Walther's bottle cars & slag cars are in themselves magnificently detailed, (but are glued together to prevent them from falling apart), Therefore, they lack animation. As you will see in the top photo, my bottle car can swivel between the bottle and the two end supports. After removing the trucks, use a razor saw to carefully separate the bottle from the end 3 axle-trucked supports. I was delighted to find that the ends of the bottle could be twisted apart,(with little effort). I then carefully drilled pivot size holes in the two end supports and two ends of the bottle, such that a round rod can be pushed either through part way, or through the entire assembly and held in place with small washers (or other plastic caps),glued only to the extension of the long rod, (so that the bottle can be tipped). One can paint the "glowing molten iron", made of plastic (or Silly Putty). The molten iron will glow when illuminated with a small tubular "fluorescent black light". An incandescent black light bulb gets too hot, so get a six inch or nine inch tubular fixture and black light tubes, (which do not get too hot).
The animation of the slag car turned out to be fairly simple since the ladle is separate from its support ring, and the slag car is one frame construction, with two axle trucks on each end. The trucks do not have to be removed, if one cuts carefully with a razor saw, to separate the frame from the ladle ring. Drill a pivot hole through the two ends of the ladle ring, and holes for the pivot on the two ends of the supports, which contain the motors & rack and pinon (to maintain the "center of gravity", of the heavy ladle as it is tipped (on the prototype). By drilling a small pilot hole first, one can easily drill the pivot size hole, through the two car frame ends, and the two sides of the ladle ring. The plastic pivot rods are pushed in from each end, and glued on the outside ends. The ladle should tip easily, so that it can be operated by a wire pivoted on the off-center wheel on axle of some slow motion motor that is glued or screwed to the bottom of the layout. I happened to have an old "Rocking Boat" music box, that was operated by a wind-up crank, as shown in the last photo. The "Dumping of Molten Slag" animation, (by chance, turned out to be quite simple). It so happens that a kids "Silly Putty" plastic storage shell fits exactly , into the slag car ladle, and pulls apart into two halves, (with a hollow center), so that when the ladle is tipped, the "molten slag" pours out first ---followed by the two halves of the semi-solidified slag ring" ,(halves of the plastic shell0. I marked the edge of the shell that was in line with the top edge of the ladle. Cutting along the marked line was quite easy with a razor saw. I cut pieces of the remaining shell into a rough tapered shape, to represent the molten slag. The strips were then glued to a very flexible plastic strip, to the edge of the ladle. The semi-solidified slag shell, and the "molten slag" that is to be in the ladle are then painted with fluorescent yellow-orange, which will glow under "black light", from a tube fixture hidden in the opposite embankment of the slag pit. Bob Hahn e-mail any questions to: ROBTAHahn@Earthlink.net
Original Slag Car as purchased