Garden Railway Forum

Anyway, if I can convince the airport security to let me on with a live-steam locomotive, I'll bring mine next time and we can confound your club members with TWO maroon, apartment-built British locos! I think I mentioned elsewhere in the thread that I had my kit shipped to my Dad's place in the UK...

Great photos Ted. That modular layout is HUGE....... :thumbright: Heh. Most of the layouts here are geared towards gauge one running of North American trains where the rule is 'bigger is better.' My little narrow gauge train looks pretty out o place a lot of the time. On the modular layout, I know ...

Dusting off my old thread! The Reading and Squamish Light Railway has grown considerably since the last update. I had originally told myself I would limit my stock collection to what would fit in two plastic totes. Needless to say, that day has come and gone and I now have to plan ahead regarding wh...

I was able to complete the full tour of our large club layout, 7 loops, with a few extra & a couple derailments on the less used loop, & back to the steaming bay in 24 minutes with my Lady Anne yesterday. The gas ran out at 27 minutes. There was a bit of blowing off at times so likely still ...

I'd like to make up some data markings for some grey box vans now that I have the technique down. Need to find a grey sharpie... :? It wasn't uncommon for a railway to paint the wagon no, load, tare, maintenance dates, etc. lettering in white on black patches, especially if the wagon was painted a ...

If the lettering rubs off in places it will look authentic! Right. Trouble is, with this method, it isn't the lettering that rubs off, but the black surrounding area, hence the sharpie to touch up. If I go over the lines with the sharpie & encroach on the letters, that's just wear & tear......

This only works well on black painted wagons, though. I tried to do much the same with some yellow lettering on a green background but try as I might I could never get the printed green on the transfer to match the painted green on the railbus sides. This is true. I'd like to make up some data mark...

Well, I think it came out pretty good for my first try. Wagon basecoat is satin black. Lettering is a black background laser-printed onto white waterslide paper, then matte-clear coat over the top to seal the transfers. I did find the black ink tended to rub off the transfers very easily, so that th...

OK, some great suggestions here. Thanks all! I like the idea of printing a black background on white paper. And I was already thinking that an all-over coat of satin varnish would mitigate any glossyness of the carrier. I've never heard of these 'Decalset' products. I'll have to ask around. There is...

Hmm. Thanks for the input all. Laser printer isn't a problem, but had I appreciated the difficulty printing white I might have chosen a different color scheme!

I'm just finishing up a North Pilton Works open wagon that I'm wanting to paint up as a private owner's wagon with custom made lettering. I was leaning towards using Letraset-style dry transfer lettering, but it seems this is hard to come by these days, especially given the larger font size I would ...

I painted my Brandbright coaches in cream and exterior stain:

The Royal Hudson certainly is a beautiful machine. I hope I get to see it in steam one day but, sadly, I'm not optimistic. It's owned by the Provincial government and, aside from the cost to recommission it, I think it's also fallen victim to politics. The museum in Squamish have a fundraiser going ...

The abuse a garden railway loco puts on a LiPo battery is nothing compared to what the drone and R/C car guys do to them. I just bought a charger capable of charging on two separate channels at 15A. It's not uncommon for guys to charge 2S LiPos at up to 40A to deliberate heat the cells so as to lowe...

I can assure you it does. I bought my unbuilt kit back from the UK via my mother's place in Spain in my hand luggage the whole way. Needless to say, airport security get a bit scared by a metal pressure vessel in your hand luggage...

Ha. Did you read the bit where I said I lived in Vancouver? No way I can afford to own property with a garden here! Fortunately there's the Greater Vancouver Garden Railway Club, who have a portable layout they setup at various locations several times a year, as well as the BC Society of Model Engin...

Weird. I live in Vancouver and have had no problem ordering bits from Roundhouse, Brandbright and GRS. My partner is currently trying to order me a Christmas pressie from Swift Sixteen and, for some bizarre reason, Canada is one of the few countries not listed under the options on the website for wh...

So? Who's going to be the first to build one in 16mm? "Honey, I'm borrowing the vacuum cleaner...!"

A TE1A was my first foray into live steam 'toys' as well. I must have been around 7 like you Tony when my Dad bought it home from the boot fair. An SL3 set followed around my tenth birthday. Over the next ~10 years an open wagon and an SL1 set followed, as well as a box containing various parts of a...

When I built my Lady Anne Kit I failed to heed the warning not to overtighten the expansion link bush. Needless to say, it broke. Phoned Roundhouse the next day and sheepishly confessed to my error, and they sent me a replacement, to Canada, with not even a charge for postage. Top notch service inde...