Making a start on the Fredericktown Tramway (Mk1)

[robc_wa]

Well I am making a start even if I have not yet laid any track.   I have decide on a name, The Fredericktown tramway.   We hope to retire in a couple of years to Albany on  the south coast of  WestOz. When it was founded as the first settlement in the state in 1829 it was known as Fredericktown, hence that bit,. Tramway because in “the earlies “  the term Railway in Australia was reserved for Govt railways.
More waffle on the putative history, raison d’etre etc later perhaps.  

For now the PW  dept has placed an order for 2 boxes of Peco SM32 with a local model shop, following good advice received on this forum. The CME has had the good fortune to get an elderly Mamod SLK1 at what I would call a real secondhand price via that auction site. It is currently being relocated by GPO and Aus Post from Northern England to Down Under.  The CME dept also now has a Rapier kit , and a few other bits and pieces are being acquired for the C&W dept . A Wagon is in the middle of being scratch built and may feature here shortly.
The following show the site for what will be Mk1  f the tramway, which I can play with whilst we are still in Perth and will act as a learning curve. The full thing with plants and stuff can wait.



The red circuit is about 18m.  I think I will probably do the blue bits almost straight off since it will be easier with the turnout geometry.
As you can see part of the run will be on bricks or on concrete garden edging. The rest will  be on timber on short posts since it is temporary. I notice that a lot of people seem to lay track on concrete blocks, which are then concealed with nice grit ballast.   I will probably need some sort of loose track fixing since our winter temps ( now ) are about 5 degrees at night and our summer daytime air temp get to 40. Surface temp gets even hotter!  Ideas welcomed on fixing methods and also if I should use timber on top of the bricks
Cheers
Rob

[Sir Clothem Cap]

You have chosen a great rail system for heat expansion. Flexitrack can be secured by an occasional screw through a sleeper (ties) which allow the metal rails to expand and contract quite well. Give yourself the gentlest curves you can do in the area you have and don't attach the points (turnouts) to the ground if you can help it around the triangle.

Wood makes a great track bed but get some that won't warp in the exposed weather conditions.

I like your simple track plan that will allow end to end running as well as continuous loop running with the added bonus of being able to turn an engine on the triangle without removing it from the rails.

Great plan please do keep the photos coming as you build the railway.

[robc_wa]

I am surprised to see that a year has just about gone since I posted my design ideas on this forum. Some progress has been made. Track has been laid and services by a Faller railcar and a Faller "old time" min-playtrain have kept my 2yo grandson amused. I have been working on a real train though, and today I hoped to make a short video of it running. Unfortunately the motive power, an IP Rapier, decided that it was time to misbehave. The gear wheel was slipping on the axle. Time to dismantle and superglue it! So here are a couple of photos anyway.


train2 by robc2, on Flickr


train1 by robc2, on Flickr
Before you ask how I expect a 2WD Rapier to pull that lot (it has alreasy pulled all except the Binnie flat wagon), the loco weighs 12oz thanks to some real lead!

Hopefully I can produce a video of it next weekend!

Rob

[GTB]

Some progress has been made.

You're cooking with gas......

 The gear wheel was slipping on the axle.   Time to dismantle and superglue it!

Try Loctite retaining compound rather than superglue. Loctite expands as it cures, so it makes a stronger bond than superglue where slippery plastics are involved.

You could try Autobarn or Supercheap Auto if there's one close, as I think I've seen it there. Otherwise the bearing suppliers like CBC stock it.

Graeme

[Jerm]

Wow, that is a mighty impressive Rapier. Mine can do 3 to 4 light wagons, tops. Good start on the railway, too. After attending a steam up this weekend I am growing envious of everyone with a raised railway.

[robc_wa]

Hopefully I can produce a video of it next weekend!

Well I got some of the gunk that Graeme suggested and stripped down the Rapier and got wheels and gear nice and tight on the axle. Unfortunately the standard Ezee mounting method for the motor wasn't helping, even though I had braced it with some hot glue on the original build. I added a second motor bracket and also an extra couple of ounces of lead sheet.



