The Apple Valley Railway (7 1/4" gauge)

[tom_tom_go]

Only just read this thread today and what you have done is brilliant.

Maybe get a working horn though on that diesel of yours to scare off the cats

Cheers,

Tom

[Nomis]

Seriously, how do you fit ?

I built the tunnel to fit me, sat in the passenger wagon.
If I sit up straight, my hair just brushes the roof!

It needs to be as confined as possible to make it nice & dark inside

[Steven.T]

And if the engine breaks down?

[Stewart Gethin]

So I'm not the only one with a tunnel.

May I just ask, how long is your tunnel roughly? as it looks quite cool.

Also, haven't you moved back to 7.5" gauge now?

Stew.

[Nomis]

Maybe I should carry a barge pole in case of emergencies?

the tunnel is about 12' long, but is on a 90 degree bend, so it seems longer. I plan to extend it by another 4' so that I can park the whole train inside it.

[Nomis]

And yes, the railway is 7 1/4" gauge now.

[bessytractor]

Don't get me wrong I refer to it as a frog. What I mean't though is that during my BR/RT/NR days no one at all has ever said frog or called it that. It seems it doesnt exist. I said once when I was M.O.M that a frog was cracked on a set of points to the P-way gang & no one had a clue what I was on about??  :roll:

your exactly right.  It is not referred to as the frog and never has been, it seems to be a "model railwayism".  Its always been the crossing nose.  I used to be a pwayman for NR before I "escaped". For three years now I've been trying to break people out of the habit of calling it the frog on our miniature railway

[Pretoria]

But -- taken from the NR "Report to the Office of the Rail Regulator, R/00202, Nov 1999, para 229 (switches & crossings):

"...... used because of the high level of wear generally experienced on the blades and frog. Other infrastructure. The variabilities for other infrastructure have ..."

[Pendo Pilot]

  But  --  taken from the NR "Report to the Office of the Rail Regulator, R/00202, Nov 1999, para 229 (switches & crossings):

"...... used because of the high level of wear generally experienced on the blades and frog. Other infrastructure. The variabilities for other infrastructure have ..."

Hahahhahaha you fell for the biggest farce ever there. That report obviously came from some office walla & they sit in their ivory towers so far away from a railway they wouldnt know what one is if it hit them in the face.. They are the ones that comission PR like the last NR one "pride" where they tried to show that they have updated the WCML. When actually what they had done is poorly planned, executed & totally messed up the whole thing. (Am I doing 140mph...Nope, well mostly not anyway). I would take anything that came from NR high enders with a smidgen of salt, say bonneville salt flats may be just enough.


Ex RT/NR myself, I had to get out. It's a terrible thing when the company you loved working for (BR) gets run into the ground like they have done.

[Pretoria]

OK, I feel ganged-up on here. Just Googled various topics around "frog", "railway", "definitions", "glossary" etc. Loads of Wikipedia results -- all refer to "the bit" as a frog. Also discovered a European Standard for "Interoperability between UK, France & Germany" with a 400 page document of definitions. It also defines "the bit" as a frog (not to be confused with our French colleagues !).

Up to everyone to decide -- but I shall, on balance, continue to call it a frog.

[Narrow Minded]

OK, I feel ganged-up on here.  Just Googled various topics around "frog", "railway", "definitions", "glossary" etc.  Loads of Wikipedia results -- all refer to "the bit" as a frog.  Also discovered a European Standard for "Interoperability between UK, France & Germany" with a 400 page document of definitions.  It also defines "the bit" as a frog (not to be confused with our French colleagues !).

Up to everyone to decide -- but I shall, on balance, continue to call it a frog.

I've always called it a frog - but then I was Telecoms (until as Pendo implied, privatisation ruined the whole business )

[METHSSNIFFER]

The frog is the gap between the two wingrails where the gap is closest, the rails leading to it are the wing rails.The check rails pull the flange over the crossing V also called guide rails the point blades are self explanotory. I build my own points for 16mm and some useful drawings are now on the assoc. web site after doing a few they become second nature and a plan isnt needed just a radius curve and track gauge.

[bessytractor]

  But  --  taken from the NR "Report to the Office of the Rail Regulator, R/00202, Nov 1999, para 229 (switches & crossings):

"...... used because of the high level of wear generally experienced on the blades and frog. Other infrastructure. The variabilities for other infrastructure have ..."

Hahahhahaha you fell for the biggest farce ever there. That report obviously came from some office walla & they sit in their ivory towers so far away from a railway they wouldnt know what one is if it hit them in the face.. They are the ones that comission PR like the last NR one "pride" where they tried to show that they have updated the WCML. When actually what they had done is poorly planned, executed & totally messed up the whole thing. (Am I doing 140mph...Nope, well mostly not anyway). I would take anything that came from NR high enders with a smidgen of salt, say bonneville salt flats may be just enough.


Ex RT/NR myself, I had to get out. It's a terrible thing when the company you loved working for (BR) gets run into the ground like they have done.  ;)

he's not wrong you know.  

I had my Sentinel rejected this Monday which meant I could not go out on the track.  I had a week of nights this week which meant a lot of sitting about.  I kicked up a massive fuss and eventually they relented.

It turned out that one of the "Ivory Tower'ites" had heard that I'd made a stupid mistake on my PTS refresher and decided to make a song and dance of it.  What they hadn't realised was that my manager and I had done a face to face meeting to clear up the stupid mistake and pass me out.

My manager saw me this morning and asked me what it was all about.

Thats right, he'd forgotten the face to face meeting had ever taken place.

Its like that for most things now, when I first joined it was good, now its a shambles.


FML  :x  :x

[Nomis]

I've been working on an extension - it's an 8' radius loop to make the main run into a figure of 8:





I have gone for a simple ballasted trench as an experiment for this area.

This is my high tech radius / level measuring device:



And excitingly, I have a new loco to build :



It is the chassis of a 5" gauge "sit inside" loco that my dad built many years ago. The motor is from a Sinclair C5, with a worm reduction box & chain drive. So far I have regauged the wheelsets, and got everything running freely.

Jumping a car battery straight to the motor has alllowed for some hair raising rides around the garden! I think this one might become a centre cab electric.....

[Stewart Gethin]

Nice to see progress!

One day, I heard whispers of a possible passing loop on my line.

Keep the progress/pictures up.

Stew.

[Nomis]

Sorry about the long delay in updates - I have been distracted from railway building by putting this together:



I have found time to complete digging out the extension, and even get some track down:



I have also started on building the crossing:



I have gone for the high-tech method of drawing parallel lines on a scrap piece of MDF, 7 1/4" apart & using that as a template.
For ease of construction, I am using 25x10mm steel bar for the crossing.

[Stewart Gethin]

Lovely. Nice to see it with the crossover in.

Stew

[Dr. Bond of the DVLR]

Tidy work there, what radius is it again?

[Danfilm007]

I love this railway! Sorry for digging it up, but is there any updates for the railway?

[jim@NAL]

this is fantastic .what a brillent job you have made looks a lot of fun too .what about a vw powered aircooled train that would be fun