I have this small narrow stretch of space that I was contemplating on building a park and then it struck me that drive-in theatres were quite popular in the past. Does anyone have pictures of drive-in theatres that they modeled on their layout?
I have seen several where the modeler has taken a DVD player screen to make the drive-in "functional". Pretty neat concept is you think about it. Smilz.
One of my fellow club members built a theatre on their module. I belive it was a kit, though I may be wrong. Susan puts in Thomas & Friends on the screen during shows and it is ALWAYS a crowd pleaser with the kids. To represent the speaker, she used sewing pins. It is one of my favorite modules that I have seen.
I don't have one yet, but I have one planned for my layout with the screen facing my workbench. Using a pair of mirrors, I am going to project the image onto the screen using this: It's an inexpensive VGA resolution LED projector. It's pretty dim, but it puts out a very clear image at the 11-inch projection distance that I have in mind. I had originally thought about using an old iPod or something, but I don't like the idea of trying to recreate a projected image with a backlit display. This has the advantage of being hooked up to a computer, which means I can display any image or movie that I want.
The Garden Railroad at Fairplex in Pomona CA has a Drive in Theater in G scale, rather an attention getter during the world famouns fair that takes place once a year. I encourage any and all that can come to the fair to make it this year of 2011, dates are September 3 thru October 2, hope to see you there. fatalxsunrider43
Here is one from the South Australian N Gauge Society in Adelaide. It uses a portable player which they have hidden under the cars. I have similar plans, but want to do a little more hacking and try to make the screen look more realistic. Gordon
Look what I found on ebay: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...akeTrack=true&ssPageName=VIP:watchlink:top:en $35 incl shipping for a small 2.5" LCD that takes a composite signal. There are cheaper ones by a few bucks, but this one incl the wall wart.
Here is the space I was thinking about: The housing looks thin enough to farbricate some kind of "wooden" bezel to make it look less modern. Plus, the way my layout is laid out and the angle this will sit on, you will not be able to see the side of the monitor that easily. I think that screen may be perfect. The display area is only 47mm wide by 38mm high. Too bad it is 4:3 and not 16:9.
My wife picked up a very small digital photo viewer that would probably be just the right size for an N scale movie screen. I know that has a slide show, but I’ll have to take a look to see if it will play movies like MPEG.
My wife and I have had a drive-in Ntrak module for the past 10 years. We originally had a Radio Shack LCD TV that finally wore out after several years. It current has a remote screen from an auto DVD system that fits on a seatback. I had gotten the original module frame from a now-deceased friend from Houston, TX who had originally built an HO scale drive-in module and later converted it to N scale. After trying some touch up on the scenery and upgrading to a color TV, we wound up taking all of the scenery off the module and rebuilding it. My wife did the scenery base in California while I had the module at our home in Georgia. We put the two sections together only a week before the Ntrak 2000 Convention in San Jose, CA. We've named the module Sunland Drive-In after my late friend, Bob Sunderland. After two cross-country moves and numerous shows, we replaced the original module frame in 2008 with a more substantial frame that would be less prone to warping (the original frame was a somewhat lightweight frame that had a fair amount of homasote in it and had gotten out of square). The first photo is the original rebuild in 2000. The second photo is the current video system from 2006. BTW, we use this as our "kid magnet" by playing Thomas and Friends DVD's at shows. Allen Evans UNW Ntrak Division Federal Way, WA
I've seen various flatscreen DVD player setups and now with projectors getting so small, they might be the future. The best drive-in module I've ever seen was on a Z Bend module and it had the theater but for sound, the owner had purchased two real drive-in movie window speakers (one for each side of the module) and wired them to provide the sound. I thought that was an excellent touch. Andy Tetsu Uma
Blair line makes an N scale drive in kit: Blair Line HO and N scale Drive In Theatre kit At one time there was a manufacturer that advertised a CD player/LCD screen that I believe was compatible with the Blair line kit and included a number of vehicles, but I couldn't find a link. Maybe later I'll check my old magazine archives, I think these were on the market maybe 5 years ago. Might still be a few out there.
Here's a page with some Drive in Marquee art. The Bel-Air was a Twin Screen Drive in that was surrounded by Chicago city neighborhoods. Unfortunately its now a shopping center. The Skyview and Starlite were common drive in names. N Scale Limited Forum View topic - Drive in movie theater dream.
I saw one at a train show in Eastleigh yesterday. The layout is of somewhere in Colorado, in Z, and the screen looked to me to be more suitable for HO. Effective, though! It attracted quite a few comments. Regards, Pete Davies
