Garden Railway Forum

Love the fish van.

Very nice work on the fish van Phil. lovely finish.

gilfachphil wrote: ↑Wed Jun 05, 2024 6:38 pm The fish van with iron work and lettering

IMG_4233.jpeg



Phil

Nice that Phil. Great choice of colour.

Very tasty!

Rik

Some maintenance and improvement (I hope) of the lifting section. Recent drying of the weather (yes, it does not always rain in West Wales) lead to a mis-alignment at the bridge as the board had cupped - the piece of 45mm square timber it was screwed to was not enough to prevent this. Along the road to my friendly engineer neighbour to scrounge a short length of 50mm SS angle with which the timber brace was replaced. It is bolted down firmly. Ahttps://youtu.be/JSji9CXWnlQbit of further re-alignment and packing has improved matters.

Here Clara runs at speed with recently built stock across the join. I added 40g of weight under the chassis of the milk van, which being quite narrow is top heavy, and 20g under the fish van to improve their running qualities.





There should be an exciting development after the weekend ...

Phil

I made a visit yesterday to the Bala Lake Railway where I had arranged to meet the previous owner of :-






that was fun!

Phil

Russell has shown that I need to do more work on the lifting section, this time the fixed board. Drat the warmer drier weather!

Phil

gilfachphil wrote: ↑Mon Jun 10, 2024 7:50 pm Russell has shown that I need to do more work on the lifting section, this time the fixed board. Drat the warmer drier weather!

Phil

What warmer drier weather Phil...

It's doing nothing but rain, sun and flipping wind here mate and not necessarily in that order..

I wondered when movement of the baseboards would become noticeable! I think movement is inevitable however the track bed is created. Certainly my track bed moves even though it is concrete laid into the ground.

Trevor

Russell looks brilliant by the way. Looking forward to seeing Russell pulling 3 bogie coaches.

gilfachphil wrote: ↑Mon Jun 10, 2024 7:47 pm I made a visit yesterday to the Bala Lake Railway where I had arranged to meet the previous owner of :-

Welcome to the World of Steam! Glad you've taken the plunge, excellent choice of loco too, I'm jealous!

Not having been lusting after steam I was pleased how much I enjoyed driving Russell and with first rate tuition from John Burghes it was a great experience! The chuff is very satisfying.

There will be video of Russell with the three bogie coaches once they are fitted with the wheels which Trevor has kindly gauge altered.

I've got another piece of stainless steel to incorporate into the 'take off' side of the lifting section which will hold the timber flat. Just need to gather up enough energy to get to it!

Phil

Looks great Phil... That live steamer looks like it was meant to be. Excited to see it pulling those bogie coaches!

Nice Loco Phil . You are now on the slippery slope of one leads to another .Looking forward to seeing it soon.

More work on the lifting section. It appeared the take off side was a little high and so a nasty gradient change onto the lifting section, this did not seem to worry the battery operated locos but Russell having a longer wheel base showed up the problem.

Adding in the piece of SS angle meant removing the flap on which the bridge landed. As this was on top of the post it allowed me to lower the take off side a few mm. I have also packed under the track on the lifting section and the spirit level now gives a good level reading so I am hoping the next time I fire Russell all will be well.

Short video in which the bits of SS appear and the train moves smoothly across the joint.

Fingers crossed!

Phil.

Funny how it's referred to as the "Permanent Way" when it's anything but. Ah! the joys of garden railways.
Grant.

Great job there Phil. Nice and smooth now, I can't see you having any problems with your Russell.

LNR wrote: ↑Thu Jun 13, 2024 1:54 am Funny how it's referred to as the "Permanent Way" when it's anything but. Ah! the joys of garden railways.
Grant.

I think it is because we need to permanently fiddle with it, that it is called the 'permanent way'?


Phil.P

It certainly is a permanent project! So different from the smaller scales where you can just throw some cork roadbed on plywood and tack your track on that, and it'll stay in place for decades.

Last autumn I acquired two GVT type wagons which had been made by a former member of our local model railway group and at Christmas was given an FR sheep wagon.

These three wagon had couplings based on hoops and loops fixed underneath which meant they could only be marshalled together and would not couple to any other rolling stock I have which all have Binnie type couplings. Following much head scratching I recently bought two sizes of Binnie Carmarthen couplings to play with and have now altered the wagons, each differently, to end up with:-
The wagon nearest is the sheep wagon to which I have fitted a medium Carmarthen coupling. This wagon was 3D printed by Trevor Thompson of this parish. The middle wagon is a Coopercraft kit. There I have used the small Carmarthen coupling, cutting some away so that it looks as if the end door may still be able to be opened. The furthest is a Binnie GVT granite wagon, there I have cut away the existing fittings and drilled through from underneath to fit a brass hook.

The wagons can now be coupled with three link chains and so will run with any of my stock. A quick test to make sure they would not uncouple was carried out and here is a clip of them running:-



The brass hooks were made by unbending a single coupling loop from a brass chain. Much use of pliers and vice lead to:-
Phil