Garden Railway Forum

I was inspired by the ideas show here so I dismantled an old wine box and cut it to the right size before rebuilding it. I added a sliding lid and some blocks inside that hold the chassis by the buffers. A couple of coats of varnish and I now have a nice stirdy box to keep my Roundhouse Katie in. IM...

Thanks for your replies. All good info there. I think Ill price up how much it would cost in wood to make a box. If it starts getting expensive I may pay a bit more and go for the bespoke one as they seem a reasonable price and would be less hassle.

I am building a Roundhouse Katie and am thinking about ways to keep her safe in storage and if I need to transport her. What is recommended? I can build a wooden box but would foam be ok pressed against the paint for long periods or would some sort of hold down bracket be a better approach. Are ther...

Hello, I have a Roundhouse Katie that I am slowly building. I bought a length of Peco G45 track to put her on as I build her but am now thinking about buying more track. The Peco track is quite expensive, especially when I'll need quit a lot and some points eventually. My question is, are there othe...

I'm selling a couple of books on scratch building track and wagons. These are 4mm finescale so not directly related to most garden railways but the techniques will be similar. These are on eBay at the moment but happy to sell outside if a buyer prefers https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/293775909967?ssPageN...

GardenRail:106122 wrote: I am now changing gradually to the DJB ones which are lovely. I blacken the quadrant and use silver restorer on the lever.

Can you provide the dimensions for the DJB lever and quadrant as I couldn't find any details on their website.

[quote="JimboJet:106109"]To save you the WH Smith visit, try this....
[quote]

Many thanks for that. It looks good but I will have to check for room on my yet to be finished Katie.

Thanks for the update. I'll check this out next time I'm in WH Smith.

Hello,

I was recently looking at the Reversing lever for my Roundhouse Katie. It is rather flat looking and it got me wondering if there is an aftermarket version that looks a little more realistic. Does anyone know of such an item or have they made one?

Ian

Hello,

I have a roundhouse Katie and want to replace the standard screws that hold the buffer beams on with hex headed screws. Can anyone advise on what size screws are used and a possible place to buy the hex headed items?

Ian

I have sprayed my Roundhouse Katie buffer beams with red car paint from Halfords. Whilst I’m happy with the colour they have dried mostly shiny but also with some dull patches. I have used the brass etched overlays which show the rivets etc so I can’t easily rub down or polish these. These have been...

I didn't ask them why they soldered the door shut, I just asked them if they could supply the parts separately. The email came back saying no problem and that they will do the swap. I guess that if they did provide the parts separately people would want the extra locking parts so that they could be ...

I spoke to Roundhouse and they told me that if I send them my smokebox they will replace it with the unsoldered parts. This will make life a lot easier than trying to de-solder the original. I will take some pictures as I complete the job, so that anyone else wanting to tackle this can see how I man...

Thanks for the advice. I now need to visit Halfords to find some red paint to paint the buffers and buffer beam.

How did you make / fit the smokebox strap? Do you have any photographs or drawings of this locking arrangement. I'm not too sure what to do in this area.

I recently bought the boiler kit for a Roundhouse Katie. I was surprised to find that the smokebox door had been soldered shut. I would like to modify this so that it can be opened and locked. Has anyone done this or got any pictures?

I only plan to paint the back section of the casting and leave the flat plate as bare metal. I’ve done a few other searches and several people say that Halfords grey primer should be fine. I already have a tin and also some etch primer but I wasn’t sure which would be better. I believe the etch prim...

I am looking to paint the white metal buffers on my Roundhouse Katie. My question is, can I use a standard grey primer (something from Halfords for use on a car) or should it be an etch primer ?

Hello,

Thanks for the advice. I’ve just ordered up some Milliput from eBay. Never used it before but reading about it, it looks like it may be handy for other jobs as well.

Ian

I have Araldited the thin brass buffer beam overlay to my roundhouse Katie buffer beam. That went well so I cleaned it up and sprayed with etch primer. I then noticed that there are a couple of thin gaps where the glue didn’t weep out between the steel and brass overlay. The gap is thinner than a sh...