Laube Volunteer Fire Company

Partway into initial construction of the WR&N III, the track plan underwent a major revision, and a structure that was nearly finished—a firehouse with working doors adapted from Otto's Parts, a Design Preservation Models kit—was no longer needed. Rather than scrap the project, I completed it and donated it to Rick Spano for his Sceniced and Undecided.

Although the rollup doors appear to work independently, they are actually operated by one mechanism. A pin on the edge of the wider door catches a pin on the edge of the smaller one after the larger door is partway open. The doors slide along Plastruct H columns; in the raised position they are hidden behind simulated Venetian blinds (styrene siding with vertical scribed lines).

The lifting mechanism consists of a geared micromotor that rotates a 4-40 bolt. A 4-40 nut moves a rod through a tube that runs parallel to the bolt; it also engages microswitches to stop the motor at each end of the cycle. The sliding rod engages a lever that swings up and down to move the doors.

Image specs: These images were captured with a Canon 20D digital SLR.

See the doors working! | Watch it on YouTube

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