Lanakila Express

(Class Collaboration)

Train Project

The Lanakila Express is an electric train that was created by two generations of Engineering IV classes. The train ran at the Punahou Carnival and brought joy to young children along with raising money for financial aid.

Track

The track was designed to be a continuous loop, similar to an oval race track shape. We used steel rails and wooden ties to create the track. After we fabricated all of the pieces and put them together, there was a large gap (see right image). This gap was likely due to human inconsistencies in the track production process. The rails were curved one at a time, so it was extremely difficult to replicate an exact curvature. To fix this, I made various cuts in pieces along the track, using the horizontal band saw (bottom right image). Some tracks needed lengthening, while others needed more curvature. 

Cars

All of the passenger cars were made with the same frame design, but they had different shells. Here, I am attaching the hitch mount to the car frame. We made sure the frame was built correctly before cutting the wooden shell of the train car so it could fit properly.

Cars continued

Here, we are checking if the wooden walls  are flush against the train car frame. We are also making sure the walls are slightly longer on each end to fit with the short walls without any protruding edges.

Pins

I was in charge of making all of the pins for the train. The pins connected the train trucks to the train cars. I used a lathe with a solid steel rod to create the pins. This job was difficult in many ways. I needed to follow very specific measurements or else the train would be dangerous for the riders. I also needed to replicate the same piece many times and each one had to be identical within a small margin.

Pins continued

The production of these pins was also quite dangerous. The constant contact of my high speed carbide bit with the steel rod created a lot of heat within the steel. As I was shaving off layers of the steel, I was constantly showered with hot metal shavings. Sometimes, when these shavings would hit my skin they would burn and fuse to my skin. Because of the high RPM of the lathe, anything coming off is moving at an extremely fast speed. When I was cutting off a pin with a parting tool (long, knife like tool), the tool shattered (picture above), and I felt a piece of it strike my chest. It had happened so fast I could not react, but luckily my shirt had protected my skin from being damaged.

Locomotive Weights

Since the outdoor basketball court the train track was on was not perfectly level, we needed a lot of power when going uphill. To increase the friction on the wheels of the locomotive, I cut steel plates on the water jet to act as weights in the locomotive. I added a total of around 130 pounds to the locomotive. This strategy was successful and helped us when going uphill on the track.

Solar Charging System

(Never completed per instructions from teacher)

Charge Controller

These are essential to controlling the level of energy going into our batteries.

Axle System

Our goal for the Solar Charger was to have it able to turn and face the sun.

Other Systems

We also looked at other systems and took what we could from them to add to our own.

Sketches

Perspective

Rotation Method

Wheel/Handle

Leg Design

Materials

This is a list of the general materials we used for our project.

Machines

These are the  many machines we plan to use to create our Solar Charger

CAD

Legs

Stellan - Middle Leg, 45ËšCut Leg, Leg Bracket

Handle

Kasin/Kaden - Handle, Wheel

"Solar System"

Stellan, Kasin, Kaden and Josh

Prototyping

Leg Bracket

We mainly prototyped our leg bracket to make sure we had the sizing and the hole placement optimally situated. We were also able to use this prototype as a layout to drill the holes in our legs.

Handle

This is one of our prototypes for the free moving handle we plan to put on our wheel.

Here, we attached the slanted legs to the vertical one using the bracket I had created.

This is a close up of the bracket we used to build our frame.