Garden Railway Forum

GTB:106344 wrote:I wouldn't let used engine oil near a gearbox in a fit.

Nicely put

I just need to seal the cover with some sealant to keep oil from dripping out, and then use some mineral oil. I'm thinking of extending the cover downwards in the centre and incorporate a magnet to attract metal fragments

I've been having doubts about reusing the engine oil in the gearbox. With the old set-up the oil came from the very hot muffler. With the new set-up it's a lot cooler and solid droplets of water come down the tube with the oil. I removed the lower gearbox cover, and this is what I found: The grey pa...

Very, Very Impressive. Regarding the noise from the muffler. You could try attaching a small bit of lead or similar to the side. All that you may need to do is stop the metal vibrating at a certain frequency to stop the noise. The small additional bit of dense material will change the frequency and...

Had a great run yesterday. The run was to test the huge new muffler / silencer box attached to the cab firewall. There's so much expansion, that the exhaust gasses are quite cold exiting the exhaust stack. The muffler is very effective, there's little exhaust noise. However, there's a lot of mechani...

Really does look excellent, the standard of work looks very high indeed. Thank you! I've been sorting out the gear lever arrangement. Here's a view through the cab door way. https://i.postimg.cc/dtMwbv6q/20141208-17490-s.jpg The pins on the ends locate the levers in the right position. The knobs in...

Recently I've been concentrating on the exhaust system. A manifold to turn the exhaust through 98 deg. Then a huge box for the gasses to expand in, and then exhaust pipe going up the front middle of the cab in between the windows. The exhaust box is all soft soldered together, and coated all over th...

Annie:105276 wrote:What a beautiful example of model engineering  :D

Thank you Annie.

---

I've been making multi-height couplings for the loco, these are chunky fabrications and have taken a long time...

SpudUk:105052 wrote:I might just end up jumping from 00 to 7/8ths and skipping 16mm altogether!

I'd recommend that.  Many in 16 mm would like to but are too heavily invested in 16 mm.  I say "its never too late to do the right thing"...

Best wishes,
Dave.

Finally, I got the loco running again. Last weekend I had lots of fun soldering up a small on-board fuel tank from a can. It only holds about 40 mL, but it lasts for 20 minutes and can be topped-up when running. Just keep filling until fuel comes out the overflow. https://i.postimg.cc/gkFBwYX0/DSC09...

laalratty:103581 wrote:That really looks like its coming together nicely, how far from running is it?

I could run it now with the remote tank. It needs a good run as the motion is quite tight...

Here's the latest progress, the side rods fitted, a test run on the line - pushed by hand...
The motion is a bit tight, it needs a good run under power.

Thanks chaps. When I was younger I had little patience, let's hope I keep it up

Here we are, I've bent up the bonnet in the wood vice. I like the end-on view, it's got that menacing look of the truck in "Duel" (I could put some battered old engine nameplates along the buffer beam of victims, lol). https://i.postimg.cc/ncbQsWqR/DSC09805-s.jpg https://i.postimg.cc/4NRkr...

Well, the cab is nearing completion.  All the beading is on.  It is time to make a gentle start on the bonnet.

I like to use 8 ft radius curves on my garden railway when I can. At 2% grade a 8 ft radius will give a 1 ft rise per complete revolution of the spiral. My 180 deg return curve is only 3 ft radius but is steeply downhill this cancels out the drag of the tight curve. If you were going to run in one d...

There was recently a write-up in the 16mm facebook group about a spiral.

Slow progress recently. Ended up cutting out the cab pieces by hand after wasting time and money on a scroll saw. Then spent a week waiting for a metre of 1/8" brass half round beading to arrive; to edge the window openings and doorways. The metre length wasn't quite enough, but the front and b...

I was going to post a question asking if anyone built one and how did they get on? Obviously people did as your last post shews! I fancy having a go myself when time permits. I can thoroughly recommend the Idris. Here's mine, widened for 45mm gauge, and with a slightly larger diameter boiler. We ke...

I had a big shock when the cab was mocked-up in card today, it's enormous!

I just love the proper engineering and thought that has / is going into this loco and would love to see it in the flesh.  Just a shame your not local! Thank you! I'm just a click on the keyboard away. Here's the footplate, all one piece, lots of sawing and filing. https://i.postimg.cc/9F5yDsVV/DSC0...