North Side: The Carnegie Science Center

The Great Miniature Railroad and Village: Animations

Bell Ringer

Boats

Ferris Wheel

Fishermen

Lady Beating a Carpet

Lady at the Spinning Wheel

Man on the Flying Trapeze

(inside the big top, evening performances only)

Man Tipping His Hat

Man Trying to Start His Model T

Old Grist Mill

Ore Bridge of the Steel Mill

Rocking Chair and the Black Cat's Tail

Skip Cars on the Blast Furnace

"The Mighty Casey" at Bat (striking out and staring in disbelief at the umpire!)

The Yellow House with the Lady Walking the Baby

Tree Swings

Washerwomen at their Washboards

Work Crews with Axes, Picks and Shovels
(31)

Incredible Animations Number Nearly 100
To find the real activity at The Great Miniature Railroad & Village, you have to go beneath the display! Below the surface, dozens of motors power nearly 100 animations throughout the display.
Everywhere you look there is a flurry of motion. You may catch a person taking a walk, starting a car, or swinging from a tree swing. Boats of all types move along the extensive river system.
Look closely and you find several animations make up the steel mill, each powered by at least one motor; cars unloading limestone, iron ore and coal; the ore bridge--which moves sideways and holds a clamshell bucket that moves up and down and across the bridge's expanse; skip cars carrying measured loads to the blast furnace; ladle cars carrying molten pig iron to the open hearth building.
Each of the animations is a work of art. Some take months to refine, depending upon how complex the animation needs to be. After the movement is perfected, each is handpainted, or "antiqued," in a 1920s fashion. And as many as 60 of the current stock of animations have been completely rebuilt to fit with the new computerized control system. (32)

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