The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

A place for the discussion of garden railways and any garden style/scale portable and/or indoor layouts
User avatar
philipy
Moderator
Moderator
Posts: 5033
Joined: Sun Jan 30, 2011 3:00 pm
Location: South Northants

Re: The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

Post by philipy » Sun Jan 06, 2019 7:58 am

Andrew wrote: Sat Jan 05, 2019 8:40 pm Hello!

The fence posts do have wires (at least in most locations they do!), it's nylon (?) fishing line, but I think the stuff I purchased is a little too fine. In the spring I plan to do a litte work to this section which will include a coat of preservative (it's all gone rather green!) and refreshing the wire - I'll probably go for thicker line this time...
I used braided grey coloured fishing line for fence wires. It looks not to unlike twisted galvanised wire. Comes in various thicknesses and I'm hoping will be strong enough to catch a runaway loco ( haven't tested that yet!)
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/UK-300m-100- ... SwZOBbk50L
Philip

User avatar
Andrew
Moderator
Moderator
Posts: 3247
Joined: Tue Jul 03, 2012 1:33 pm
Location: Bristol, UK
Contact:

Re: The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

Post by Andrew » Mon Jan 07, 2019 9:09 am

Excellent, thanks Philip! What thickness did you purchase?

Cheers,

Andrew.

User avatar
Andrew
Moderator
Moderator
Posts: 3247
Joined: Tue Jul 03, 2012 1:33 pm
Location: Bristol, UK
Contact:

Re: The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

Post by Andrew » Sun Jan 20, 2019 3:41 pm

No much to report outdoors at the moment, and progress indoors has been impeded by an urgent need to tidy the house - including my train stuff. I thought you might be amused/horrified to see the cupboard which acts as my store and where everything that's made for the line starts its life... Here goes:

The cupboard.jpg
The cupboard.jpg (282.58 KiB) Viewed 5417 times

At the top of that heap are the Big Big Tipper wagons, perched on top of a whole bunch of plastic sheet etc, which is balanced on Tom's station building! That's why I needed to get them boxed up and out of the way - see the rolling stock thread. To the left of the building is the WKLR well wagon which needs some repairs to mouse damage (no, really, they nibbled the blooming thing while it was stored under the house!), and a stack of small WHR wagons that don't currently have anywhere else to live, hidden behind various pots of paint etc. On the right is the People Pot of plastic figures awaiting surgery, among other things... On the shelf below are a set of ex-library drawers, full to overflowing with all sorts of bits and bobs, from hand tools to detailing parts. The cans of spray paint in front of them a precariously balanced and often fall onto the shopping trolley when disturbed by someone accessing the hoover or recycling bins... Naturally this mixed-use cupboard isn't ideal for either purpose, but we've only got a small-ish house, so it has to do!

One of the benefits of tidying up (apart from things getting tidier) is that you find things you'd forgotten about. Her's a picture one of my daughters drew for me when she was 5 -she's 15 now:
Daisy's picture.jpg
Daisy's picture.jpg (269.23 KiB) Viewed 5417 times

I had the foresight to write down on the back what she told me when she presented it - "Daddy and his train, going round the track, with the climbing frame in the middle"... I'm the purple chap on the left (it's a good likeness), the train's on the right, the track's in light blue, with the climbing frame in green and dark blue...

Cheers all,

Andrew.

User avatar
philipy
Moderator
Moderator
Posts: 5033
Joined: Sun Jan 30, 2011 3:00 pm
Location: South Northants

Re: The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

Post by philipy » Sun Jan 20, 2019 4:01 pm

Andrew wrote: Mon Jan 07, 2019 9:09 am Excellent, thanks Philip! What thickness did you purchase?

Cheers,

Andrew.
Andrew,
My apologies, I missed this question from a couple of weeks ago.

