Garden Railway Forum

I think you've hit the nail on the head, one of the mind broadening aspects of garden railways is the large variety of skills it covers. Gardening (as you have mentioned) civil engineering, metalwork, wood work, painting, electrical, and electronics, the list probably goes on. I could add patience, ...

Another wonderful building, I have always admired the appearance of the type of construction used for the top story of the building, that, along with the additional colour the signs add, just make it perfect.
Your town planner has got quite a job ahead of him.
Grant.

Being an immediate sort of chap I wanted to do the job now, Could be the mantra for the scratch builder Jim. Buying something means getting changed, driving in traffic, or waiting for the courier or postie, looking around the scrap on the bench and using a few brain cells gets you there with much m...

Public Works were on the job recently, the footbridge at Leawarra has been closed "Out of Use" due to missing steps. ./myff/2053150/Foot+bridge+Repaint+1.JPG The bridge got a new set of merbau steps, nailed in this time. ./myff/2053146/Foot+bridge+Repaint+2.JPG A strip of the old flaking p...

Welcome back Mate, more hand laid track or can you salvage what you had? At the rate you build track, a new lot is probably quicker
Grant.

A bit of time spent on that sequence I imagine, nice work. While working for ABC TV doing drama, we shot chroma key work to be cut into the series we were shooting. I had always believed the camera never lies, but it doesn't always tell the truth either.
Grant.

Nice work Tom, now if the servo was in the loco, it wouldn't matter where it was regarding uncoupling!!
Grant.

Thank you all for your comments, apart from a few additions the loco hasn't changed much, but has become far more practical to use. Andrew, I'm a one eyed steam man too, I never realized how important this loco is to my railway until I was without it. Apart from a run every other day, it transports ...

As mentioned above, a complete mechanical and part electrical rebuild was called for, after killing the battery of the Pet/Mech loco. First clean and strip the old setup.   ./myff/2052676/Mech+Loco+Rebuild+2.JPG The old 540 motor can be seen which drove a worm gearbox through a toothed belt drive. O...

It appears fairly straight forward Stephenson's gear apart from being 180deg. out of phase.
I think it would be an attractive machine when moving, with all that gear right forward and seeming to drag the engine behind.
Grant.

Nice long flowing curves Andrew, as it should be. Great work, you should be really able to see the railway in your mind now, which always helps with progress.
Grant.

Like the "I" beams protruding through the wall, this is going to be another fabulous building.
Grant.

Ditto the engine sounds.
Grant.

My dad took a small toy steam engine to the Lake Goldsmith Rally in Australia a few years ago.

Hope your Dad enjoyed his trip to Lake Goldsmith, it's a great Rally set out in the middle of nowhere, but very friendly.
Grant.

Glad your getting results but I'm a little confused, locked it up and loosened the chuck abit. The chuck must be locked to the needle at all times, and the needle as far forward as it goes. The chuck locks the sleeve(in my pic.) to a position on the needle. Were it to slip or not be tightened up, th...

Those signal arms look nice!
Grant.

Livery is to be based around a huge tin of exterior stain

Good one Ted, that's got to be the best reason I've heard for choosing a livery. Good luck with the build, you seem to be enjoying it, and it looks great so far.
Grant.

OK I've checked the Iwata parts list for the Neo and it has similar parts.    So using the pic. of my Olympos you will see the small lever behind the operating button, this controls the amount of material(paint in this case) allowed into the air stream. If the lever is held to the back of the button...

Bit hard without pics. of the workings, but I have the original Professional Olympos which some say the Iwata is a copy of.   If you unscrew the rear cover there will be a tiny knurled chuck with the rear end of the needle stem protruding from it. If the chuck is undone or slipping that is what cont...

Yes Rik, the loco stopped and I thought it was something on the line, so started it off again and of course dropped a cell below recovery. Tried the two known recovery methods but it was no go. I have two 11.2 volt batteries that only give 7.4 volts now. As regards the transmission, this time I purc...