here I will move all the threads pretaining to the Burro Crane project/disscussion here. so I did some messing around with a atlas 50' flat car, and I think that it might be possible to fir a decoder (like a lenz silver Mini) between the "fish belly" side frames. It will require removing all the underbody detail where the decoder will be placed, and if the pickup all comes from the flat, and none from the crane its self, their should only be 2 wires going from one to the other, unless you wanted to do lights, then their would be at the most 5 wires, 2 for the motor, one light common and one light switched for each directional light. Mine will not have lights, I don't have the skills to work with micro surface mounted LEDs yet. another problem I ran into is on small radi corners, the boom will swing off the flat car, and might hit stuff on the right of way, tunnel entrances and the inside of tunnels. so the body and boom would have to pivot and follow the flat car around the corners. if the body and boom pivoted freely, all it would take to stay in alignment with the flat would be some kind of bunk for the boom to sit in, or maybe a "cable" (something stiff like a needle that could be painted to look like a cable, and bent to resemble the same) that hangs from the end of the boom and rests in a hole in the deck, and like I said as long as the body pivoted freely their shouldn't be a problem. I have found a few of the Burro kits on E-bay, but I can't find any dimensions anywhere, I figure of all else fails, the boom and other detail parts from the kit can be used and a new body fabricated out of brass. if anyone has one of these kits and wants to take some extensive pictures and measurements, it will help the process along. I found some specs on the real Model 40 Burro here http://www.noamequip.com/634.shtml and pictures/information here http://atsf.railfan.net/work/burro.html I might have to put this one on hold for a little while though, I found out I am getting laided off in July, and will not be working for a while. so my trains budget has been cut back dramatical, about $50 a month. My wife knows that I have already started planning this project, and said that we might be able to work something out. I am also starting it's own thread for this project/disscussion
