Garden Railway Forum

Ingenious and well crafted.

FWLR wrote: ↑Sun Aug 25, 2019 9:18 am Really well done Dave. That looks so good, I am imaging it to be a real standard gauge when I saw that photo.

Thanks!

Great fit there Dave, I have been looking at PNP track myself just so I can have a small run up and down my drive or in the garden. Thanks Tom. The PNP plastic sleepers and chairs self assembly is pretty good and easy to put together if a little tedious if you have a lot of panels to do. I have a f...

Thanks for the comments Don and Rod, much appreciated. I have installed the sidings track panel and it now looks like this, just big enough to fit a bogie wagon / driving truck. As I said yesterday I have put a gentle slope on the siding so the truck rolls gently into the buffers (circled yellow). I...

I took advantage of today's nice weather to install my point. It wasn't too bad a job. I cut out the portion of track corresponding to where I wanted the points to go, squared off the ends with a file, drilled a couple of holes in each end rail to take the fish plate bolts (the points came pre-drill...

Welcome Gary. I agree with @Dwayne. Keep the groundwork to a minimum and make it as portable as possible. You could spend a lot of time and effort sorting out the garden and shed only to have to abandon it. Don't let this put you off though, you can still get a lot of pleasure from any outdoor model...

Although we have the room the ground slopes quite steeply. Don That would be a problem. It's hard enough work laying 5" track on the flat, to have to build embankments and cuttings as well would be a tremendous amount of time and labour if you were doing it, or money if you contracted it out.

As if the new point wasn't enough excitement, I got my new carriage and have had a chance to test it with and without passengers. IMG_20190815_170353.jpg Here is is with loco and driving truck/open wagon. IMG_20190815_170414.jpg It needs the trim painting and logo, 1st and 3rd class lettering and a ...

Dave you may find a weighted point easier to do and adjust. A bell crank mounted in the vertical plain with the operating arm attached to the high end and a weight attached to the low end. A train passing through in the trailing direction will push the open point blade against the stock rail which ...

They look very nice and would do the job but I thought you might be going for something home brewed like your excellent signals. I hadn't realise the turnout included a locking mech, I had imagined a quadrant or semicircle of ply standing up from a base with the lever pivoted from the centre and us...

Why don't you make the point sprung so it always resets so it is set for the siding (assuming you always go round the circle the same way). That's an excellent idea Tom. I might give that a try. I guess the trick is to get the tension in the spring strong enough to hold it open but not too strong t...

That looks just the business Dave. Regarding the lever if it operates too easily there could be a danger of it not holding tight or moving under a train. Not an issue if it is trailing but dodgey if facing. Ideally you could do with some kind of locking mech. I would be thinking of a lever against ...

Graeme is correct as far as LGB is concerned, however other manufacturers of code 332 track use the same names for different radii. R1 tends to be universal (600mm) but for example PIKO R3 is 922mm not 1195mm. The other manufacturers (Train-Line 45, Aristo-Craft, there may be others) have their own ...

I still don't understand how you are going to connect the siding up but looking forward to seeing it when you do, I am sure it will become clear to me then! Here is a picture of my newly acquired left hand 10' radius point (Maxitrak) placed on top of existing track to show how it connects up to the...

DonW wrote: ↑Sat Aug 10, 2019 8:08 am you'll be needing a crossing keeper now. The gates really add to the line.

Don

Thanks Don. A job for my grandson I think if I can wrest the driving control from him.

DonW wrote: ↑Thu Aug 15, 2019 5:31 pm ...I used to enjoy using assembler code I keep thinking I should be fiddling with aduinos or rasberry pies but I have no need.

Don

The only raspberry pies I fiddle with have a dollop of cream on top

Nice piece of reuse Rik. I had a Psion, it was okay but the LCD screen was hard to read in daylight.

If I had a 'Bucket List' this would be one of the first items on it....... one of our esteemed colleagues on the Forum, Rik, very kindly offered to visit the B&UR and shoot some video film. This has now been done in Rik's highly professional style and the finished film is now available on YouTu...

Recycled plastic even. Nice find!

Great start look forward to viewing the end result.