Garden Railway Forum

Today there was a bit of a blizzard going on. Strong wind and snow, but with snow it is difficult to resist plowing, so I didn't spend the effort to resist it..



Youtube however is very enthousiastic about the speed of my trains, if you play it back on 75% of the original speed it looks more like the real thing. The first round was very cold, though using hot water to fill the boiler, the loco barely got steam enough. The second round I dicovered that the gastank was very cold and that the nozzle froze, causing the burner to be very weak. The second round the loco was heated through and I filled it with gas which came from inside the house, so then it had plenty of steam.

the remarks are in swiss language, to fit the Theme

Hope you enjoy the video. Happy saturday!

Did I spot "der Finger Gottes" once or twice?
(Sorry Google Translate only does German - the closest I could get to Swiss)

Rik

indeed it needed a push now and then. Shunting with the 0-5-0 helper locomotive

Wow thats some snow….and we moan about the bit of stuff we get lol…

Another small video of the freshly painted "Tierwis" with a new chimney and chuffer.


the railway will be changed a bit, the baseplate of the station area is starting to rot, since water has come under the roofingfelt. I've premission to move the station next to our terrace, so that the place used by the station can be landscaped. The station itself will also get a turntable (inspired by the India-topic by ge-rik!) and will be build as an end station.

Great video Daan, some nice slow running, but I felt for the loco when it was running a lot faster on those curves…..Still love the colour of your loco though…

Remarkable how well she handles those sharp curves - you seem to have got the regulator set at just the correct level.
Pleased to hear my India photos are being put to good use.

Rik

the sharp curves are "lead in" by curves of a wider radius. So it's more oval shaped then round. The really sharp curves (LGB R1) are only in the middle. The graduate narrowing of the radius is easy on the locomotive, even with speed.
On the eye they seem less sharp than ones made with R1 only. It's a 3,5 x 3 meter space, so I need to have some sharp curves in order to give the line an interesting look..

I can't run an aster schools loco on this layout obviously..

Still a great line Daan. My own line only has 1 curve maximum, so it can take some bigger locos, I have had an RH Alco round it with no problems, not mine I hasten to add

And yes, there is an extention to the line! Since the board under the station area has gotten bad and started to rot, I made a new board along the gardenwall besides the terrace. Here I installed the turntable and made a nice headshunt station with spurs to service the locomotives and put away some trains when not in use.





With a few bent-open R1 LGB curves I made a smooth connection between the old spurs which used to led to the station area. And I made a triangle to connect the oval with the station, to give trains the possibility to depart and enter the station from both sides. Also I made sure that when running the oval, the switches are in straight position, nihilating derailment problems.



The turntable is in position. It is mounted with bolts so that I can level the track very securely to the leading spurs. I made a few roundhead bolts under the bridge to help keep it level when a locomotive is driving up the bridge, that helps a lot.





There are 2 platform spurs and one run around track in the middle. Together with a few sidings for rolling stock and steaming the locomotives, it gives a nice compact station with all which is needed and it gives me the oppertunity to landscape a bit more track.


the turntable from above. Very simple and you'll need to keep the bridge in position by hand, but it works fine.

The turntable looks brilliant Daan.

As the expression goes, like topsy, it's growing. Looking very good Daan. You'll be all over the garden before you (or your wife!) knows it!

I like the turntable but that triangle junction will give you all sorts of possibilities.

I love how your extension has grown your railway and operating possibilities.

And your turntable is so key to the solution

I like your use of 'storage' as a reason for extending the railways when dealing with your major stakeholder - the Mrs!

Well, to my surprise the mrs didn't make a big point of me building the new extension. I had to promise a few new garden chairs and then it was fine.. But I had to promise that I won't convert the whole garden into a railway.. I promised I won't do that (yet) and crossed my fingers behind my back..

daan wrote: ↑Fri May 04, 2018 6:29 pm Well, to my surprise the mrs didn't make a big point of me building the new extension. I had to promise a few new garden chairs and then it was fine.. But I had to promise that I won't convert the whole garden into a railway.. I promised I won't do that (yet) and crossed my fingers behind my back..

Sounds familiar!

Yesterday evening I did make an upgrade to the turntable. It wasn't that stable on it's bearing as I hoped, so I drilled a hole through the middle of the bridge and the axle of the bearing and put a bolt through it. On the underside I placed 2 belleville washers which pull the bridge onto the bearing. Now it stays fixed. I should have done that in the first place, but I was too lazy

Any chance of a video of the turntable and locos in action?

The more I see of your line Daan the more I love it.

Like others I like your Turntable, simple and does the job well….

Great looking extension - glad you got planning permission for it from the Household Authorities

Rik