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Human Powered Night Train

This is a human powered parade float for a Christmas night parade. It was built by the Human Powered Vehicle Operators of Ottawa (HPVOoO) http://hpv.tricolour.net . More details can be found on http://hpv.tricolour.net/train.html . The base platform is a human powered tandem recumbent tricycle towing a home made 4'x8' tandem axle 3/4 ton flatbed cargo trailer which in turn is towing a kid's wagon. The trike lies entirely underneath the bottom locomotive boiler line. The rest is added superstructure. The red, green and blue lights are 130m of 2.5mm electro-luminescent wire. The horn is a real diesel locomotive air horn.

16 comments

Nov 12, 2011. 7:50 PMBillCraft says:

I would love to build this for Christmas time!!! I was just wondering where you bought all of the EL wire, inverters, and connectors.

Nov 13, 2011. 5:37 AM

rggb (author) says:

Here's a description of the wiring:

http://hpv.tricolour.net/train-elwire.txt

Jun 12, 2011. 4:01 PMtanmanknex says:

Approximately how much did it cost?

Jun 12, 2011. 7:55 PM

rggb (author) says:

The EL wire is about $1.20/foot and there is about 400'. There are also 8 inverters that are $10 each? Connectors all told were maybe another $50?

The wood was almost all recycled. The bike rims were in a scrap heap, as was the stove pipe.

A friend gave me the diesel locomotive air horn, but those can fetch anywhere from $300 to $900. The air tank and connectors were $75-$100.

The tandem recumbent trike you can find here: http://greenspeed.com.au/gtt.html

The trailer was about $200 in metal plus labour.

Apr 26, 2011. 1:02 PM

katerlyn says:

Can we see it in daytime? I would like to do this to my Rhoadescar.

Apr 27, 2011. 9:11 AM

rggb (author) says:

Sure, there's lots more photos linked from here in a number of levels of detail: http://hpv.tricolour.net/train.html

Apr 7, 2011. 3:23 AM2qwe says:

An interesting article. Thanks)

Mar 10, 2011. 3:03 PMTheBlackSharpie says:

At first I thought this was a light-painting but this is way cooler!

Mar 2, 2011. 12:09 PMCharlie13 says:

how heavy is this thing?

Mar 2, 2011. 2:02 PM

rggb (author) says:

Here's a rough guess:
tandem: 80 pounds
trailer: 100+ pounds
kid's wagon: 25 pounds
diesel loco air horn: 20 pounds
On top of that is three 10' sections of 2x6", a bit of 2x2" and smaller lumber, 1/2" conduit and the lights basically weigh nothing compared to the rest of this.
So, 275 pounds as a guess? Then you have two adults pedalling, 12 kids in the big trailer and a couple of kids in the wagon. The big trailer is good for 1500 pounds (3/4 ton).

Mar 1, 2011. 9:20 PMJasonYMN says:

That's incredible. If I had the time I would so make something like this.