I used 100lb breaking strain, which is 0.55mm ( so it says). I picked that because I wasn't sure what it really needed and I thought better safe than sorry. However 0.55mm scales to about 0.4 inches which is a little thick in real terms. I guess that maybe 60 or 70lb would be closer to scale.
Philip

User avatar
Andrew
Moderator
Moderator
Posts: 3247
Joined: Tue Jul 03, 2012 1:33 pm
Location: Bristol, UK
Contact:

Re: The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

Post by Andrew » Sun Jan 20, 2019 4:09 pm

philipy wrote: Sun Jan 20, 2019 4:01 pm
Andrew wrote: Mon Jan 07, 2019 9:09 am Excellent, thanks Philip! What thickness did you purchase?

Cheers,

Andrew.
Andrew,
My apologies, I missed this question from a couple of weeks ago.

I used 100lb breaking strain, which is 0.55mm ( so it says). I picked that because I wasn't sure what it really needed and I thought better safe than sorry. However 0.55mm scales to about 0.4 inches which is a little thick in real terms. I guess that maybe 60 or 70lb would be closer to scale.
Great advice, thank you!

Andrew

User avatar
ge_rik
Administrator
Administrator
Posts: 6497
Joined: Sun Oct 25, 2009 10:20 pm
Location: Cheshire
Contact:

Re: The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

Post by ge_rik » Mon Jan 21, 2019 8:32 am

I was really impressed with your daughter's drawing. At first, I thought it was the stonework around a tunnel mouth, but a climbing frame makes a lot more sense. I do hope your hair has calmed down a bit in the past ten years :D

Rik
------------------------
Peckforton Light Railway - Blog Facebook Youtube

User avatar
Andrew
Moderator
Moderator
Posts: 3247
Joined: Tue Jul 03, 2012 1:33 pm
Location: Bristol, UK
Contact:

Re: The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

Post by Andrew » Mon Jan 21, 2019 9:35 am

ge_rik wrote: Mon Jan 21, 2019 8:32 am I do hope your hair has calmed down a bit in the past ten years :D
It's a fairly accurate depiction of how it looks this morning actually after walking to work wearing a bobble hat...

User avatar
tom_tom_go
Driver
Driver
Posts: 4824
Joined: Wed Feb 23, 2011 3:08 am
Location: Kent, UK
Contact:

Re: The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

Post by tom_tom_go » Mon Jan 21, 2019 11:23 am

I like the smug face she has drawn of you. Dad standing next to his railway looking very proud.

My step daughter use to manufacture paper cards and drawings when she was a similar age, that was a long time ago...

User avatar
Andrew
Moderator
Moderator
Posts: 3247
Joined: Tue Jul 03, 2012 1:33 pm
Location: Bristol, UK
Contact:

Re: The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

Post by Andrew » Mon Jan 21, 2019 12:23 pm

My wife wants to know why I was wearing a dress on the day Daisy drew my portrait. Good question - I wouldn't want to get steam oil on my best frock, must have been artistic license on her part.

User avatar
FWLR
Driver
Driver
Posts: 4262
Joined: Sat Aug 05, 2017 9:45 am
Location: Preston, Lancashire, UK

Re: The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

Post by FWLR » Tue Jan 22, 2019 11:55 am

Andrew wrote: Mon Jan 21, 2019 12:23 pm My wife wants to know why I was wearing a dress on the day Daisy drew my portrait. Good question - I wouldn't want to get steam oil on my best frock, must have been artistic license on her part.
:laughing3: :laughing3: :laughing3:

User avatar
Andrew
Moderator
Moderator
Posts: 3247
Joined: Tue Jul 03, 2012 1:33 pm
Location: Bristol, UK
Contact:

Re: The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

Post by Andrew » Wed Mar 06, 2019 9:08 am

Hello!

No, no actual progress to report on the (WH)WHR, although I'm hoping to make some in the Spring, and have charged the batteries on my RH Bertie and transmitter so may even run a train soon-ish, just another aside, I'm afraid...

