Garden Railway Forum

Here is my Billy. The boiler and chassis are totally stock (apart from a proper pop type safety valve), but the body is mostly scratchbuilt. A friend with a lathe extended a Billy dome for me and made up a sand box using the RH fittings. He also roughed out the cab, which I refined, added the back s...

I don't tend to spray cylinder heads if the loco is already assembled. Brushing a good enamel will work fine, but you may have to retouch occasionally depending on the obstacles your cylinders may encounter.

I am casting about for technique ideas to make a Hunslet or Manning Wardle style square saddle tank. My current idea involves building up a frame of sorts from brass strip and then soldering a thin brass skin over top. Has anyone else used a different technique? The tank does not need to hold water ...

Keith, Your garden is lovely, and the railway really works well in its place. It is definately a part of the garden and yet has a nice presence. Its a grand place to see larger 16mm models running free. The other railway is also a delight. I've seen some other photos on the 7/8" forum of the sa...

Greetings, I am contemplating building a Kerr, Stuart Thames class in 1:13.7 using Roundhouse Hackworth cylinders and valve gear. In order to get things scaled properly, I need to bring the cylinder centerline about 9mm closer to the axle. Will this present any particular challenges I should know ab...

That looks very nice. Now you've got me thinking about repainting my venerable Pearse Countess to black. One of my mates has an Accy Countess in black and it is a stunner. Maybe Countess will be next winter's project. Goodness knows that I really should do something about the coupling rods...

I am not sure there are any press fit gas fillers. It seems to me that the pressure of the gas inside the tank could force an unthreaded filler out of its bushing.

There's a reason all my locos are green or black...

My Pearse Countess (no. 52 of April, 1994) runs very well indeed. The radio takes a bit of getting used to as it differs a bit in response to my Russell, but all in all, its a very nice loco. Countess has done a fair few miles, but it still runs well and really looks the part doing so. It runs every...