Garden Railway Forum

As most of you are aware I have been a bit quiet on the forum recently. Partly it has been a case of real life getting in the way, coupled with an inability to get into the shed due to a garden that bears more than a passing resemblance to the Somme. (I am not joking, we are just along from the graveyard and our grave digger has to use a pump to keep the water out of a grave should we have burial.)

Some of you may remember that I acquired a 5 inch Railmotor last year and then a 3 1/2 inch Mountaineer. I did not really want the Mountaineer but it was being reluctantly sold by a member of my local club as the elderly owner could not keep up with much needed maintenance. It was also built by another club member and since its construction 35 years ago it had always been in the ownership of members of the club. A friend and myself decided that it needed to stay local because it always had been in the club and so that the last owner could still have use of it. We decided to pool resources to purchase it for a winter project. (I also found out later that the individual I bought it with knew that I was in need of something to get me out of the parish for a few hours a week in order to retain my sanity. This was his idea of how to help.)

It was in rather poor state, it had been partially stripped down and then given up on. Amazingly it did still run before it was stripped. There was a lot of play in the motion, the wheels were worn and it was leaking steam badly in a number of places. The state of the piston packing was interesting to say the least. However, the boiler was still in test which was perhaps the most important part.
New piston were fabricated and new rings were made out of PTFE and new phosphor-bronze bushes were fitted to the motion, the wheels were turned on the lathe as well. Much to our surprise the rest of the engine was in remarkably good condition. A few fittings will need replacing but work is progressing well. I can't claim to have done all the work on her, three or four hours a week does not allow for much progress, but I have done my bit, learned a lot on the way and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. More importantly it has allowed me time to get away from the 'phone and the doorbell for a bit, this has proved worth its weight in gold.

We have also taken on another project that is currently on going, more information to follow

Novel piston packing!

Are the images from your club workshop?

The piston packing was a nice bit of possibly asbestos string 35 years ago. It was by this point past it's best.

The worshop belongs to the co owner of the engine.

Wow - what an impressive looking beastie. Looks like you've had your work cut out resurrecting it. Remarkable progress seems to have been made already - and it's good to hear it will remain local.

My best wishes for when you have to go back to the front, so to speak.....

Rik
PS - Interesting typo .... my original message read ... 'back to the font ....'

I could spend a long time in workshop like that!

Love the name!

I wanted to paint with leopard spots. But the co owner wouldn't let me.

If you ever want to indulge in going large scale have a look at Station Road Steam:

https://www.stationroadsteam.com/

There kits are what I am considering at the moment.

Now that is a beautiful engine, so jealous Jim. The link that Tom has provided shows some equally beautiful locos, but are well out of my pockets.....Some day maybe...

Given the ever rising prices in 16mm scale it is interesting to compare these with larger scale stuff.

You are so right Tom....The prices for 16mm are getting out of hand for a lot of us....

As I have said before, all my large stuff has cost me less than some 16mm models.
One of the members of the club has built a 4 wheeled, 5 inch gauge battery loco for around 200 quid. He did make the wheels and axles himself but even if he had purchased them the loco would have still come in at under £300.
If you want a 5 inch Express steam loco, you will pay big bucks. Smaller stuff is much, much cheaper.

I got to drive this loco today, first time on a 5" steamer:


It's a LMS Stanier Mogul owned by a friend at work I have got to know and he invited me to try it out. I was surprised how easy it was to fire and operate although it took a few laps to learn how to keep the boiler filled with adequate water.

Here's the club website if anyone is interested:

http://maidstonemes.co.uk/

FWLR wrote: Thu Apr 25, 2019 9:18 am You are so right Tom....The prices for 16mm are getting out of hand for a lot of us....

That is why I keep banging on about manufacturing budget freelance live steamers, but TBH there is very little interest. People want the big scale models. I guess I'm more of a live steam fan than a dedicated scale modeller so I'm not in the target demographic for the expensive scale models.

Incidentally you can buy a Maxitrak 5" gauge Hunslet for about the same amount of money as the latest offering from Roundhouse. I'm not saying what RH charge is unreasonable - after all there are a lot of parts in that loco - but it is still a lot of money. If I had that kind of money I would go for the 5" loco. I have the space for a railway and track can be make very inexpensively from mild steel.

As already mentioned, a 5" gauge electric loco can be made for very little money as can petrol/electric locos.

I suppose when it comes to larger scales versus smaller ones, with live steam anyway the cost of the extra materials required to make a bigger version is almost negligible compared to the cost of the man-hours going into making it which I imagine would be fairly constant regardless of the size- for comparably complex machines of course.

Keith S wrote: Mon Apr 29, 2019 3:07 pm I suppose when it comes to larger scales versus smaller ones, with live steam anyway the cost of the extra materials required to make a bigger version is almost negligible compared to the cost of the man-hours going into making it which I imagine would be fairly constant regardless of the size- for comparably complex machines of course.

My day job is CNC machinist and although larger items take longer to machine, a lot of the cost is in the setup time. Setup time is the the same regardless of size. Steel is a very cheap material so even a 7 1/4" chassis doesn't cost a fortune to make. Where it really stings is the cost of the boiler. Copper is expensive.
Assembly time can be high on small locos due to them being quite fiddly.

Steel boilers seem to be the thing now in larger scales...

tom_tom_go wrote: Mon Apr 29, 2019 4:33 pm Steel boilers seem to be the thing now in larger scales...

Yes, probably due to the cost of copper boilers. Steel boilers require more maintenance AFAIK.

Busted Bricks wrote: Mon Apr 29, 2019 5:50 pm

tom_tom_go wrote: Mon Apr 29, 2019 4:33 pm Steel boilers seem to be the thing now in larger scales...

Yes, probably due to the cost of copper boilers. Steel boilers require more maintenance AFAIK.

Not sure about steel boilers, but steel fireboxes are cheaper than copper fireboxes. I think, AFAIK, it is only in our small scales where copper is used for boilers.

Ahh, the great steam boiler debate.

In UK model engineering copper is the main material used for boilers, steel is used for some boilers fitted to larger engines, normally those above 7 1/4" gauge and larger scale traction engines.

There is much argument going on about this at the moment. The problem is, copper boilers can be tested by club boiler testers and built by amateurs. Steel boilers can't be. This is due to the need to be a coded welder to construct the thing and have access to all manner of technical wizardry to test them.

There is a lot more to it, I don't pretend to understand it all. There is plenty about it on the web at the moment if anyone feels the need to wade into the debate.