A swimming pool on a train?

[gregh]

Many years ago we were traveling on the Indian Pacific from Sydney to Perth, crossing the Nullabor Plain. It was 40C+ outside but we were fine inside in air conditioned comfort. BUT, I thought “wouldn’t it be great to have a swim?”

Now the Sandstone & Termite management have decided to add a swimming pool carriage to its Express trains in summer.

Trying to approach this from some basic engineering principles, I decided I would need a sort of long ‘well wagon’ to allow the pool to hang between the bogies. The flat areas above the bogies would be the sunbaking areas.
I even discovered that a swimming pool car had been Patented in the US in 1975. It was an indoor pool.
https://patents.google.com/patent/US3905308A/en

I imagined an outdoor pool so patrons could enjoy the desert sunshine.
Instead of building a new wagon, I dug out the well wagon I built in 2005 but had seldom used and decided to use it to fit a ‘drop-in’ pool . It’s 550mm long with the centre ‘well’ about 300mm long.

Now a few problems arose.
1. The pool can really only be about 2-6” deep, but I guess the swimmers can splash around in that.
(just for my interest, the pool would hold about 10,000 litres of water, weighing 10 tonnes.)
2. The pool will be around 12” long, so on my 1:25 grades, the water would be ½” deeper at one end! So the use of real water was discounted. What to use?? Jelly???
3. Patrons needed to be able to get ‘across’ the pool from end to end of the carriage. The Patent used a central ‘catwalk’ across the pool. I haven’t decided whether to use a side bridge or a central one or a diagonal one???

I decided patrons would require ‘glass’ sides so they could watch the desert passing by. (We’ll neglect the wind problem.) So I obtained some 3mm thick perspex.
As I was building on the existing wagon, I didn’t need the pool part to be load bearing – the strength is provided by the wagon. The pool itself is 1.5 mm styrene.
At each end is a small ‘cubicle’ which is supposed to be a shower/toilet or maybe a ‘bar’. And to provide some shade (beach umbrellas probably not advisable), some short roof section. That will help to strengthen the sides too.

So it was time to start sketching and planning. (planning is usually done while lying awake in the middle of the night.)
So this is my rough sketch.

green is the shower/change cubicle and red is the sunbaking area.
Not shown is the ‘bridge’.

to be continued when/if I get motivated.

[philipy]

Nice idea, but I imagine that the anti-slop baffles will impede the swimming somewhat, though?

[FWLR]

Not sure if you are thinking of using real water Greg, but Woodland Scenics do a "Magic Water" that you can use. It dries clear or you can colour it if you like.


I found some in Australia but it's very expensive..


https://www.amazon.com.au/Woodland-Scen ... B000A7PPOE



You can get it in the UK, but I don't know about shipping costs mate.


This is what I found in the UK..


https://www.modelrailwaysdirect.co.uk/w ... tic-water/

Hope it helps mate.

[gregh]

Nice idea, but I imagine that the anti-slop baffles will impede the swimming somewhat, though?

I wondered the same when I read the Patent. There I was swimming along and bang!, hit by a baffle right where it hurts. How embarrassing.

[Peter Butler]

If we think about this matter seriously... (???) it is clear that a large volume of liquid in a single container is impractical, especially when it needs to be attended by an on-board Doctor in case baffles come into contact with delicate parts! ! It could be overcome though. What about individual 'pods', like hot-tubs? These would allow water to be more stable whilst still allowing passengers to bathe outdoors during their long, hot, journey, but having the additional benefit of pool-side drinks served to them.
It also allows the through access of passengers from one carriage to another by winding their way between the 'pods' in an ornamental garden scene.
How about that then?

[Jimmyb]

If we think about this matter seriously... (???) it is clear that a large volume of liquid in a single container is impractical, especially when it needs to be attended by an on-board Doctor in case baffles come into contact with delicate parts! ! It could be overcome though. What about individual 'pods', like hot-tubs? These would allow water to be more stable whilst still allowing passengers to bathe outdoors during their long, hot, journey, but having the additional benefit of pool-side drinks served to them.
It also allows the through access of passengers from one carriage to another by winding their way between the 'pods' in an ornamental garden scene.
How about that then?

Got me thinking on how athletes (swimmers particularly) have copped during the pandemic, my understanding is a small pool and some type of restraint strapping, haven't looked in detail, but I am sure there is some type of prototype out there.

[ge_rik]

And then of course, there's the issue of gradients. What happens when the deep end becomes the shallow end and worse still, the shallow end becomes the deep end?

