Garden Railway Forum

Incidentally, found this photo of the Automatic Crispin -a masterpiece of electro mechanical engineering Rik

Actually, here's a better image of it in situ Rik

Ah, the automatic Crispin. I remember that issue but no longer have it. Now the subject has come up it was a railway modeller article (late 70s early 80s?) that got me thinking garden. I hope I still have the copy in the attic. It was written by a guy who had access to unwanted film props and had used them in his buildings. His operation was spread over a real day, early morning train, lunch time train, last train of the evening sort of thing. I don't recall it being overly realistic but always made me think one day I'll have a garden railway.

I haven't contributed much to this debate but keep doing what you do Rik, I like it.

ge_rik wrote: ↑Sun Jan 14, 2018 6:02 pm Actually, here's a better image of it in situ
post-18225-0-72347700-1440926071.jpg

Rik

Well, if anyone on this forum has the experience to develop a modern equivalent to the auto-Crispin, it is surely you Rik. I expect those little brain cells have been whirring and gogitating all night

Now you all have gone well over my head....

Slightly OT.
Am I right in thinking that the Buckingham Branch was preserved after Rev'd Peter died?
Bring back the days when we Clergy had the time to do things like this.

Seeing the Auto Crispin just reinforces my belief that there is an awful lot of very talented thinking and building lurking in the backyard sheds of this world. It reminds me of what we used to do in early radio controlled boats to get many actions from one channel, Meccano featured in those as well.
Grant.

It reminds me of when I was at school in the 1960s and used to work weekends at the 'The World's Finest Model Railway' which was based inside Colchester Zoo. The automation for that was provided by a large wooden cylinder which rotated very slowly. On the cylinder were various metal contacts which connected to a series of wipers. These then energised various sections of track so that trains would run at predetermined intervals - including shuttle services. My job was to wander around re-railing, doing the odd repair, dusting and answering questions from the public. At intervals we would run a commentary from the tape, dim the lights and switch on the lights on the layout (in those days around 1000 grain of wheat bulbs).

Rik
PS - Sorry, wandering off the topic of live steam, but hopefully of interest to some

since the model isnt running at unrealistic speeds, steam isn't used up as quickly. Normally by mid run, I have the gas turned down to silent levels(have to feel for heat at the chimney to see if its lit), the last couple runs have pushed the 30min run time before I ran out of steam. The less you can have the safety weeping steam, the longer the run will be. Mike the Aspie