The Potters Orchid Railway

[Hydrostatic Dazza]

HELP Any one out there that knows a good source for Peco SM32 track in Australia ?

I haven't done a hobby shop crawl in Brisbane for many years. Shops come and go and move around, but I know there are still several model railway shops in the Brisbane area.

45mm gauge is more common in Aust and while a shop may not stock SM32 track, it is available here, so they can get it in to order and I think one of Peco's Aust. distributors is in Brisbane.

Otherwise, the AMRA Queensland Branch have a garden scale group who will know the best sources locally. Their clubrooms and track are in Zillmere, backing on to the railway line near the station. http://amra.asn.au/queensland/

Graeme

Thanks Graeme, Zillmere is just 20 mins away but I am reluctant to join another club, I am full steam with a couple of heritage railways and full up, however I need to establish a nice source, personal business near by to get some odds and ends. I brought back most of my point work last year from the UK and I shipped 35m of track this year, but I discover I am short one point.

[GTB]

however I need to establish a nice source, personal business near by to get some odds and ends.

I wasn't necessarily suggesting you join AMRA, but the Vic. Branch has open days and I'd guess so does the Qld. branch.

If you are north of the city, then Horizon Hobbies at Warner and Hobbyrama at Stafford would be worth a call......

The other model railway shops I remember were further south, Austral Modelcraft at Mt. Gravatt East and HobbyOne at McGregor.

The Peco distributor is on the Gold Coast, so it shouldn't take long for any Brisbane shop to get Peco orders delivered.

Graeme

[Hydrostatic Dazza]

Rain and rain and yet more rain has conspired to delay the pour of the second loop. It is tight, R= 800mm but that is all I could fit in. If all goes well, MAM and I mix and pour tonight after work.

[Hydrostatic Dazza]

however I need to establish a nice source, personal business near by to get some odds and ends.

I wasn't necessarily suggesting you join AMRA, but the Vic. Branch has open days and I'd guess so does the Qld. branch.

If you are north of the city, then Horizon Hobbies at Warner and Hobbyrama at Stafford would be worth a call......

The other model railway shops I remember were further south, Austral Modelcraft at Mt. Gravatt East and HobbyOne at McGregor.

The Peco distributor is on the Gold Coast, so it shouldn't take long for any Brisbane shop to get Peco orders delivered.

Graeme

Thanks for this, much appreciated, I will follow up. Cheers

[Hydrostatic Dazza]

There was a break in the rain (been wet for two weeks!) The usual crew has already knocked off on this Friday arvo so it was up to MAM and Me.
My firing shovel has not seen some use for a while, what better use to keep it familiar with railways

the screeder in action




I will be pleased when the back yard does not look like a building site



Done



Rain is back this Saturday morning. Must be the Welsh influences this railway creation is stirring up in the skies!
any how
there is to be a bridge in there, a 750mm under arch MVL is my desire

[Peter Butler]

ground-works look very impressive and well worth the effort despite the disruption the garden. You obviously have a plan in mind and before long it will start to show.

[Hydrostatic Dazza]

ground-works look very impressive and well worth the effort despite the disruption the garden. You obviously have a plan in mind and before long it will start to show.

Peter, I have a sort of a plan of the hills to be terra formed into place eventually, so the track has a reason to wind its way around, over embankments and a gorge and through cuttings and I suppose I will put the ubiquitous tunnel in there, most likely tunnels and cuttings to break the loops up, especially the 800mm radius one we laid last night. I never wanted a ground level track, but on terrace just at hip height so one can sit and look at and along it. The details will come later, right now it is get a the base down, then lay some track and we don't even have any rolling stock but for loco frame to roll over it. It is to the Red Room now as the rain constant. If this keeps up we will moss every where and waist high weeds again. .

[Peter Butler]

I can see a tunnel would help to disguise the loop on your line but I made a point of not building one myself simply because I occasionally run my Emetts which are a larger scale (about 1:12) and are much taller than any 16mm stock.

IMG_3287.JPG (118.27 KiB) Viewed 7413 times

IMG_1006.JPG (125.95 KiB) Viewed 7413 times

They would soon be free of useless attachments such as chimneys etc.......

[Hydrostatic Dazza]

I like the idea of Emetts running on my line to aid the entertainment value for visitors
even a blue tank engine for the little tackers
Me thinking
pause
MAM wants a tunnel, she wants to make the portals in clay and fire them in her kiln
Some pondering to be done later as the rain has stopped and I am out in rubber boots to tackle the form work for the bridge abutments today

[Hydrostatic Dazza]

Steady rain all day Saturday so it was Red Room action.
Sunday, bright sunshine and hot, so the civil engineering gang swung into action from 6.00am till 7.30pm.
The connection of Potters Junction to the Orchid house loop has to snarl its way around steep mountains and rocky outcrops and a significant gorge to cross that would give the Kuranda railway a fright. (OK, the mountains and rocky out crops are to come)
The string line was to help set the bridge form work as the LASER is not much help in full sunshine, until late arvo and evening. The gang lined the bridge up and then the form work was connected to this, just like the full size bridge builders do. If all goes to plan the bridge will be a 750mm MVL under arch, however delivery time is unknown, so the timber temporary bridge (decent lump of Boxwood my neighbour had to hand) will stay in place when the track bed ply form is removed.
I have noticed with the rain the levels are moving 2-5mm in places. This could be the floating slab that the Pottery shed is on (where I have my road bed mark on) and or the terrace is moving up and down with the moisture seeping in from the higher level which is the house level. Not a problem, but interesting and currently there is 5mm variation along the route. The block walls are on concrete footings. Tonight is fill in the forms before the pour , we might pour tonight. Tomorrow I have to attend a board meeting of the Australian Railway Historical Society Queensland Division.

