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Yeah it has zero to do with audio, but i asked this and no one even posted back.
So I want an aquarium someday. anyway this idea of a little HO scale or smaller train really running on tracks INSIDE the fishtank.. on the bottom. The little steam engine could be blowing fine bubble 'smoke' as it ran around the bottom of the tank. Up an a little bridge etc..In my mind it is so cool...
With it ducking into tunnels, and all keep the fish excited. (too much?)
Anyway could it be done?
How to run the train in the water.. that seems to be the ony physical problem. Keeping it on the track could be done with a guide rail under the train, or special tracks with flanges or pin slots below train cars... The electrical power... ????
Then can the fish put up with it?Wondering minds want to know...
And no I am not smoking any funny stuff...
But i sure could use another beer right now...
Follow Ups:
How about, a Clear Acrylic Tube or Channel, that the trains could run through?
It would need to be purpose built, I would imagine, but there is no real reason that it could not be done.
Kind of like the walkways through Aquariums (See picture), though obviously on a smaller scale.... :-)
Cheers
Welly
He hoped and prayed that there wasn't an afterlife. Then he realized there was a contradiction involved here and merely hoped that there wasn't an afterlife.
- Douglas Adams
but you could leave out the fish. They're nothing but a big expense without a whole lot of return.It's not like a cat or a dog, where you can establish some type of relationship that can be mutually beneficial. Fish don't care about much of anything other than following their own primitive and limited programming.
They give the fish away, and make a fortune on all the stuff you need to keep them going. With the aquarium, filter, lights, rocks, vacuum, decorations, plants, food etc. it adds up rather quickly.
We finally gave up on fish, realizing at long last that they're ingrateful little bastards who care nothing about anyone except themselves and their short, miserable little lives.
You know, that old tune, "Where Is The Love?" (Roberta Flack, not the Black Eyed Peas).
But, an underwater train, in an aquarium, toodling around? That's a great idea. You could add a bit of bleach to keep the water clean and have a "set and forget" display. Make the engine waterproof, and supply the power to it from a battery pack.
Edits: 03/20/12
Non-conducting Flourinert liquid was used to cool some models of old Cray supercomputers, And then the industry went with air cooling. Now we're back to investigating liquid cooling again. I wouldn't expect fish to live in Flourinert but you never know. Rats have been known to breathe oxygenated Flourinert.
but ended up with an underwater mortgage.
Battery powered with paddle wheels. A guide ring on the bottom threaded thru a guide wire(aluminum wire used in electric fences would be good) following along bridges, tunnels, etc.
I wanted this car in the worst way when I was a kid and had Lionel trains. Wavy Plexiglass windows were supposed to give the illusion that the fish were swimming.
Note: That mop looking thing going by is supposed to be a jellyfish.
Haven't thought about the aquarium car in decades--Lizzie's Q should have reminded me.
When I first read her post in General, I didn't think of the Lionel car either. But it came to me later that night, after her post had been moved to Central.
.
Putting aside the obvious difficulty in building an underwater model train, the danger to the fish would be excessive. Tropical fish are rather delicate little creatures and susceptible to toxic objects not specifically designed to be placed in aquariums. In addition, I seem to recall from my aquarium days many years ago that one of the biggest causes of death in tropical fish is stress such as anything that would startle or scare the fish. Fish would not likely take kindly to sharing their space with a toy train.As you probably know, there are other decorating items specifically designed for aquariums that also serve the purpose of aerating the water such as divers, treasure chests, etc.
Aquariums can be very relaxing to watch and would probably enhance your music listening experience as well.
Hope this helps.
Edits: 03/19/12
perhaps some sort of train could be made to do the same thing.
It would probably only run for a limited time before it needed refueling, but it would look cool while it worked.
(You could have two trains built, one would be running while you refueled the other one. Guests viewing your aquarium train would be suitably impressed.)
Good Luck!!!
You can still buy the baking powder powered sub on eBay. It's called DIVING SUB
Sheesh, you're dating yourself. I thought that I was the only one old enough to remember those
baking soda driven toy submarines. Wish I had one now to play with. I'm still longing for my lost Lone Range Atomic Bomb ring and the PEP comic book pins I used to wear on my beany.
And a rocket ship that attached to the water hose. And we drank from the water hose.
You bet I remember the rocket/hose toy and of course we drank from the hose.
You are probably not old enough to remember the Lone Ranger Atomic Bomb rings where you could look into the bomb and see "atomic particles" moving around or the Pep cereal pins.
You can see both of them on eBay.
I also wish I still had my Daisy Red Ryder BB gun.
It was a rocket that you filled with water and then you would keep pumping and fire the rocket. I had a two stage water rocket as well. How about those metal rockets that you place 5 caps in screw the head down and throw it up in the air. When it lands on cement boom. Anyone have the big bertha rocket that took D-14-0 engines with a huge parachute. I had a neighbor who built a huge gas plane that took an Enya 45 engine. He let me fly it, but the line was loose, so I ran back, but not fast enough. The plane went straight up into the air and then down into a million pieces. I felt so bad I wanted to pay him, he refused and never talked to me again. We also had pea guns, I loved those. My father couldn't understand where all those pea plants in the lawn came from. We also shot at each other with crab apples and sling shots.
I loved those rockets you would fill with caps and throw in the air. I also loved anything that flew or drifted like a parachute.
