Garden Railway Forum

QUESTIONS....... ..you will notice that the cab windows are square...this is due to my total inability to cut circular windows...how would you do it?  Also, do you think that the cab is too short? It's coming along nicely. Just noticed the questions..... Round windows aren't a lot harder in polysty...

  Gas valve, or gas jet, and how do I safely remove a gas valve for checking if I still have gas in the tank? Sorry to hear that..... I can't think of how a fall that didn't total the model would damage the filler valve and/or control valve, but it may have bent something in the gas system when the...

Apparently Blu-Tack is very flammable & gives off toxic fumes It's basically just clay, oil and synthetic rubber. Consider it as being modelling clay mixed with an adhesive like the one used on Post-It notes. It's hard to ignite and is more or less self-extinguishing due to the mineral content,...

Those are interesting locomotives. The "weed control" device fitted in the one picture is especially peculiar. I wonder how that worked. They also have external stevenson's valve gear which is unusual but kind of attractive. The weed control attachment fed exhaust gases and steam onto the...

Hi Keith, I led you astray on this one. I've been going through my library looking for Aust. delivered Krauss locos for my next loco project and an article with a photo of a Krauss 0-4-2T+T turned up. The Plane Creek sugar mill tramway had two of them, now long gone, although the last one wasn't scr...

It goes without saying that the card will need protecting from water by means of paint or similar, Several coats of shellac will weatherproof it and also smooth out the paper texture so it looks more like steel sheet when painted. For larger projects you can get the corrugated card in A4 size sheet...

Yes the sight glass has O rings and a gland nut, however, the instructions state to apply a tiny (very tiny) amount of Loctite to the gland nut. You need to ask Jop what the loctite is being used for..... If it is to stop the gland nut loosening off, but still allow it to be removed if necessary, y...

Could anyone explain to me what the device is in the middle and can I buy one/model it? it looks like the shaft from the brake stand. In full size it would have a square thread running in a nut mounted in some way on the end of the bellcrank. The bellcrank is fixed to the cross shaft slung from the...

I was wondering if anyone agreed with me that my Roundhouse Billy would look nicer with a trailing wheel under where the "firebox" would be. Generally the trailing wheels on an 0-4-2 should be behind the firebox, so there is space for the ashpan...... If you haven't heard of it before, re...

I've just seen an advert. for 'gorilla glue'.  It seems too good to be true for garden railwayers.  Has anyone any positive or negative experience of this stuff? Which Gorilla glue? They sell a polyurethane glue, an aliphatic PVA, a rubber modified cyanoacrylate and a fast epoxy, as well a high str...

The roof is almost finnished (I have added a cat :D ) Hi Michael, Cats will sleep anywhere..... Mine aren't allowed in the workshop, as I can do without extracting metal splinters from their footpads. It doesn't stop them trying to get in there though. :roll: I have not yet decided how to make it s...

I use the Accucraft W&L type of chopper and test new underframes through a #4 crossover, which is about equivalent to a 4' reverse curve. FWIW. The last test I did was on the pass cars, which are 90mm from the bogie pivot to the headstock and the big Baldwin, which is 120mm from headstock to lea...

From where would one acquire such a thing as spare blades and springs for Accucraft chopper couplings? You could try Accucraft, they may stock spares..... Someone was making replacement laser cut choppers for Accucraft. No idea if they are still around, but they were reviewed in Garden Rail some ti...

Just got mine in the post.  Can't try it out yet as I am at work, however, it seems pretty fragile so not sure how well this is going to work on the chopper couplings! You need to clamp it so it can't move. The blades are stronger than they look, but don't force the cut, or the blade will jam and s...

Are there many companies that sell 15mm kits or models? Besides Accucraft American-outline models, of course. It seems to me that quite a lot of the models in this scale are scratch-built. In the UK there are a couple of Isle of Man wagon kits from IP Engineering and DJB Engineering have some IOM c...

No, you are right, it's a locomotive / engine. If it isn't a train, then neither is a single unit railcar...... :lol: As usual, there's a prototype for everything, even if it wasn't ng. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Schienenzeppelin_Steilrampe.jpg .....or the US contribution, the stealth railca...

The max. drawbar pull of a loco. will be about 1/5 of the weight on the drivers and the maximum pulling power will be independent of what is boiling the water. Where a coal fired loco. may have an advantage over meths or gas (all other things being equal) is that a coal fire is self regulating and s...

What would the minimum radius be for a curve when modelling this? I was thinking 4' or maybe 5'... My stock just sqeaks through a 4' radius reverse curve, as I use chopper couplings and they run out of sideplay at that point. They look better on larger radius though and if I build a track it will h...

That has definitely given me some things to think about. Indeed. ;) 'Industrial Narrow Gauge Album' by Andrew Neale, published by his own Plateway Press, is still in print and has a good wide ranging collection of photos. of UK industrial railways. It doesn't concentrate on just front 3/4 shots of ...

Would 16mm scale work for this? 3' gauge in the garden scales is normally modelled using 15mm/ft scale on 45mm gauge track. This is used by Accucraft for their IOM models. I use this scale for the TVT and the timber tram that connects with it. The Hunslet I built using a Roundhouse Bertie chassis i...