ECE senior designed, built mini train to get around Purdue University
Edward Stuckey’s objective was simple: create a powered vessel that was recognizably unique to venture across campus.
A brainstorm initially brought him the idea of a lawn chair with wheels. But the design that made it off the page in fall 2022 was a compact (but liftable) locomotive.
It was done by summer 2023.
Over the next four years, the “Boilermaker Ultra Special” became a visual staple as Stuckey zoomed around Purdue University’s West Lafayette location.
“The most common question I get about the train is, ‘Where did you get that?’” said Stuckey, a Fort Wayne, Indiana native. “I get to show off this tactile thing I built and say, ‘I made this,’ and everyone seems surprised. Most often though, people just exclaim as they watch me go by.”
While the project existed before Stuckey really dove into engineering, his interests were all manifest in the “Boilermaker Ultra Special.” An excitement for the hands-on work for hardware and a longstanding passion for computer programming and modeling meshed in computer engineering.
It was a choice that Stuckey never doubted.
The welded chassis, complete with a black smokestack up the neck of the scooter, is outlined to match the Boilermaker Special and the Boilermaker Extra Special with yellow vinyl stick-on features. Stuckey welded and soldered the pieces at a local makerspace, then created the vinyl cutouts at the Wilmeth Active Learning Center (WALC). The motor, handheld controller and tires were hardware pieces he purchased online. He also made two trailer seats to add passengers for riding around Purdue.
The train ride to class, to events — around Industrial Roundtable, most notably — has been an enjoyable perk for Stuckey of living on a college campus.
In one week, he'll be a graduate of the Elmore Family School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. With a train-shaped scooter and a computer engineering diploma to highlight his experiences.
“The train itself is a landmark at Purdue, and whoever is on the train is the ‘train guy’ as long as they’re there,” Stuckey said. “In my senior design group I mentioned I have this train, and everyone went, ‘Wait, you’re the guy with the train?’ It’s neat that this project of mine has become so recognizable.”
Source: ECE senior designed, built mini train to get around Purdue University