# New Dining Establishment open for business!



## Tom Lapointe (Jan 2, 2008)

A new dining establishment just opened in the village of Watuppa...


















... Most of you guys will recognize this as the old discontinued "Frank's Diner" kit by Pola.
(An eBay "catch" I made a few months ago).




















...but with the addition of *10 "warm white" LED's. *


















Although the seller did an *excellent *job of packing it, a *lot *of details were knocked loose in shipping.








(Over the years, I've found this to be a *common occurrence *







...Structures in general do not tolerate
the "knocking around"







of shipping well). It also didn't help that whoever originally built the kit did a 
*marginal job of assembling it. *







-* Lots of insufficiently - glued joints. *







The figures & several 
stools were knocked loose, several window frames were loose, even a couple of major wall joints were coming apart (I kept finding more problems as I worked on it!







). - But with some patience (& a *LOT of plastic *
*cement & silicone rubber! *







), I was able to restore it to it's former glory!


















As I mentioned previously, a total of 10 LED's were used. 4 were strategically placed on the roof
to try to "spotlight" both sides of the sign relatively uniformly...










A single LED was placed under the canopy of each doorway, & 4 more were placed under the roof
to illuminate the interior. The 4 "sign spotlight" & interior LED's were wired in 2 series sets (4 each),
then the 2 sets of 4 were wired in parallel, requiring a nominal 12 volt supply for their power. The 2
"entrance" LED's were wired in parallel (needing 3 volts). I built a small voltage regulator circuit consist-
ing of a full-wave bridge rectifier, filter cap, LM7812 & LM7805 three-terminal voltage regulator chips, &
a couple of voltage dropping / current limiting resistors. (The regulator circuit can be seen on the floor
behind the left-hand counter; it's virtually invisible through the windows at normal viewing angles).








The use of the bridge rectifier permits me to use AC, DC, or DCC track power for a power source. (I'm
currently tapping power for ALL my lighted structures from the DCC power feed to the track, but plan to
change that in the near future; if I'm running some of my live-steamers with uninsulated drivers, I have to
shut down the DCC system so it won't be shorted out.







). I'm considering doing a solar or trickle-charged
battery supply, possibly with automatic photo-electric control, to isolate the lighting power from track power.










Hey, the crossing flashers nearby just started up - here comes Mallet #9 blowing for the crossing!


















The crew's pretty hungry, but we have to clear the crossing first...


















- As soon as the caboose clears the crossing, *DINNER TIME! *


















You might wonder why I went to the trouble of turning a relatively-ordinary plastic kit into a

bit of a "showpiece"; "Frank's Diner" is a bit of a *"tounge-in-cheek" memorial *







to a close
friend of mine, *Frank Dubiel, *who *LOVED "greasy-spoon" style diners *







& had a great 
*sense of humor *







as well. Frank passed away unexpectedly from a heart attack *7 years ago.*










*Tom*


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## caferacer (Jul 22, 2010)

Tom well done a greasy spoon cafe/diner for caferacers my world is complete your Railroad looks neat caferacer


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## Paulus (May 31, 2008)

I'll take two cheeseburgers and a coke, please! 

It's a good looking diner, very well done restoration job! 

Perhaps if you place it somewhat closer to the tracks you can design a drive in for the traincrews ;-)


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## denray (Jan 5, 2008)

Tom 
That is a great job, looks as though you took photos of a real life sized eatery, good info on the lights. Thanks for sharing with us. 
Dennis


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## aceinspp (Jan 2, 2008)

Nice job of lighting it up. May have to do that to mine. Good tip. Later RJD


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## emipapa (Jan 2, 2008)

Great Find Tom and It looks GREAT all lit up, Almost like the SHAWMET in New Bedford.


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## Nutz-n-Bolts (Aug 12, 2010)

Great job Tom, Like to hear how your Isolation of building lighting goes too. I like the idea of a solar powered trickle charge. Using LEDs won't task the system very much and should make it very plausible. I see you got one of the TD internationals on your Flat car too, Nice. (that was a funny thread, with the price going up and down as people started and stopped buying) Thanks for the post.


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## Biblegrove RR (Jan 4, 2008)

I like it allot, thanks for sharing!


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## Tom Lapointe (Jan 2, 2008)

*Thanks for all the nice comments, guys! *







Glad you all like it.







In reply to a few of the comments -

Paulus, the current location is as close to the track as I can get it. The "underbrush" between the rear of the diner & the right of way is *the top of a box hedge. *







(The entire Watuppa Railway is is built elevated @ 2 feet off the ground - there would be *no solid support underneath the diner. *







). Come to think of it







- next spring, when I start my annual battle with keeping the hedges in check *(often unbelievable how fast they can grow if we get a lot of rain!), *I'm probably going to have to temporarily *remove *the diner to *safely trim the hedges *without risking *"re-kitting" *







the diner in the process by an inadvertent swing of the hedge trimmer. (For clarification - *"re-kitting" *is a common *RC airplane experience *when one runs out altitude, airspeed & ideas all at the same time! ).














The entire "village" of Watuppa is built atop a *formerly open area *that I decked over after my Ruby 2-4-2 attempted to *re-kit itself *







by doing a "swan dive" though it after running away downgrade at something like *150 scale MPH! *







(The Ruby survived, & has since been "tamed" by RC installation).







The 2 nearby grade crossing flashers (they're the old Model Power ones, with the flaky, unrealistic original flasher bulbs removed & replaced with *large, high-intensity red LED's *







& a home-made transistorized flasher circuit that *flashes in a realistic manner *







) are in a similar hazard situation & *plug in *to 1/4" phone jacks installed at the edge of the roadbed; I just unplug then when it's time to trim the hedges.







The power supply connection to the diner is via a cut-down audio cable with a 1/8" mini phone plug on the end, plugging into a jack underneath the supporting decking; I've got all but one of my lighted structures set up similarly, it makes electrical disconnection easy if I have to work on the building (or quickly remove them in anticipation of *severe weather). All of the structures are secured to the decking with screws *(to prevent them from blowing around in high winds); I also use the *"garage" method *(written up in a "Garden Railways" article a few years back) of protecting my more delicate structures such as the diner, my Aristo "Victorian" station (which has received lots of additional detailing, including a *working, lighted station clock), *Pola coaling & water towers, the small green Pola farm house near the diner, & Aristo signal tower from sun fade, heavy rain, & birdie doo







; Frank's Diner gets covered by a trash bag weighted down by small rocks when the train's aren't running. All the lighting power leads are brought together to an old screw-type telephone terminal block mounted underneath the decking; it's a relatively easy task to lie on back underneath to make wiring changes, such as the planned isolation of the building lighting circuits. 

The pictures were taken at dusk; this coming weekend, if I have a chance & the weather co-operates (it's down to *19 degrees F. *







here as I write this!), I'll try to take a few daytime photos. In answer to a few of realism compliments







- there is a *very similar art-deco style diner *maybe a 1/2 mile from where I live; I'll try to get some shots of that too! (Oh, & by the way - the camera used for *all these photos *was an *Apple iPhone 4! *







).








*Tom*


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