Garden Railway Forum

The running day went well with no mishaps or derailments , but I realised that I needed more sidings which leads to this year where i did some more perm way.

A wonderful occasion in scorching hot weather.... I recall taking my chocolate bar home to 'drink' later!

A visiting loco from the Login exchange siding in charge of a slate train. Whilst the P.M.R Crane train waits in the siding . A fine pair of bulldogs . Sorry couldn't resist.

Peter Butler wrote: ↑Tue May 28, 2024 2:25 pm A wonderful occasion in scorching hot weather.... I recall taking my chocolate bar home to 'drink' later!

Fingers crossed for this year Peter. I am hoping that August will be dryer than last year . At the moment I am in low cloudy mist .

Just joined the Forum and " chuffed " to find a photo of my Bulldog on it's first loaded slate train working on the Preseli Mountain Railway..
Thank you Chris.

It looks like it was a fine day, both in the weather and the visitors! I am told there's no better way to find out exactly where your railway could improve, than to have others run on it.

Preseli Chris wrote: ↑Tue May 28, 2024 2:32 pm Fingers crossed for this year Peter. I am hoping that August will be dryer than last year . At the moment I am in low cloudy mist .

Looking forward to seeing the line in person Chris. It's good to see its evolution in photographs here.

The P.M.R. decided to order a railbus for off peak services . So the request was put out to tender. Stetson Hat Engineering won the contract !
I managed to acquire a Plastic coach body kit for a bargain price which I decided to convert into an Edwardian period style railbus . I then ordered a pair of bogies , one of which was motorised and some electrical components for the project . A simple straightforward build ? I wish it had been . The coach body kit was for a three compartment variant extra side panels were included for the maker to cut up . but on measuring up I decided it was too short for my liking . By using the extra panels to increase its length the model would look ok . Before building the sides i first set about cutting out the cab window apertures in the coach ends I also had to extend the roof . I had made a rod for my back . I cut the roof in half and added a centre piece using 1.5mm thick styrene sheet I managed to curve the section by soaking it in boiling water I then laminated a .25mm sheet on the top of the roof to cover up the joined pieces.

The floor also needed to be extended.

Next job was to spray primer the body . A cheapo can of primer was bought and I remembered that I had an unused 12 year old rattle can of Railmatch Dmu green paint . What could go wrong ?

Lots . I tested the can and it seemed ok but on applying the spray it splattered the model . I spent the next day removing the stuff fortunately the cheapo primer had not keyed to the plastic so with a lot of effort I managed to remove the paint. At one point I considered leaving the body as it was . It had a well weathered appearance . I purchased proper primer from the people who sell bikes. and some Brooklands green .

Next stage in the build was to fit the bogies and battery holder and switches to the chassis . With this done I test ran it . it powered up, the wheels turned but it didn't move . on closer examination turns out that the motor chassis block was out of kilter with the single driving axle lifting off the rails . I then resorted to my only other source of power bogie . A 50year old plus Tri-ang Big Big train shunter chassis . once attached it propelled the railbus surprisingly well. After a lot of reworking . The Railbus was completed .

I raided my wife's sewing box for suitable buttons that could pass as gongs/bells, some mesh for the radiator grills and some curtain wire for the Vac pipes.

Thats a very nice, quirky vehicle Chris. Thanks for the explanation.

Looks good! The coupling rods are a nice touch

A real 'head turner' at our recent garden railway meeting.

Every railway should have at least one railcar, to my mind, and your is a very convincing model of the species. Beautifully done!

I think we all share your pain of paint jobs gone wrong.

Rik

That's a very nice piece of work. Great recovery from the painting problem.

Thank you all for your kind remarks . I managed to do some more work to the line over the past week ,Starting off with adding more timber cross members , decking and fence spikes ready for laying some more track.

The Railway now has 5 sidings and a passing loop . With the addition of the fuel point/ head shunt . I am now able to run a train on the loop and shunt wagons at the same time . The fuel tank was from an old lgb wagon and the bund is constructed from plastikard and timber .

I managed to get some free time to do a makeover on an old slate wagon . I wanted to make a converter type truck with a centre buffer on one beam and a coupling compatible with a rake of v dump wagons which l have on the other beam. I recently acquired a Lister D engine to use as a wagon load .

A few more images of the v dump wagons and flatbed wagon forming a short mining train.