. Has anyone pulled one of the TomyTec bus electronics & motors apart to see how it really works?

Yes, I have. See my extensive review.

Tomytec bus is controlled by a microcontroller running custom firmware. It also only has a two-speed single-direction motor controller.  To make it go in reverse would require a rebuild of that circuitry (both firmware and hardware).