The wheel assembly was then refixed and I then managed to find time to do a quick video of the Rapier and its train doing a lap. Time was hard to find since this was in the lead up to a 3 month break from work for that excellent, but now rather endangered, element of Aussie working life known as Long Service Leave. Unfortunately the desk clearing beforehand was fearsome. So the video was taken but not posted until now - over a month later! Here it is.

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In the intervening month I have done a lot of travel in Europe and am now in the UK where I will be for the next 2 months. Since I am in the Land of the Prince Bishops I will be going to PftP at Beamish at the end of the month, and will be "going south" to Elescar at the end of Sept. Any other ideas of events in the next 2 months vaguely “oop north”

Regards

Rob

[robc_wa]

Well I am somewhat surprised to find that it is nearly 3 years since I last posted on this Thread. Some things have happened on the Fredericktown Tramway (FT) during that time.

The railway was originally intended to be a testing place for ideas to put into place in my retirement, which should have happened by now, but has not. I started this thread(in 2011) saying that I hoped to retire in a couple of years!!

I now find myself with a few weeks of enforced idleness as I recover from a hip replacement ( the second since starting the railway!), so I intend to do some retrospective posts to cover the stunningly slow progress that has been made in the past 3 years.

The railway has always been for me and my grandson and one good thing about the passage of time is that he has gone from being a 2 year old chasing trains


To a rather more useful 5 year old who can check to see if the wheels are all still on the track.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/wdrHPj][url=https://flic.kr/p/wdrHPj]

Well now that I have broken the ice again I will sort through my photos and see if I can come up with a few more posts about the development of the line and its stock. The other thing about a growing grandson is that everything now has to be radio controlled so there are a few tales of conversions as well.

Regards

Rob

[jim@NAL]

looking great keep up the good work and I do believe I saw the sun in some of your pics send some our way its been quite dull and miserable here

[robc_wa]

I do believe I saw the sun in some of your pics send some our way its been quite dull and miserable here  8)

Jim

Thanks for the kind words. It is winter here and has been a bit rainy this week. Temps between 15 at night and 20 in the day! It will be sunny again this weekend with a range more like 10-20

In case you think that is nice, we have to pay for it with summers that reach up to 40.

Rob

[robc_wa]

When I stopped posting on this thread 3 years ago, I was about to go on a trip to the UK. The line was laid to the extent that can be seen here and was intended to be a temporary affair to last a couple of years.
FT_Phase1

The track ran from a 2 road “steam up area” behind the camera to a short single section and then into the Y seen just in front of the camera. There was a continuous circuit running just this side of the swimming pool. Although I had a second-hand Mamod SK1, I had not got it functioning and traffic was in the hands of a collection of Faller stuff as well as an IP rapier and some skips. However on that trip to the UK I went to the Elsecar show and picked up a Bertie that I had ordered from Roundhouse and also bought kits for two open wagons and a Guards van from the Brandbright stall.
Also whilst I the UK I got hold of another Faller Railcar and a cheapo RC car and following the suggestions of John “The Bodgeller” Rogers in an old GR (no 168) I created the FTs first radio controlled vehicle. The conversion was carried out on my 92 year old father’s workbench in Durham.
RC_Railbus
Flushed with success I bought another cheapo RC car only to discover they are identical frequencies in the 27mHz band!!
Anyway back home in Aus I assembled the 2 open wagons and was able to run them with my scratch build Douglas Tramway bogie wagon, behind Bertie.

Video here https://youtu.be/VvkG2E7RS5k

The guards van is still not finished 2 and a half years later. I seem to have a roof completion phobia problem. More anon on that.

Rob

[tom_tom_go]

This is the first time I have read this one Rob and I would of been very tempted from the start to do something with the track and that swimming pool of yours

The track looks dead level as your Bertie puffs along very steadily!

[robc_wa]

This is the first time I have read this one Rob and I would of been very tempted from the start to do something with the track and that swimming pool of yours

The track looks dead level as your Bertie puffs along very steadily!

Yes it is indeed very level and ignores the potential of the area around the pool. However it was originally intended as a simple "test track" sort of layout. Watch this space for some later expansion, once retirement slipped a few years further away! The expansion occurred in 2014. Currently chronicling late 2012!

Rob