Garden Railway Forum

Peter Butler wrote: ↑Sun Jul 30, 2023 2:40 pm A brave move building a lift section on a curve, although I can see you had little option elsewhere.

This was from July 2023 and I'm sorry to see my prophecy has come back to haunt you. I'm sure you will make it work eventually, but it is annoying after all your effort.

I'll try to find my widest, lowest and longest items of stock to bring over on the 14th.

It’s all a learning experience. At least the much stronger hinge plate has kept everything in alignment during the recent change in weather conditions as the wood became drier then got soaked again. Once I have adjusted it to accommodate the low and wide Roundhouse valve gear that’s it! Everything I have now will run happily and if any visiting stock has problems with the infrastructure it will be a case of ‘sorry, don’t think you can run that here’!

I got the hinge plate sorted out by early this afternoon, both hinges are now far enough out from the track to allow the Silver Lady valve gear clearance. The revised plate does not line up quite as well as it did but it is a small difference. I will probably pack a little under the end of the lifting section as the weight of the live steam engine causes it to dip a little so there is an audible clunk, though no trouble crossing the join so far.

I then had a full running session with Anna, she went for 25 minutes on one charge of gas and I was not confident I had fully charged her. Ran in forward for some time, then reverse, as can be seen in the videos, and did lots of practice in stopping in the platform smoothly and starting off with the cylinder drain cocks 'open'. I cannot film that on my own as it needs both hands on the transmitter!







Phil

Trevor has been to visit the garden railway at the Guildford Model Engineering Society Gala today. Many thanks to the 16mm group for their friendly welcome,

Phil

First steaming of Anna for a couple of weeks. She now has real coal in the tank top bunkers and has been touched up where some of the green paint on the boiler had chipped revealing her original red!
Phil

Beautiful Loco that Chris. Looks great in front of those coaches.

Thanks Rod,

the entire live steam fleet lined up after duty!


Phil

Nice…

Lovely locos - "Anna" looks splendid in that livery!

Odd that one of your loco's valve gear strikes the bridge hinges but the other doesn't - I thought that "Silver Laddies" were pretty much the same as the "Lady Anne", and that - running gear-wise - "Russell" is just a "Lady Anne" with pony trucks. But I guess they're all individual...

Anyway, it's all looking great!

Andrew

Thanks Andrew,

I was surprised when Silver Lady Anna had problems. Someone said that she has bigger cylinders than a Lady Anne?

At least now they both go happily across the bridge, which has much more solid hinge arrangements than previously.

I'm hoping that I can get a Summerlands Chuffer for Anna as I'm very impressed with how Russell chuffs. Making enquiries to check that installation is simple as shown in a YouTube video of a much younger version of the loco.

Phil

A cosy box for Russell. 5mm ply and 12mm square soft wood, pinned and glued together. Cheney catches I probably bought in Messingers in Guildford well over 30 years ago, handle and hinges from stock.

Phil

Neat that Phil.

I made mine for all my locos and a couple of coaches and wagons together.

Back to kit building. I bought a Bakewell from Boot Lane at the Stoneleigh show and have started work on her:-
The chassis. and below, from below
I have done some rubbing down of the filament printed body parts and will get some filler primer on them to see how well I am getting on.

Phil

gilfachphil wrote: ↑Wed Aug 07, 2024 5:41 pm I have done some rubbing down of the filament printed body parts and will get some filler primer on them to see how well I am getting on.

I highly recommend saving yourself a lot if time and effort and clad the main body parts with the thinnest styrene you can find instead.

StuartJ wrote: ↑Wed Aug 07, 2024 6:42 pm

gilfachphil wrote: ↑Wed Aug 07, 2024 5:41 pm I have done some rubbing down of the filament printed body parts and will get some filler primer on them to see how well I am getting on.

I highly recommend saving yourself a lot if time and effort and clad the main body parts with the thinnest styrene you can find instead.

Good tip that Stuart. I have had a PDF Skylark for about two years now and I have had no end of hassle trying to get the filament parts smooth.

Not to be beaten (call me obsessed if you must) I have realised that the plastic platform surface would not allow me to place the station building, so kindly built for me by David John, nicely on a flat surface. Most of the platform could be lived with but no method I could see would allow it to be kept flat enough for the station building to sit level.

Platform episode 93 follows.

Thinking about a water proof temperature stable material that could be found in around 3 mm thickness I wondered about synthetic slate tiles!

This is smooth and flat, 600mm x 300mm x 4mm. I consulted a builder friend who said they were readily available and not too expensive. The material, being used for roofs is obviously waterproof, should be temperature stable and can be scored and snapped to cut it.

I tried the cutting method and found I could not do it. Then moved to a hacksaw which would cut it, quite slowly and the length is a problem. I have a hacksaw blade in a handle, which I thought I could try, with loads of patience. I marked a line down the length of tile to cut away the edge with the hole and started hacksawing, did about 60mm, thinking there must be an easier way! I have an old hard point saw that does not get used for cutting wood any more, would that cut it? It does!!!! Easily.
Have got this far

Phil

Just be wary of the dust, if cutting slate..

You can do it wet, but this will grossly increase the wear on your saw.

Wash away the debris, and your hands, afterwards.

A mask would be prudent.

Phil.P

Thanks Phil,

I did the cutting outdoors so the dust was wafted away by the breeze. I don't know what the tiles are made of, the surface has a sprayed on 'paint' finish, the reverse looks like resin and the interior is a light grey. I can probably apply exterior wall paint to the cut surfaces to tone them down if desired.

Phil.

'Yr Hen Felin' can be seen in action on the YouTube link below, it is the penultimate segment of the video from around 38 mins. This was its second appearance at the show in Llwyncelyn.

Phil

More progress with re-surfacing the platform this afternoon:-


The station building sitting well on the artificial slate





The entire length of the platform, near end ramp not cut to size