The Leawarra Nayook Railway

[philipy]

Fntastic as always.
You have a such an amazing knack of posing scenes to look natural and realistic.

[FWLR]

Great photo's Grant.

Some great work done on the wood yard, it's looking very busy. Looks like things are looking great for the company.

[Peter Butler]

Excellent pictures Grant, a real pleasure to study in detail.

[Soar Valley Light]

Hi Grant,

Another visual treat!

You have taken great care in your selection of unprocessed lumber, each piece looks just like a scale trunk. I shall get a great deal of pleasure from studying these closely over the next few days. Thanks Grant,

Andrew

[Lonsdaler]

A fantastic tableaux you've created there Grant. Will you take in the raw 'lumber' so it doesn't weather, or are you just going to let nature take its course? Lovely stuff either way.

[LNR]

Will you take in the raw 'lumber' so it doesn't weather,

Yes Phil, the whole lot goes inside at the moment. It's all built to stay out during the warmer seasons, there's too much exposed detail to leave out in winter.
Grant.
PS we have timber down here, not lumber!!

[Lonsdaler]

Will you take in the raw 'lumber' so it doesn't weather,

Yes Phil, the whole lot goes inside at the moment. It's all built to stay out during the warmer seasons, there's too much exposed detail to leave out in winter.
Grant.
PS we have timber down here, not lumber!!

Same as here then - I was trying to use a term to refer to the uncut timber
It's still a wonderful diorama anyway.

[ge_rik]

A good job you didn't enter one of these photos for the Lineside Industries photo comp. My photo wouldn't have stood a chance!
Really great atmosphere created. The yard has a busy feel to it.

Rik

[LNR]

A good job you didn't enter one of these photos for the Lineside Industries photo comp.

Hi Rik and thank you,
I have taken close to 100 photos of the mill building and some yard items in various positions with a view to getting both suitable background and a plausible working situation. I likened the process to Graeme (GTB) as similar to forensic crime dramas, where they have all the string lines to show the path of bullets. The final decision came, it took three of us to lift the concrete slab (80+Kgs) into position, set everything up and these pics. were taken about half an hour before I posted them and well after the photo comp.
The site still requires working up, but it hasn't stopped raining so things are on hold.
I imagine you may have found the same thing with your mill, not realizing how much work and how many different objects need to be made to complete the picture.
Grant.

[LNR]

A SCRAP BIN BUILD
This Lockdown business is making me do things I probably wouldn't normally do.
Thinking what to do for the main mill engine. I found an old vice casting laying around, some bronze bushes from a photocopier, an unused crankshaft and flywheel from some past build, machined up a cylinder with piston valve, a flyball governor (complete fluke, it actually spins when the flywheel is turned!) put it all together and Presto.
The basics.

Sawmill Steam Engine 12.jpg (93.6 KiB) Viewed 14671 times

And ready to go, pipe work to be added when position is settled.

Sawmill Steam Engine 13.JPG (88.15 KiB) Viewed 14671 times

Sawmill Steam Engine 14.JPG (95.18 KiB) Viewed 14671 times

I had a boiler sitting around, and have built a lean-to on the side of the main building for the engine and boiler.
Just waiting for some better weather to put it all together.
Grant.

[FWLR]

It's amazing what you can knock together with bits laying around. It's brilliant.

[philipy]

Brilliant.

[ge_rik]

Wonderful, if not, wondrous!

I think it takes a particular sort of talent to recognise that a pile of seemingly unrelated bits and pieces can be turned into a sight to behold.
Will it be motorised?

Rik

[Old Man Aaron]

Great use of junk, there. Beautiful little thing. Cosmetically speaking though, it'd be hard to go wrong with giving it a hard whack with the grime stick.

[LNR]

Thanks for the kind replies,

Will it be motorised?

I have thought about it Rik but (a) that would show that the valve gear does not work and (b) you wouldn't notice it in the "Engine House"

it'd be hard to go wrong with giving it a hard whack with the grime stick.

Aaron you didn't really think that I wouldn't be doing just that !!! It will definitely look like a working engine when I've finished with it LoL.
Grant.

[LNR]

One oily sawdust covered Austral steam engine.

Sawmill Steam Engine 17.JPG (109 KiB) Viewed 14361 times

Grant.

[ge_rik]

Is that painted on or have you got some sort of large engraving tool?

Rik

[LNR]

Hi Rik,
I used Slaters plastic letters stuck on with supa-glue. I should have used the next size down that I also have, because the full
name should be AUSTRAL OTIS
Grant.

[Peter Butler]

That looks so convincing, with the correct background it could easily be mistaken for the real thing.

[LNR]

Thanks Peter, I'm actually itching to get it, the shed and the boiler out in the sunshine to take some close up photos.
Grant.