Rik

[Peter Butler]

Got me thinking on how athletes (swimmers particularly) have copped during the pandemic, my understanding is a small pool and some type of restraint strapping, haven't looked in detail, but I am sure there is some type of prototype out there.

There is Jimmy. A friend is a determined swimmer and during lock-down she purchased an inflatable pool for the garden and a purpose made restraining harness to do exactly that. Also, despite pools being closed, open water or sea swimming was an option, if you happened to live close to one!

[gregh]

If we think about this matter seriously... (???) it is clear that a large volume of liquid in a single container is impractical, especially when it needs to be attended by an on-board Doctor in case baffles come into contact with delicate parts! ! It could be overcome though. What about individual 'pods', like hot-tubs? These would allow water to be more stable whilst still allowing passengers to bathe outdoors during their long, hot, journey, but having the additional benefit of pool-side drinks served to them.
It also allows the through access of passengers from one carriage to another by winding their way between the 'pods' in an ornamental garden scene.
How about that then?

A nice piece of lateral thinking. I'll be doing some thinking along those lines.
I have already built the 'pool' from styrene and it is actually watertight.

[Andrew]

I've had a read of that patent, it's crazy! I love how, rather than revisit the idea of the cinema car or whatever, a swimming pool was deemed the best solution to alleviate boredom on long journeys!

Sounds like the inventor's solved (?!) the issue of delicate parts and baffles though:

"In practice, the baffle actuating mechanism will be relatively slow to allow the bathers sufficient time to move clear of the baffles. An audible alarm and/or flashing lights 62 may be actuated by the braking system to provide warning to the swimmers to move clear of the baffles."

So that's OK then - you just need audible alarms and flashing lights Greg!

Alas, those of us modelling 2' gauge lines can't fit in a swimming pool - bowling alley anyone??

Looking forward to further updates,

Andrew.

[gregh]

Some great ideas so far from Rod's magic water to Peter's 'islands in the sun' and Andrew's 'bells and whistles'.
I've decided to go down the path of using real water (until proven impossible).
So with a waterproof pool, I too rummaged in the kitchen cupboard for some food colouring and set out to do some hydraulic studies. (I'm sure I remember a University course on Fluid Dynamics, but it must have oozed out of my skull in 50 years.)
So I half filled the 23mm deep pool with pink water (no, not a shark attack). As predicted on a 1:25 grade, the water was zero at one end and 'full' at the other. I then ran a few tests of stopping and starting on grades and level. The only good result is that there is minimal slop (technical term) side-to-side as the train goes around curves. BUT waves propagate along the pool nicely!
Here's a short video.

At around 40 secs you can see the waves going up and down the pool as it stops gently at the station. Even better is the emergency stop at 2:45 By that time I had put a small baffle (lead) in the centre of the pool which certainly reduced the slop.

So I have decided to have two separate pools, each 100mm long and another sunbaking area between them in the middle of the car. ie the pools will be about 6' wide by 8' long - big enough to just lie around in.
I hope these 100mm long pools will be less affected by the slopping.

[FWLR]

Brilliant.. Though it does need to be run at slows speeds it seems Greg. But if there were to be two lots of baffles would it stop to almost no waves maybe...

[gregh]

Brilliant.. Though it does need to be run at slows speeds it seems Greg. But if there were to be two lots of baffles would it stop to almost no waves maybe...

I'll do some tests with the 2 smaller pools before I decide.

[gregh]

the work continues as time permits.....

This is a mockup with the 2 pools, sunbake area between and at ends and shower rooms at each end. I can start painting soon.

this video shows more testing with the 2 pools. I think the wave action is acceptable now.

[ge_rik]

Looking great, Greg. I really admire your tenacity.....

Rik

[FWLR]

So do I. Your persistence is paying off Greg.

[gregh]

A little more progress as time permits.
The 'cabins' at either end are taking shape, as well as the walkway between the 2 ends.

The work remaining is the safety fence along the walkway and some sun lounges and swimmers in the water.


I have decided it will be called 'the Oasis pool" with decal signs on the perspex on either side, something like this....

[ge_rik]

Looking great!

Somehow, I can't see there will be a need for something similar on the Peckforton Light Railway

Rik

[philipy]

Somehow, I can't see there will be a need for something similar on the Peckforton Light Railway

Maybe you could do a portable ski slope?

[FWLR]

Fantastic Greg. I love the new design, it's just so in keeping with the Aussie way of life I guess.

The decals look superb too.