Garden Railway Forum

I have been slowly plodding along with the construction, it's been a lot of fun though. At the moment I'm pushing for a steam test soon. The chassis is on the workbench, I'm getting it all set right, I love all the fitting. There was too much sideways play in the axles so I added grubscrews to the s...

As the test pressure gauge was still attached to the boiler I thought I'd make the safety valve next.  It's the ball bearing type, but not a pop-valve. This is the top of the safety valve, the holes were marked out and centre punched under my bench mounted illuminated magnifying glass, and drilled i...

Hi Steph. I'm in that Yahoo! group too. Keith B, who designed the loco also posts to the group.

I'm using thin-wall too, I don't imagine there will be any issues with the wall section.

Best wishes,
Dave

Thanks for sharing the build with us all so far Dave, you make it look so easy to build! Can I ask why you have gone for three tubes?  Your design is similar to the Riverdale boiler I have which only has two. Two weren't enough. I did the math, and wanted something on the upper end of the usual acc...

Hi Dave, fantastic work as usual. I could feel the tension using the hole saw to cut that dome hole (I would be very ready to reverse the handle on the drill feed). Thanks Grant. The only support it had was the backhead Sellotaped on :D The grate's about 1" x 2.5" Might as well have an as...

The boiler has been a real mission. I went for the classic wet everywhere firebox, to have at least built one once. Using one grade of silver braze. Doing all the brazing in low-light to keep an eye on not getting the job overheated on subsequent brazing operations. I had to order-in Sievert's excel...

I hope so!

My homebuilt locos are all named after what was going on at the time. The two small de wintons were named after Harry potter characters. The large de winton is named after Jack White. The diesel outline steam loco is named after Calvin Harris. The live diesel is named after an online character. My c...

I use an 80W iron for both. Sometimes I do some preheating with a blowtorch on heavy sections.

Best wishes
Dave

It's a beauty! What's your guess as to what price it will achieve?

Best wishes
Dave

I thought I'd tackle the boiler next so that I could see where everything will go. I've been very slowly progressing. A supply of 1.5 mm copper sheet, 2", and 1/2" copper pipe was already on hand. I've recently received some more sticks of the cadmium free silver solder (brazing rods) from...

I don't think 32 mm is do-able with my design



45 mm is the garden gauge

Best wishes,
Dave

Thank you, much appreciated!

Best wishes,
Dave

The smoke smells lovely The neighbour had washing on the line, and didn't complain

Oh yes, homebuilds are very satisfying

Certainly, I'm thinking of going into production. How does GBP500 sound?

Best wishes,
Dave

Yes there is. It's in the Alternative power page

Best wishes
Dave

<object width="720" height="405"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Jb70PwjoDoQ?version=3&hl=en_US&rel=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value=&q...

tom_tom_go:119786 wrote:Love the clag, like a 37 starting up on a cold day!

Do you take any videos?

Yes, I'll put one up in the video section.

Best wishes,
Dave

Had an excellent run of the live diesel yesterday. I turned up the fuel a bit. Copious amounts of oil on the sleepers, and plenty of smoke. Lovely sweet smelling castor oil smoke. Boo! https://s20.postimg.org/cnxo67shp/IMG_20160828_115517.jpg The road ahead https://s20.postimg.org/o1k7hf30d/IMG_2016...

Fantastic! Love seeing your work. Thank you! --- I made a start on the cylinders. I like to use commercial plain bronze bearings for oscillator cylinders. They have a very good surface finish. The port faces were bored in the lathe using the exact same set-up as was used for my large de Winton. Bor...

It was time to start on the chimney. I started at the top. Gunmetal was used for the chimney cap. The blank was Loctited to the mandrel https://s20.postimg.cc/7x3662lfh/IMG_20160618_115635.jpg Marking out the upper curved part https://s20.postimg.cc/s5qjrskql/IMG_20160618_120107.jpg I filed this cur...