Garden Railway Forum

I like the idea of the functional leaf springs. Would ABS be more flexible than PLA do you think? I'd be very wary of trying to make plastic springs work reliably. Especially the polymers available for home printers. Flexibility and springiness are very two different physical properties, the releva...

When I built the Irish passenger carriages out of white polystyrene I wanted a stained wood effect for the interior so I painted the interior a buff colour and then gave it a wash of brown paint using a stiff bristle brush to give a faux woodgrain finish. I also made up wooden seats and stained them...

The only thing I'd add to what Peter and Philip have said, is that I use a specific tool for scribing boards, door frames etc. onto polystyrene sheet.... I do all my scribing with an Olfa P-cutter that I bought 40+ yrs ago. It is still using the original blade as I keep it just for scribing plastic....

it’s crossed my mind that the basic cylinder design could be used in a 16mm loco, although can’t think of any inside cylinder prototypes A prototype doesn't necessarily need to have inside cylinders....... Stewart Brown at Archangel Model Locomotives used a single inside cylinder, with dummy outsid...

6 new "Whole Stick" wagons have just rolled out of the Ringbalin Light Railway workshop and have had their first test run which went well. Enjoy these wagons in their current new state because after a cane cutting season out in the paddocks they will not look all that pretty. Good to see. Nothing l...

As I mentioned in my Railway thread, today's run with my Regner Konrad was cut short when the flywheel worked loose - the grub screw that holds it in place had gone missing. It should be an easy fix, but I don't know how to identify what I need to buy to replace it. Can anybody advise on what size/...

I usually use clear styrene as glazing and prefer something more substantial than 0.1mm thickness. Me also.......... Glass windows are flat and thin clear sheet in a model doesn't look right when it reflects light, as it is too flexible to sit flat. In garden scale I usually use 1.5mm acrylic sheet...

With the weather improving here the latest TVT motive power has entered service, taking the line into the diesel era. The loco model is pretty well run in now, but a passenger train was chosen for the first run instead of going straight into goods service, as the Walker railmotor is still awaiting s...

I am interested in how these are fitted to the buffer beams of locomotives such as Quarry Hunslets as I can't find any photos of how they are attached (possibly coach bolts?) This photo of a quarry Hunslet shows one fitted with dumb buffers. In this case the wood blocks are faced with metal, but I'...

Also that explains the injectors. The original situation is as per the drawing for Charles - and I can understand the arrangement (I think). The water comes directly from the tank side. The steam supplies come from the cab where there have to be valves to operate them. The overflows are easy to spo...

Maybe it is worth persevering with grub screws, certainly M2.5 sounds attractive - I will have to look to see if I have an M2.5 tap? Probably need to buy one! I am planning a Stephenson valved model of one of the large England engines - so that might be the time to try it. Sounds like a plan. Whate...

I could only get the 8BA grub screws with slotted heads - and they are far too weak. I kept breaking them. So I would certainly lock the eccentrics permanently before assembly next time. Slotted head grub screws are about as much use as a chocolate teapot in my opinion, much too easy to break off o...

I am pleased to see that you test out your motor/gearbox/electronics in a mock-up to get the speed correct. (always my step 1 also) I do a lot of testing while building a model loco. This one was a long way out into new territory and needed a lot of testing to get things the way I wanted, but it al...

As soon as I saw the first photo of the power bogie I knew exactly what you were building. Absolutely incredible job on every aspect of this build, you've absolutely nailed the stocky look of the prototype. I wondered how long it would take you...... ;) Mine is a bit stockier than the prototype as ...

The name of the new loco comes from the Mihirung, which were a group of Australian giant flightless birds and the last of them disappeared along with the other local megafauna about 30,000 years ago. The name is of aboriginal origin, as the last ones were still around when the first humans arrived. ...