Stawberry Valley Light Railway

[nlc1072]

Hello all!

I will share my progress on my new garden railway which is 45mm LGB.

It has 40m of running around the edge of our garden.

Mainly I'm posting here to that mistakes I make get caught early!

Thanks,

NLC1072.

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[ge_rik]

Great start! Make sure you firm up the soil beneath the blocks as you lay them to try and discourage them from settling.

Rik

[nlc1072]

Thank you ge_rik!

I have been out jumping up and down on the dirt and then the blocks to make sure they are all compacted since your mentioned that now. I added some more blocks and track.

Here is also an overview of the basic track plan so far.

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[nlc1072]

So today I bought twenty more bricks (it's the most I can fit in the boot of my saloon car!) and laid those this afternoon, taking care to lay them firmly so there will be no subsidence.

I had time to sit back and watch some trains go around! I apologise in advance of the high speeds of the trains as they had to deal with some sharp inclines on other parts of the loop I have yet to lay the track bed.

The gap in the track bed in the video is to put in a bridge which I am 3D printing as we speak a prototype in PLA to see what I like and dislike, I have to get some ASA later to print the finished product which will do better in the sun - Thanks to Trevor Thompson of this forum for the inspiration to get a proper 3D printer and see what I can do.

[philipy]

It certainly seems to run smoothly. If it will take those speeds without disaster, it should look good at more realistic ones.

- Thanks to Trevor Thompson of this forum for the inspiration to get a proper 3D printer and see what I can do.

Welcome to the dark side! What printer have you got?

[ge_rik]

Good to see trains running already.
Will follow developments within interest.

Rik

[nlc1072]

It certainly seems to run smoothly. If it will take those speeds without disaster, it should look good at more realistic ones.

- Thanks to Trevor Thompson of this forum for the inspiration to get a proper 3D printer and see what I can do.

Welcome to the dark side! What printer have you got?

I have a Bambu Labs H2S, the inbuilt camera is going to prove very handy. I specifically picked this printer because of the large bed size for g scale and the enclosure to enable easy ASA printing as it needs a high temperature environment to set well. The printer was a used purchase at about half the current RRP with an AMS2 included.

Had some bed adhesion problems last night, wiped the bed down with warm soapy water and still problems. I took the bed downstairs and gave it a boiling water soapy wash. Seems to of cured the issues for now...

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[philipy]

I cant speak for Bambu printers, but in general bed adhesion can often be improved by cleaning the surface with IPA rather than water, and the other thing that helps is a squirt of "3D LAC". One squirt wiped over lasts for ages, I've had a bottle for about 4 years and its only about 15mm down. Some people swear by using hairspray and others use PritStick, but I found that the glue builds up on the bed and causes more problems than it solves. I've never used hairspray so cant comment on that.

[ge_rik]

I use very cheap hairspray - just a squirt every so often - seems to do the trick

Rik