The Potters Orchid Railway

[Hydrostatic Dazza]

In a small back yard in Queensland the first sod is turned for the "POR"


the firing shovel has not been used for a while





First time with form work and concrete



4mm dip for the siding so unsecured stock will not roll and foul the main line, just below the Orchid house which is on a higher level.



Mainline and station loop under way

[Hydrostatic Dazza]

MAM (dear and very clever wife) is very handy with a trowel, just outside the Pottery shed



Me being cut in half with the LASER



Carriage roads and Loco yard being formed up. The carriage roads have 8mm dip into them.



Inspection team arrived to check progress. Top and Line satisfactory and a pass on the surface finish.



It has been some weeks since I have been in the Red Room, also been busy with new shunt and train examination training for the soon to be reopened Mary Valley Rattler Railway.





I have the urge to get back to metal work on my coal fired version of Eric and my 5" gauge loco



more of that here

https://www.flickr.com/photos/llewellyn ... 508699542/

[Big Jim]

Wow, a very good start.
Keep us posted on the build.

[Peter Butler]

Most impressive work in the garden.... glad to see all of the staff are playing their part and helping with the construction work.
Your red room is something to behold, great opportunity to work on your engineering project too.
Looking forward to updates on your line.

[tom_tom_go]

Another wife helping with railway projects, I am clearly doing something wrong with mine!

Very jealous of your workshop, mine is a hovel compared to yours.

I would like to know more about 'Eric' loco, what boiler are you going to fit or will you be building your own?

[bazzer42]

Have to agree with everyone else, superb track base and a workshop to die for. What wouldn't I give to clutter those work spaces.... Please keep us posted on progress.

[Soar Valley Light]

Some very impressive and well engineered construction work. You have every right to be proud of your handiwork.

Andrew

[invicta280]

This looks well engineered. You (and t'other half) will have it up and running pretty soon I reckon.
Pleased to hear that the Mary Valley Rlwy will be reopening. Will they still run the AEC railbus? I love that machine!

[Hydrostatic Dazza]

Most impressive work in the garden.... glad to see all of the staff are playing their part and helping with the construction work.
Your red room is something to behold, great opportunity to work on your engineering project too.
Looking forward to updates on your line.

Hi Peter, I have trolled through your railway thread for inspiration, especially the SBR for ballast fixing. I am having trouble finding the same brew here in Brisbane but I think I may have found something that is the same.

[Hydrostatic Dazza]

Another wife helping with railway projects, I am clearly doing something wrong with mine!

Very jealous of your workshop, mine is a hovel compared to yours.

I would like to know more about 'Eric' loco, what boiler are you going to fit or will you be building your own?

Hi Tom, I will start a thread on my Loco soon. I intend to make my own boiler as I have been silver brazing in my day time job for about 38 years, but yet to make boilers.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/llewellyncustombicycles/
www.llewellynbikes.com

[Hydrostatic Dazza]

This looks well engineered. You (and t'other half) will have it up and running pretty soon I reckon.
Pleased to hear that the Mary Valley Rlwy will be reopening. Will they still run the AEC railbus? I love that machine!

Hi, yes, RM76 "Red Rocket" (AEC railbus) will be operating soon. Just a few weeks ago it had a run in the Gympie yard to confirm some things for the new operating manuals. Naturally we all went for a ride.
This Pic is of Peter driving with a smile of genuine enjoyment.


While on the subject of old QR railmotors on AEC truck/bus chassis, RM55 "Red Fred" operates at the Rosewood Railway on the last Sunday of each month and also for charters

also Rosewood Railway's RM64 "The Bug" (Commissioner's inspection RM)

is having a $35,000 overhaul restoration job at the Ipswich Heritage Workshops and will return to a new fully enclosed lock up shed at Kunkala. I am involved on the inside with a couple of these heritage railways, with other good people slowly shifting the old cultures to a brighter future. However this is toil and very hard.

[Peter Butler]

Some great interesting items, I particularly like 'Red Fred' who is a handsome boy! Plenty of scope for modellers there!

[daan]

Wow, what a workshop you have.. I whished we would have these amount of tools at work, let alone for my own workshop. Very nice..

[Hydrostatic Dazza]

Wow, what a workshop you have.. I whished we would have these amount of tools at work, let alone for my own workshop. Very nice..

Thankyou. I suppressed my desires to have a separate room for Model Engineering for many years, I lived on a very tight budget for many years. The extension was built and then for 2 years it was just a store room. Then MAM said, I do not like you wasting that space so get started. So for 6 months I set it up to be happy in. It is not quite finished yet, good radio for the test cricket and more storage. To my mind storage is important. It is my hobby room and I want to enjoy it. The last 12 months I have spent a small fortune on tools, to be set up nicely before retirement in approx 12 years time. Better now than later. Tools last 2 or more lifetimes if looked after. Yes, I am happy. I am healthy but for worn out joints, so it is make the garden railway for friends and their children to enjoy, make a few steam locos and maybe a Foden steam lorry. Also I devote a lot of time to full size railways as well. I have departed the bike racing scene, last stint with the teams was in 2009, I have no desire to be about high performance sport any more.

[Hydrostatic Dazza]

The carriage and loco roads are done, Friday evening, 11 bags of 20kg premix. I have a pit in the loco roads, the carriage roads dip 8mm so the stock will always roll to the stop blocks if unsecured





Saturday was setting up the Potters loop. Till the rain came. The rain has not yet gone this Tuesday morning. The Pour was to be tonight, but I am yet to completed the leveling. Rain and rain, a bit like Wales. (we needed the rain after a record warm winter).
Might be Red Room action tonight :-)