Anyone who's followed this thread for a while will be familiar with the MOTTLITTs, the Manky Old Trucks That Live In The Tunnel. Whilst perusing the Glos Warks line's excellent blogs yesterday I was amused to see that they also have a rake of MOTTLITTs - and they don't look dissimilar to mine:

Image

This lot usually reside in the otherwise disused tunnel at Cheltenham Racecourse and have been dragged out to allow the tunnel to be inspected. Unlike mine, they aren't in regular use - in fact the blog mentions that many of them are awaiting removal from the railway.

My own MOTTLITTs were due to come in from the cold this winter but didn't in the end - I'll brush them down for another season soon... One option I'm considering is to construct a plastic covered van and guards van to replace the ones currently in the rake - those are wood and metal bodied and fare considerably worse than their plastic counterparts. I've got two Faller E-train covered vans which could be a good starting point for conversions - the rest of the rake are mostly Faller-based, so there'd be a good family resemblance...

Cheers,

Andrew.

User avatar
Andrew
Moderator
Moderator
Posts: 3247
Joined: Tue Jul 03, 2012 1:33 pm
Location: Bristol, UK
Contact:

Re: The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

Post by Andrew » Sun Apr 21, 2019 7:36 pm

Hello!

The Bank Holiday weekend has seen a fair bit of progress in the garden. Most of that hasn't been directly railway related, but I did clear the line as far as Penlan and re-jig the point there which had been causing derailments.

Naturally, that needed testing, so Russell was steamed, the perfect loco for the job given that its pony trucks can be somewhat reluctant to stay on the line when faced with iffy track. The run didn't go entirely smoothly, I struggled to get an even flow of gas (partially blocked jet?), but I enjoyed myself and did manage to get my testing done, starting with the MOTTLITTS, seen here heading back down to Trefechan:

Easter goods.jpg
Easter goods.jpg (427.44 KiB) Viewed 4786 times

I managed to push and pull those through the pointwork without problem, so then thought I'd try a bigger challenge, the lightweight rusty tippers... Such a grotty train ought to be beneath the dignity of my flagship loco really, but I told myself I was recreating Russell's post-WHR industrial days on the Fayle's Tramway...

Easter tippers.jpg
Easter tippers.jpg (416.36 KiB) Viewed 4786 times

The tippers negotiated the pointwork about as well as you could expect them to, so I'm declaring my trackwork a success - a return to passenger working (originally scheduled for this weekend) edges ever closer...

Finally, I couldn't resist setting up this little scene once the run was over - Happy Easter!

Easter bunnies.jpg
Easter bunnies.jpg (333.57 KiB) Viewed 4786 times

Cheers all,

Andrew.

User avatar
Andrew
Moderator
Moderator
Posts: 3247
Joined: Tue Jul 03, 2012 1:33 pm
Location: Bristol, UK
Contact:

Re: The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

Post by Andrew » Sun Apr 21, 2019 8:18 pm

As a post script to the above, when I was packing things away after the run I noticed and photographed this rather poignant scene:

Lost soul.jpg
Lost soul.jpg (484.82 KiB) Viewed 4780 times

A week or two ago my RH Little John was the subject of comment when it was spotted running without its driver. This is the chap in question, borrowed today to drive Russell, and seemingly forgotten about when Russell went back in its box - from a driver-less loco to a loco-less driver...

Andrew.

User avatar
tom_tom_go
Driver
Driver
Posts: 4824
Joined: Wed Feb 23, 2011 3:08 am
Location: Kent, UK
Contact:

Re: The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

Post by tom_tom_go » Sun Apr 21, 2019 9:52 pm

It's nice to see Russell again Andrew, looks good on your line.

Did the burner keep going out or was it fluctuating?

User avatar
Andrew
Moderator
Moderator
Posts: 3247
Joined: Tue Jul 03, 2012 1:33 pm
Location: Bristol, UK
Contact:

Re: The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

Post by Andrew » Sun Apr 21, 2019 10:11 pm

tom_tom_go wrote: Sun Apr 21, 2019 9:52 pm It's nice to see Russell again Andrew, looks good on your line.

