This week the topic is Fire Trucks, Fire Houses, Fire Hydrant basically anything to do with putting fires out. I saw our local bucket fire truck parked with an array of antique tractors in the days before an annual farm show.
I love model trains for those of you who do not know and while on our trip to Pennsylvania and Washington, DC we stopped at a -place in Strasburg, PA called the Choo Choo Barn. It is an attraction that started nearly a half century ago and is one of the largest model railroad layouts I have had the pleasure to witness. There is over a hundred separate pieces of this arrangement that are animated, including a fire truck that answers a fire call. This first photo is a still capture from a video I made of the truck exiting the fire station.
The second still capture shows the fire truck en-route from the fire station to respond to the call. Before I saw the beauty of this show piece I had not considered animation in my train set. But now I am leaning that way with ideas floating on how to make mine come to life.
Unfortunately my camera is not the best at accomplishing zoom with the video, so I cannot show you the firemen that appear when the fire truck finally arrives at the scene of the fire. You might be able to discern the light bulbs inside the house simulating the glow of a fire. Not long after the truck arrives a ladder projects out of the ground and a fireman sprays actual water into the house that is “on fire”.
As I said these are all screen captures from a video I took of the animation. If you would like to see the video you can follow this link: Choo Choo Barn Fire Call.
Joe's Musings 
How interesting and a great video.
Animation is an interesting twist to a train layout. Do they use a slot car track for the fire engine, or is it also on rails?
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I am not sure Alan. The fellow that runs this place has tons of You Tube videos as “how to’s” I need to see if he has one explaining how it is accomplished. I know in one video he got on one of the crawlers you use to roll under a car to get to a spot underneath this massive lay out.
Interesting…
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I have just bare benches with my track on them, so I am in a great position to investigate something like this, given I can find the right way to accomplish what I want.
Please keep us informed, Joe. I, for one, would be interested in following your progress and seeing the finished product.
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I have a blog for it Allan, although it is somewhat bare right now.