Garden Railway Forum

StuartJ wrote: ↑Wed Apr 03, 2024 9:15 am Many of the earlier Festiniog waggons were inside framed:

Thanks everyone. That FR wagon may just be the prototype for the 2nd bogie. Shows there's a prototype for just about anything.

This not the most exciting build but is my latest time waster. While cleaning up my modeling room I found two front bogies from Bachmann Big Haulers. bachmann front bogie.jpg So I thought they would be easy to use to make a couple of short wagons for my indoor line. A few bits of 8mm thick pine, a l...

Here is the latest news. :roll: Firstly, thanks Greg. I've done as you suggested and just put the 82R in one of the speaker leads and it works a treat, although it does still get a bit warm. Try putting the 100R in parallel with the 82R. I usually find I need a 22 or 33R. But they have to be 1W

Anyway I took the pot out and replaced it with the resistors. The sound worked fine at about the right volume, but the resistors got red hot again in less than a minute. Had a rummage through the junkbox and managed to find a 180R and an 82R at 1/2watt, so put them in. Worked fine but started to ge...

This loco is truly CURSED. After all the problems with getting everything cut, I finally have it almost complete. It just needs some numbers. BUT as I took it for its first run outside, it stopped after 15 minutes. I finally have tracked it down to an intermittent fault in the Hobbyking transmitter....

I am in awe of the homemade sound card, nice going! :salute: Looking really good as a whole project :thumbup: Thanks for the compliment Steve. I have been making sound circuits based on Picaxe microcontrollers for 20+ years now. Both steam and diesel. For my ‘ really good’ locos I use commercial so...

Thanks for that photo Graeme. I was wondering whether to put some sort of railing behind the driver. Now I have some ideas.

Also the red 'motion'. Also wondering if to paint the con-rod and weights red.

I had a change of plans and put all 6 AA cells on one side tank and the other side will have the sound board and speaker. It will also need about 100g of lead in the other tank to even up the weight on each side. Makes the wiring easier. Receiver and speed controller are in the boiler. Here’s a pic ...

What a Bloody Beautiful Big Blue Beast.

Great to see it running.

Here's my two entries

Can we hop on a train here?
When the next train passes, it's "bombs away"

After wasting a week on Picaxe programming, I finally came back to actual modelling. I found a small dome from some old kitbash and glued and screwed it to the boiler. I epoxied the boiler to the baseplate, with all the usual hassles of getting it centred on the baseplate, making sure it is level le...

There's hundreds of videos on youtube about baking soda and superglue like this one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKu2mB1BrN0 BUT, my superglue does not instantly soak into the baking soda - more like water drops on dry soil. The superglue just runs off. Would be nice to find if a different superg...

You sure know how to pick an interesting prototype. Looking forward to the result, in time. :study: Thanks Aaron - the final thing probably won't look like what I started out to model. Anyhow, here is the next exciting episode of slow progress. So after the debacle I decided to cut a big hole in th...

I used to use those, they work very well but I eventually got annoyed with the squeal they have at low running. I swapped them all out for Deltang / Micron Radio ESC's and found I got rid of the squeal as well as I needed much less room to fit the gear as the ESC and RX are combined. Along with tha...

-steves- wrote: ↑Sun Jan 14, 2024 10:28 am The only way to lower the footplate is to cut around the motor block and lower everything around it. .......

I'm already way down that path........... much testing of clearances to be done.

Greg, Looks interesting. Quick question what is the part number for the Pololu? This is where I bought it. Note limited supply! https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/176169469400?_trkparms=amclksrc%3DITM%26aid%3D1110018%26algo%3DHOMESPLICE.COMPLISTINGS%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20210617141043%26meid%3D75aef532d0fe470...

I wanted another small steam loco for my indoor Claymine Branch. And I thought an outside frame type might be different. So I purchased a Bachmann motor block from a 45t centre cab diesel. bachmann centrecab motor block (1).JPG One unforeseen problem is that the wheels are quite large – 41mm dia. No...

You can walk into your nearest Jaycar and buy tin/lead electronics solder under their Duratech label, although they also waste shelf space on the other crap. It comes in various size packs, but the catalog no. for the 200g pack of 1.0mm size is NS3010. As it happens, it's cheaper than the lead free...

Thanks Graeme. At least it is still available.

I had to buy another spool of resin-core solder - the first in many years. I tried it and it will hardly melt with my 20W iron. The bloody EU has banned the use of lead and it is 99.3% tin and 0.3% copper. How is that supposed to melt? What a waste of money. The old stuff was 60% tin and 40% lead. U...