Garden Railway Forum

Had a great run on the rolling road yesterday. It's a good way to observe what's going on. I've downsized the exhaust nozzle from 2.0 to 1.5mm, but I may go further as exhaust is not as effective as blower at my speeds, and it's a shame to run the blower all the time. I'm using coconut based BBQ bri...

That is beautiful work Trevor! I must continue my Charles project now

Thank you lads! The smell was lovely! No filming yet, it was very stop and start, building up pressure, and running low on steam. Not helped by pumping too much into the boiler - the crown sheet was well covered :thumbup: Very little ash came through into the pan. I need to learn how to fire it. Not...

Thank you Trevor!

That final picture shows what clean, solid work you've done on this engine. That is true industrial art. Thank you Keith! :thumbup: So when are you going to run it on coal? :mrgreen: Tom, before the forum goes *poof*, yesterday I ran the loco on coal :king: I had to come up a method of keeping the ...

Fantastic workmanship Trevor!

Excellent work Aaron! I've used ball races on two locos :thumbup: Oh that's right, I forgot you've used almost identical bearings in your Fowler. What was the other loco? You've not had any issues with the bearings so far? I've got them on the steam diesel, and live diesel locos. No problems so far...

Looking fantastic has always Dave. Thanks Rod :thumbup: Had a good run of the loco yesterday. Gave the new "speed wheel" a good going. It's connected to a 10BA thread so the pitch is very fine so its very insensitive. I spun the wheel to increase the revs before engaging the clutch, then ...

Excellent work Aaron! I've used ball races on two locos

Just had a good run of the loco with a full boiler of water. Had a 35 minute run with the water ending up still above the burner tubes I had recently made an oil injection port with a non return valve so that I can manually pump oil in with my new 1mL syringes - thanks to eBay Here's the new oil inj...

Being a fan of narrowboats I decided on a speed wheel for engine speed adjustment on the loco rsz_dsc00591.jpg Another hole through the silencer was required, I was able to solder the tube in without damaging the paint rsz_dsc00588.jpg Adjusting the voltage for the LED rear light rsz_dsc00592a.jpg

The last run of the loco revealed that I need to be able to easily increase the revs of the engine when engaging the clutch

I'm planning on some sort of wheel by the dashboard for manual control

I've got the bodywork off to assess the situation

Thanks Aaron! Well, the mechanical lubricator didn't work out. It was unreliable, so is lovingly displayed on the shelf. The loco has run very happily with minimal oil lubrication for a long time. In fact the loco sounds best on water lubrication only. When the lubricator was working it over deliver...

Let's celebrate when we turn a failure into a success :D I had this scrap gear on the workbench for years (since when I built the live diesel) it must have moved on the mandrel so the teeth weren't in the right position. I wanted to make a starting wheel for the steam diesel rather than use an Allen...

Another brilliant build Dave.... :thumbright: :thumbright: Made me smile when I saw what you was using for the compressed air.... :D :D :D Thank you Rod! I call it quiet compressed air :D So many use those horrid noisy air compressors :thumbup: BTW what solder did you use to secure cylinder cover? ...

Drive shaft and eccentric
Test pumping
Milling the ratchet wheel with homemade cutter
30T 36T 42T Ratchet wheels - hardened
Ratchet wheel and fixed pawl

Lovely Dave, runs very smooth. I like the clicking noise as well. The mechanical lubricator on my 5" gauge loco is of the clutch type which although works well I am concerned longer term it will fail and I will end up with seized cylinders! Thanks Tom, it's a lovely project. LBSC would call it...

Can you please give us some more details? for example - how big is the body of this lubricator? Did you build it exactly as per Mason's book or have you used the book as an inspiration and adapted the design for your needs? Thank you The tank is 9/16" x 5/8". I built it exactly to the pla...

A month ago I decided to have another go at fixing the diesel. The lubricator was still unsatisfactory as was the boiler sight glass. So I took the L.C. Mason book - Scale Model Traction Engine Building "featuring minnie" off the shelf and started to build the mechanical lubricator. It is ...

Some great Fails coming through. Keep it up lads!