I think that I can top you with my home made rocket. When I was in high school I built what I thought was a rocket for my science class. I took an empty Co2 tube and filled it with Paper match heads that had been soaked in lighter fluid and sprinkled with firecracker powder. I then strung firecracker fuses together and stuck one end into the Co2 tube. I built a launching platform from an old erector set and placed my rocket in the launch pad. The science teacher and the class all came outside to witness the launch. I lit the fuse and quickly stepped away from the rocket which I was sure would soon be in orbit.
Next thing we heard was a very loud bang, a crumpled launch pad and no rocket. I think that I may have inadvertently built a gernade rather than a rocket which I never saw again. The whole experiment ended with the instructor laughing hysterically.
Caution: Don't try this on you own.
Years later, I realized how lucky I was not to have killed anyone with my toy rocket.
I have you topped. I made a home made bomb. I used color sparklers and mashed them up in a mortar and pessel. I took 5 5X8 file cards and rolled them up into a tube. I closed one end off with tin foil and hot melt glue. I filled the tube up with the powder and sealed the other end the same way. I then wrapped the cards with a half a roll of masking tape and then finished it off with black electrical tape. I drilled a hole in the middle and placed water proof fuse in it and placed glue around the fuse. I left about 20 inches of fuse. I was in my freshman year at college in a dorm. A friend of mine and myself placed the bomb in a tree stump, lit the fuse and then ran to our rooms. The bomb went off ( a very low rumble) much louder than an M-80 and started a fire in the tree stump. There were dead leaves in it that must have started on fire. The fire spread and the fire and police departments were called. We were listening to them on our police radio. They found the rest of what was left of the bomb. We were really scared because we could have been kicked out of college. We called the police from a payphone and said it was just a prank. They were on the case for at least 6 months. No one ever found out who did it.
Yep, that tops mine but I accept the challenge. My next plan is to again stuff a used Co2 tube with match heads soaked in lighter fluid but this time add the scrapings from the radium on old watches. Make my fuse with several firecracker fuses tied together. Light it and stand back and watch the miniature mushroom cloud created by the explosion. Obviously, no one will be able to get near the site for years.
You bring back memories. When I was in Junior High I would have people come over to play with our ping pong, billiards table, darts, and Gottlieb Happy Clown pinball machine. I believe the year was 1970. I decided to set the pinball machine up for money. I made 60.00 which was a lot of money in those days. I figured if they wanted to play and not have much to do with me, I might as well make some money.
Now you have me curious about Gottlieb Happy Clown pinball machine. I used to get frustrated as hell playing pinball machines. Not only would the ball go into the bottom hole very quickly but sometimes the machine would even mock me. Now I occasionally play pinball on my iPad and I think that my New iPad even lets you use body english to effect the bounce of the ball .
I don't know the secret. I just had a knack for pinball. You have to have a light and quick touch on the flippers. In those days you really could shake the machine quite a bit before a tilt. I think the key was we owned a machine and I could play everyday. I still have the same machine today, but it needs repair.
Is that the one with the thing on the stock that tells time?
Jim
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No the Daisy Red Ryder BB gun shot BBs. It had a wooden stock and a picture of a cowboy, Red Ryder. No clock. In the movies, Red Ryder was played by Wild Bill Elliot and his Indian companion, Little Beaver was played by Robt. Blake when he was a young boy.
From "A Christmas Story":
Jim
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I can still hear my mother saying, "Be careful or you'll shoot someone's eye out."
This was one of my all time favorite gifts as a kid. Do you remember when they used to offer
this BB gun on the back of comic books as a premium for selling Christmas cards?
BTW, I have a metal reproduction ad for the Red Ryder BB gun hanging in my house.
Regardless of the engineering challenges involved, fish can only survive within a narrow band of water quality (pH, hardness, etc, etc), and I wouldn't recommend introducing unknown substances (metals & plastics) into an aquarium environment, if not for the fish's sake, then at least for your own pocketbook's (i.e., replacement fish expenses).
Jim
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Seconded. I have kept both freshwater and mini-reef aquariums at one time.
Forget about anything to do with electricity (for obvious reasons). Think...compressed air.
The aquarium already has plenty of it.
Some basement dwelling tinker/genius could likely build your idea in some form.
the only way I could see this happening is if you had a perfect oval shaped track; and inside this track you had a turntable with an arm that 'guided' these trains along the track. Or course the train cars would have to be heavy enough to remain on the tracksKeeping it water-proofed would be your first hurdle since obviously any high voltage leak would kill you along with your turtles and goldfish.
Secondly and most importantly, although I'm confident my turntable concept would work, its draw back would be preventing corrosion from occuring from the water, fish food and fish cau-cau, on all the movable parts; which would happen within oh, a day or two...
Too much. Way so......
As a life-long model railroader (armchair division), I have never seen or heard of such a train. Might be possible, but the demand is surely microscopic. Cool idea, though!
You could use a magnet below the bottom of the tank to drag the train along.
My focus was to keep the fish alive (even harder than getting a train to move) as I figured they were my guests.
The secret is meeting the needs of the fish, i.e. temp, salinity, size of the tank etc. Not overfeeding or over crowding.
Good luck!
Cuts out bridges though, but Ok with tunnels.
Also kills blowing bubbles..
But maybe some sort of magnetic or? (like chargers do) of transmitting power to the train other than with wires? Like little gizmos encapsulated between tracks? Even small electromagnets and the act of charging the next one etc draws the train forward. (with feedback to keep the train and magnets in synch.. Or power coupling from gizmos to powertrain motor (thus also allowing bubble generation from engine...
So what if this is gonna cost like a Formula One car.. LOL!!
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