Garden Railway Forum

“I can't read the cabside lettering - what power classification have you designated it? 7F?” It says ‘5MT’ but it wasn’t chosen very scientifically. I had a quick peek at an idiot’s guide to what it all means and looked up the Tractive Effort figures for possibly relevant locomotives. But way out o...

Fantastic progress! How long will the completed line be? And how long will it take to complete a single trip? When I built my own (very much shorter!) end-to-end line, I was surprised to find that (with a live steam loco) the downhill journeys are often longer than the uphill ones, I think because I...

That really captures the look of the original! And, I agree, it's going to look great on your clay branch...

Andrew.

I like the phrase "Light Garratt" very much!

I can't read the cabside lettering - what power classification have you designated it? 7F?

I do love those locos - and yours is a beauty. The lining looks great...

That sounds awful - glad you're both ok though...

Perhaps a little point/track/rolling stock construction would prove therapeutic while you're in exile? I hope it all goes well.

All the best,

Andrew.

That's looking great! And it does look a lot like BR express blue - needs a nice rake of blood'n'custard carriages behind it...

Wilko's will be missed for such trivial items as rattle cans but I get my Hycote satin black from 'The Range' for a reasonable price. They stock primers, lacquers and limited paint colours. There is a list on-line of locations for all 180 branches nationwide. I mourn the loss of Wilko several times...

Magnificent. Somehow, just absolutely 'right', like that's the only way a 3'6" gauge blue BR Garratt could possibly look. Exactly! A little less audacious and maybe it wouldn't work, but it does, beautifully! Congratulations! Any idea what it'll pull yet? Can't wait for film footage... Andrew ...

That's a REALLY lovely model! The detail's just fantastic... It's a shame you're modelling a prototype, otherwise you could add skylights to allow the a better view of the inside, like those on a tool van that's just been restored on the GWSR, being pointed out most helpfully by the chap in this pho...

It's not a building exactly, but it's the only modelling I've done in weeks, and it needed to go somewhere, so here's a little figure on a Phil Sharples bench: Little man.jpg The bench is lovely, and only cost £2 or 3, I think - great value. I'm not entirely sure where the figure came from, Poundlan...

Andrew, Mine doesn't have wifi, only records to the on-board microSD card, but there are wifi models on Temu for not much more. https://www.temu.com/uk/1pc-hd-1080p-mini-wifi-camera-smart-home-security-camera-mini-camera-wifi-ip-camera-small-cctv-camera-night-vision-motion-detection-alarm-monitor-r...

That's very impressive!

Maybe the technology exists already, but presumably it should now be possible to combine such a camera with phone-based RC so that you can drive, with a driver's eye-view, from the screen of a smartphone?

Those who make their own points are the true Gods of our hobby, in my opinion - beautiful work!

Seems quite fitting that the milestone Off-topic Topic in this sub-forum is about - itself?!

They used to do something similar in the canefields, only pulling, with rope. Dangerous, and I'm told, illegal nowadays. I think it was an occasional, but frowned-upon, practice in the UK. I believe using a capstan was more common, with the loco and wagon were heading on opposite directions. I thin...

Greg, I'm really surprised that you feel the need to add this mixture. I find that plastikard forms a strong bond if a solvent (eg. EMA Plastic Weld) is used to weld the surfaces together. Tube glues, or superglue don't have the same effect as they just sit on the surface. Personally, I was thinkin...

I used a new (to me) method from YouTube to make ‘ fillet welds’ where 2 pieces of styrene are glued at right angles. The ‘fillet’ is made from Baking Soda powder, then superglue is dripped on. It sets like ‘rock’. But looks pretty ugly. That sounds like it could be a useful trick, particularly whe...

It's looking good in "works grey"!

Reminds me of when the F&WHR's Garratt No 87 ran in grey for a season or so:

That's very impressive, I like it a lot!