Garden Railway Forum

Peco may have made brass rail at one time, they certainly made aluminium, I have some!

The Leek and Manifold locos had large headlights fitted, though they reputedly were never used.

I'm sure the issue is not with smoke. The issue is about burning fossil fuels and greenhouse gases, currently in power stations, but with the fairly obvious and expected eventual expansion to all users. There may or not be exclusions for preservation or other uses. I think it important that this are...

Nothing there that I wouldn't expect from a new loco. There is bound to be a mechanical tightness until it has got a few miles on. That is completely different to any sort of siezing up due to lack of lube. My Roundhouse L&M, supposedly run in at the factory, has immeasurably improved with use, ...

Well said. Worth mentioning is that steam oil helps provide a seal Condensate does also, though slightly less than oil. Our small stuff doesn't have piston rings, but often there are small grooves (labyrinth grooves) around pistons and when fluid gets into these groove is makes a seal almost as goo...

Cylinder lubrication with wet steam is almost unnecessary (inflammatory statement). It's the quantity of 'almost' that is the concern. Many steam launches run with no cyl. lubrication at all. Their concern is that steam oil could get into the boiler through the returning condensed water, and coat th...

I visited last week and they look to be pressing ahead in all directions, 3' and 7 1/4". Nothing is ever fast with a small group but they seem to be a dedicated and enthusiastic bunch. The station building is workable (café) though again with plenty still to do. The 7 14" G was pulling pas...

Is the piston plastic? I bought a Lorry (SW1) for my Grandson and the plastic piston is a very poor fit. All the condensate blows back over the side of the cab instead of up the chimney. Mamod have offered to look at it, but it will be easier for me to turn a new piston in brass, than pack it all up...

If the angle I described above does not equal 90 degrees then what occurs at one end cannot occur the same at the other end of the cylinder, as the piston timing is then different to the valve timing. Therefore it is not a "Rule of thumb" but a necessity. EDIT :- My apologies for the typos...

The best place for the weight shaft may not be directly above the driving axle, depending on how oblique the valve rod is to the valve spindle. Regards Ian Sorry I don't agree, The weigh shaft position must be correct or all the other dims/alignments are thrown out. That doesn't necessarily mean th...

Sorry another thread I've come to late (make note to self, look at this forum more frequently). Hackworth gear does not 'require' cylinders to be either level or inclined. The important point is where the weigh shaft is situated. With the axle in the normal running position, a line drawn through the...

I've come to this thread a little late, but for ground level running anything less than 7 1/4" (7 1/2" in most of the States) is uncomfortable after even a short length of time. 5" is viable, but stick with narrow gauge prototypes and short runs. a 7/14" Tich is available but som...

I have had an Accucraft Countess from new (about three years), it has only had a very little local tap water (hard) initially, and then self-distilled water (from tap water) used in it, and generally very little use compared to many. Having a little burner trouble last Sept, I set about cleaning the...

It's a bit odd, but I have the devils own job convincing the checkout girl that she should be asking for my ID. Perhaps it's something to do with my grey hair and wrinkled skin.