Garden Railway Forum

With the temp at 36'F, a friend and I did some 16mm narrow gauge steaming in the USA today. He brought over his Roundhouse Lilla and I ran my Merlin Mayflower named Smaug. Great plumes but cold hands. Thankfully both have RCS palm transmitters, so we could keep them and our hands in our jacket pocke...

Does anybody know how many, if any, of the Europa and Ithion European style engines were made? I am guessing not many as I cannot say I have ever seen one other than the pics in my catalog. I am hunting one to buy, or one of the their generic UK style engines like Auric or Genesis. Just has to be 45...

For those in colder climates, alcohol doesnt really care how cold it is. But butane, even the Iso-butane mix gas doesnt like real cold weather. I steam my gas fired models on the top of the stove, then once up to pressure I would carry them to the railway(elevated) with oven mitts. AD

You are doing well, just keep at it. Its self beneficial, the more you run the better you get at it. At home, I can turn the gas right down to near silent and keep it that way. But at shows, with all the background noise which is very overwhelming for someone on the autism spectrum, I struggle to ke...

With our steam groups late winter and spring steam ups all canceled. As soon as weather premitted, steaming commenced on my railway. I took delivery of a RH Lady Anne from John Sutton as the lay off from work killed the budget for a new Davenport model from RH. Here are a couple videos, one of my La...

What I was taught by Harri from Roundhouse that once your up to pressure and ready to go, turn the gas down to a whisper/sillent. As the model warms up, the gas pressure rises and the burner will again start to roar, turn it down again and anytime you start to hear it roar again. The older models, w...

I would suggest getting them "close enough", then running the chassis in on air like Roundhouse does. I found the rods and valve motion needed a few min in each direction on air to "loosen up" a bit. I would stop every few min and add some light machine oil to the air feed line(w...

Thank you! For me, even on a raised railway, its all about getting the railway atmosphere. Right now I am debating what headlamps to get for my Lady Anne. Looking at either the big Darjeeling lamps from Roundhouse for a bit of a ex-bush engine look or the German/Austrian lamps from Regner. I would b...

A twilight run behind battery powered LGB 2073d with a box wagon full of bottled wine, and a tasting party in the coach. The railway just purchased its first live steam locomotive(not my first but the first for this railway build). An all black Roundhouse Lady Anne, which should fit the part on my l...

On a damp and dreary morning, Hickory Lake Lumber Companies shop crew eases Climax #2 out of the shop. Newerly aquired from a nearby line that had logged out their tract. She is the "big" road unit for them, but a baby in terms of 3 truck Climaxes, weighting in at just 50 tons when most we...

I think many will wait for the RH England locomotive as it will have proper valve gear and the quality we have come to enjoy from Roundhouse. RH has really learned, by announcing models for the next several years, they have gained more sales by allowing folks to set aside money so they are ready to ...

I think they struck a nice balance of using off the shelf parts and prototype inspiration. I see plenty of daylight under the boiler. Unlike some builders, RH in my opinion, tries to use in stock parts to keep costs down. Using standard size boilers, standard cylinders and valve gear. If they were g...

I think the new management staff at RH are learning quickly how to maximize sales. I remember when the big engine news didnt happen till national AGM at Peterborough. Now we have it on New Years day with smaller anouncements thru the year like at the AGM. I suspect a USA style battery diesel is in t...

I know the feeling of not being able to afford engines all to well. Thankfully I am blessed with a good job right now as long as our automotive industry stays strong. I do hope to get one of the new Davenports this year and that will probably be my last engine for awhile. That will give us 4 locomot...

Whats everybody's thoughts on the new model(s) announced by RH for 2020 and beyond? Being a Yankee, I love the new Davenport, and if the delivery date is on or after a certain month, I am going to switch my preorder to one of those instead of a Lady Anne. Still waiting on the other announcements fro...

Here is the 3 truck, 50 ton Climax from Aster, my gift to myself thanks to a generous contract bonus from my employer. Makes all those mindless hours on the assembly line a bit easier to deal with. I get to come home and enjoy this(along with my Jeep). Happy New Year everybody!! https://i.ibb.co/TMH...

Yep, she runs flawlessly now. I posted some pics in the photography section of our small steam up we held today on my railway. The Switcher put in a couple really nice runs and had the honors of pulling the final train of the evening into the darkness. Mike the Aspie https://i.ibb.co/CwFy2S9/night-t...

Held a small steam up at my place today with a couple friends. It was very UK like weather wise, cool, damp and it started lightly raining during the final run of the evening. Here are a few pics from todays steaming: First up is my friend's Roundhouse Lilla with the first live steam train of the da...

A few additions to the UK style of my dual theme railway(other have is USA style logging). Added the UK style signal(the remaining LGB one will go away soon), new station and platforms built from IP Engineering laser cut wood kits. I water sealed them and painted before putting them on the railway. ...

I tore the engine down to a bare rolling chassis today, straighted the bent frame rails and reassembled the chassis, checking for binds and squareness along the way at several stages. took this pic before refitting the boiler to the chassis. The way the frame was bent, which started halfway between ...