Did the burner keep going out or was it fluctuating?
A bit of both... It was hard to get a steady flame (more like you'd expect on a cold day), and several times I thought I'd adjusted it down only to find that it went out shortly afterwards. I was using up some old gas, but I didn't think it had a shelf life? Any thoughts welcome!

Andrew.

PS Enjoying the Slomo but still getting used to driving with it - I had a few slow speed collisions when I didn't stop in time!

User avatar
FWLR
Driver
Driver
Posts: 4262
Joined: Sat Aug 05, 2017 9:45 am
Location: Preston, Lancashire, UK

Re: The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

Post by FWLR » Mon Apr 22, 2019 10:38 am

Love the loco-less driver Andrew...Brilliant imagination there... :thumbright: :thumbright:

The photo is rather long..How did you manage that... :scratch:

User avatar
tom_tom_go
Driver
Driver
Posts: 4824
Joined: Wed Feb 23, 2011 3:08 am
Location: Kent, UK
Contact:

Re: The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

Post by tom_tom_go » Mon Apr 22, 2019 10:41 am

Although the gas itself doesn't expire as such the cansister and seal will so I would try again with a new butane (not propane/butane mix) and try again to rule that out.

It's not a slow speed collision, it's inertia just like the real thing :thumbup:

User avatar
Andrew
Moderator
Moderator
Posts: 3247
Joined: Tue Jul 03, 2012 1:33 pm
Location: Bristol, UK
Contact:

Re: The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

Post by Andrew » Mon Apr 22, 2019 5:09 pm

FWLR wrote: Mon Apr 22, 2019 10:38 am The photo is rather long..How did you manage that... :scratch:
That's just how it came out of the camera/phone. It takes rather long thin shots, perhaps all phones do? In landscape format the work quite well on the forum, I think, but they can come out quite tall in portrait mode. Sometimes I crop 'em, but the format seemed to suit the composition on this one...

Cheers,

Andrew.

User avatar
Andrew
Moderator
Moderator
Posts: 3247
Joined: Tue Jul 03, 2012 1:33 pm
Location: Bristol, UK
Contact:

Re: The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

Post by Andrew » Mon Apr 22, 2019 5:11 pm

tom_tom_go wrote: Mon Apr 22, 2019 10:41 am Although the gas itself doesn't expire as such the cansister and seal will so I would try again with a new butane (not propane/butane mix) and try again to rule that out.

It's not a slow speed collision, it's inertia just like the real thing :thumbup:
Good advice, thanks Tom. Yes, something was definitely up with the can, I seemed to pump more gas into the air than the loco. I'll buy new gas and try again soon...

Cheers,

Andrew.

User avatar
Andrew
Moderator
Moderator
Posts: 3247
Joined: Tue Jul 03, 2012 1:33 pm
Location: Bristol, UK
Contact:

Re: The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

Post by Andrew » Sun May 12, 2019 6:16 pm

Hello!

Progress on the (WH)WHR tends to be somewhat sporadic, but today I bit the bullet and started work on the Penlan station relaying and ballasting.

The first task was to extricate the track from the mind-your-own-business that had completely covered it, and to remove the crumbling remains of the Rowlands mix ballast that is no longer in good repair. Having done that, tidied the lineside and completely cleared the trackbed, I put the track back down again, with the odd new fishplate here and there...

Here it is on completion of the work:

Cleared track.jpg
Cleared track.jpg (472.62 KiB) Viewed 4217 times

It looks good, but the levels are all over the place so I won't be able to run trains over it until I'll ballasted again. I'm going to try to squeeze in a siding behind the station, so I think I'll sort that before ballasting, then do the whole lot in one go...

I'm aiming for a grand re-opening of the whole line later in the summer...

Cheers,

Andrew.

Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 5 guests