[Peter Butler]

I love the meandering line though your landscape. You have every right to look satisfied with your handiwork.

[Soar Valley Light]

This is a very well engineered railway Dazza, I'm impressed! Careful setting out and careful construction will pay you back in spades, all the time spent getting it right will bring big rewards in reliability and a realistic appearance unobtainable by any other means.

I know what you mean about lasers. My laser level is a dirt cheap (£20) model intended for internal construction work. It's about as much use outside as an ashtray on a motorbike even on a dull English day. All the level surveying and setting out for my line was done on nights!

Please keep the updates coming, it's great seeing your line growing. I'm really looking forward to seeing some track going down (not as much as you are, I'm sure!)

Andrew

[Hydrostatic Dazza]

I love the meandering line though your landscape. You have every right to look satisfied with your handiwork.

Thanks. I very much want the impression that it is a narrow gauge railway that was forced to negotiate its way around the rugged terrain to get to the other end. As a young lad I was very much impressed with John Allen's "Gorre and Daphetid" with its detail and floor to ceiling mountains, this will be smaller but hopefully live steam.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0tHHK-LI6Y
I am not sure I will ever apply as much scenery and modeling detail as you do Peter, not because of lack of my desire to do so, but due to demands of my other projects, such as my need to keep my model engineering projects rolling (I am a metal worker at heart) and also my full size steam involvement. I also have this problem of needing to earn an income being self employed and that gets in the way of life and projects I have been looking at your thread and MAM and I are considering the drip irrigation system from our rainwater tanks which are on the higher level so there will be a good head of water to feed it. It is all falling into place.

[Hydrostatic Dazza]

This is a very well engineered railway Dazza, I'm impressed! Careful setting out and careful construction will pay you back in spades, all the time spent getting it right will bring big rewards in reliability and a realistic appearance unobtainable by any other means.

I know what you mean about lasers. My laser level is a dirt cheap (£20) model intended for internal construction work. It's about as much use outside as an ashtray on a motorbike even on a dull English day. All the level surveying and setting out for my line was done on nights!

Please keep the updates coming, it's great seeing your line growing. I'm really looking forward to seeing some track going down (not as much as you are, I'm sure!)

Andrew

Thanks Andrew. If all goes well one day I will get back to the UK again soon and I will fly with my loco and we will have to visit a few railways for a steam up and a few ales

[Hydrostatic Dazza]

The last sections are ready, the levels checked, 5mm of total up and down, a wee tiny amount of super elevation on the bends, the 6mm galv tie rod is in place and the gaps filled and lightly tamped, the concrete bed is leveled, the bricks are for soil support till the later terra forming takes place, the final pour if the rain holds off will be Wednesday evening because I am attending a board meeting tonight , sigh! (Historical Railway stuff)


The bridge abutments. I would have liked to have the 750mm MVL under arch bridge to hand to ensure all is sweet, but I suspect I will have to do add, or modify when the bridge arrives.

[mymodeltrain]

Very impressive; alot of hardwork. I wish to do the same thing when I have time in the future. When you work with small or large amount of cement; it worths to wear a mask to prevent small particles get into your lungs.

[Hydrostatic Dazza]

The civil engineering contractor's crew finished the last section of road bed under the flood lights last night.







In the morning light of the following morning the POR board of directors inspect the contractors work. The General manager looks pleased but the manager of engineering is looking pensive about the processes of craning in the MVL under arch bridge when it arrives.







The rumour circulating is that a chap by the name of Slartibartfast is being assigned to the landscaping of the POR.



Apparently he is unhappy because he had plans for including his signature fjords (arguing that they give a railway a lovely baroque feel), but has been told by his superiors that they are "not equatorial enough".

[Hydrostatic Dazza]

It is Friday evening and I could not resist laying some Peco about the place and then having a gander at it for 10 mins, letting the imagination roll. The only small radius turnout is the two for the loco roads. All the rest is Y and medium radius. Thus when loco leave the shed and couple up to the stock it is a straight run out of the yard to the mainline and the same when pushing stock back. A Red Room project is soon to be a small rail radius roller device, to do the best for nice Nigella curves.



Drilling the concrete, white plugs and screws, I wish there was a way to hide, lose or disguise the screw heads fixing down the track. I will have to use stainless steel screws as steel here will be rust dust in 12 months. A dab of paint on the screw heads but the heads look a bit "errrrrr Yukkkkk" . I am thinking screws rather than nails or pins as they can be adjusted as there is sure to be some packing here and there under sleepers.

I feel like some Red Room Loco work on Llewellyn # 1. The cylinders are calling, but first it is off to pull weeds in the front yard garden before the sun gets too high.

[tom_tom_go]

To hide the screws you could create a floating road bed with them positioned underneath:



Took a while to install but does allow for you to level the screws out and create level track with super elevation as required.

[Peter Butler]

To hide the screws you could create a floating road bed with them positioned underneath:



Took a while to install but does allow for you to level the screws out and create level track with super elevation as required.

Cats are optional.... Koalas may also be suitable.