The Potters Orchid Railway

[tom_tom_go]

The effort you have put into your base and track laying will all pay off when the trains start to run.

[Hydrostatic Dazza]

Finished a braze on a frame, then it was down the back to the POR. Slow progress as I gather the tools and make a few drilling jigs and get a technique and sequence sorted. I used 0.30 brass shim to insert at rail joints, it gets very hot here and I am laying in the cool of the evening. Might also get the nice rhythm of wheel clicks. Brass screws are ordered and on their way to replace the stainless screws.



Mark I eye ball confirms the string line. "Looking good"







I am in the Red Room tonight, I am modifying my little sheet roller to be a rail roller. To gently preform the rail for curves. Smooth transitions and kink free fish plate joints are my desired outcomes. I have to make a form tool for the rail profile in a 1/4" HSS bit and then to the Myford with the rollers tonight.

[Peter Butler]

With track in place it makes the run look so much longer.

[Hydrostatic Dazza]

The effort you have put into your base and track laying will all pay off when the trains start to run.

Thanks. I certainly hope so, when our choo choos (MAM's RH Lady Ann and my Llewellyn # 1)are creeping around with their Slomos spun up, at a scale speed without too much of drunken wobble while rolling over the POR tracks, while I nibble smelly cheese and crackers and sip a nice D'arenberg red while speaking all sorts of drivel with friends while their grand kids are running about looking for the hidden dinosaurs in the garden railway scenery while the aromas of coal smoke and steam oil (Llewellyn #1) is wafting past our nostrils on the breezes, while the Kookaburras sit perched and look upon us and wonder "what the eff are the humans up to now ? " ..................................................
I like doing a nice job. I suppose my chosen path of professional expression has a lot of detail and aesthetic flavour involved and so this carries over to my hobby.

[Hydrostatic Dazza]

With track in place it makes the run look so much longer.

A highlight will be when the MVL bridge arrives and it is craned in and the track runs over that.
MAM has yet to start on her RH kit.
My loco is at least 12 months away before it will steam.
Crikey we might need to lease a loco till our locos are ready
A bit like the Mary Valley Rattler, due to #976 still being rebuilt, #974 was to complete the transfer from the Ipswich Heritage Railway Workshops to Gympie today and be handed over at the interface, but it was failed yesterday with a stuck open regulator. YIKES!

So no prac work on #974 this Friday for me, I was hoping to swing the banjo and see if I can land a shovel full on demand down the front R/H side of the 8 foot long grate. ( I seem to hook it to the left) Oh well, it has to be later. So just guard training this weekend.

[Hydrostatic Dazza]

Curves are nice, Kinky Curves are not so nice.
Ponder.
I have this little $85.00 SIEG mini roller. Throw the rollers into the Myford for a little plunge in to add a groove, reassemble.



Insert Peco SM32 Rail and twirl the handle.



Happy am I, stress free curves with barely noticeable straight at the rail ends. The ends can be coaxed on a former with a block of wood if required.





I also test rolled a bend in the mid section of rail for use in the siding and it worked well.
The track gang will be in action tonight if the rain stays away.

[tom_tom_go]

Nice bender...

I am always for bending rail before pinning down to avoid dog legging.

[Hydrostatic Dazza]

Nice bender...

I am always for bending rail before pinning down to avoid dog legging.

The bender is a commercial item from Ausee tools and I had not used it till now. The rail gets a wee bow in the vertical plane which is most likely due to the thicker head of the rail compared to the web, but it will pin down OK. I want to be able to shunt like your Loco does. Slomos are on order

[tom_tom_go]

SSP Slomo, cannot recommend it enough.

Would not want to run a live steamer without one now.

[Hydrostatic Dazza]

SSP Slomo, cannot recommend it enough.

Would not want to run a live steamer without one now.

Agreed, SSP Slomos, there just has to be. Scale speed means a lot to me. I am visual offended when I see a NG or any loco doing an impression of Mallard on Stoke Bank.
I am now intending to fit a tender with a tender mounted SSP Slomo to the loco I am building as the water pump fills the space.

[Hydrostatic Dazza]

SSP Slomo, cannot recommend it enough.

Would not want to run a live steamer without one now.

Agreed, SSP Slomos, there just has to be. Scale speed means a lot to me. I feel offended when I see a NG or any loco doing an impression of Mallard on Stoke Bank in any scale, HO or 16mm or......... It thumps me in the cranium as "toy like" and I walk away. I am rather harsh eh ! I had a good chat with Terry Slomo and he was most helpful, including the tips with the servo to regulator linkage set up to get the sensitive control with the clever use of geometry.
I am now intending to fit a tender with a tender mounted SSP Slomo to the loco I am building as the water pump fills the space between the frames.

[Hydrostatic Dazza]

The track gang laid two sidings last night. The reports is that is all went to plan. A key member of the track gang will be absent this weekend as he will be going guard training at the Mary Valley Rattler. There is a huge amount of work to be down, starting at the terrace the railway is on, new fence along the back of the property, the terra forming on the railway (the fun part) , then when that is sorted the full size human pathway, gardens, more paving laid (I detest laying pavers) for the viewing/seating area. Then the detailing of the operating railway can begin. So some years to go.



The weeds are starting up. A few passes of a C130 loaded with Agent Orange has been booked for early next week.



Planing has began for the mainline loop turnout is next and laying the station loop

[Hydrostatic Dazza]

The " Stop Board" is progressing a few metres each evening.
Brass screws have arrived and the stainless is being replaced.
a couple of spots the angle grinder came out with a masonry disc to knock some high spots off. But so far I am pleased with my first efforts with concrete. I will do the final fiddle to the top and line later (shims here and there) when the yard and station area is completed

[Hydrostatic Dazza]

Track work continues most evenings for a couple of hours. Another spot required a wee bit of concrete grinding to knock off high spots. I am surprised how little I get done in 2-3 hours. A point and a couple of metres down. But I am happy with the rail alignment, the top of the rail alignment is to be worked on. I am hoping to not have waddling locos and trains. A couple of spots of my form work is a bit out of line to what eventuated with the track, but no tragic mistakes yet.





Started to work on the top and line of the track, some Plastistruc was experimented with. Not sure it will hold up with the UV here but one day it will be covered in ballast. Hopefully before it breaks down.





The STOP board is now at the end of the station loop and soon the track gang is off to an adventure out over the wilderness

[Big Jim]

I am surprised how little I get done in 2-3 hours.

You seem to be moving along at quite a pace compared to many of us.

[bazzer42]

For anyone starting out this is a masterclass on track laying.

[tom_tom_go]

The SSP Slomo will make even poorly laid track seem like it is flat and true so do not worry too much.

[Soar Valley Light]

Your standards are very high Dazza. We have a saying on the permanent way over here (I'm sure you've heard it down there too), 'If it looks right it is right'. Yours looks right! you can look forward to some smooth, trouble free and aesthetically pleasing running. As Bazzer says, this really is a master class.

[Hydrostatic Dazza]

Your standards are very high Dazza. We have a saying on the permanent way over here (I'm sure you've heard it down there too), 'If it looks right it is right'. Yours looks right! you can look forward to some smooth, trouble free and aesthetically pleasing running. As Bazzer says, this really is a master class.

Thanks every one for your kind comments, they are much appreciated. I am not really a master class, I am just following the many foot steps as others, I gather mags and books, peak at forums, read, formulate some ideas and techniques and then one day I hit out. For example I have the Haynes book on Garden Railways. One useful tip that I took out of it was about a rail forming roller device, so I got my little Sieg out and put it to service. Looking at Mr Butlers ballast and others is where I will go when that time arrives, if I can find the same sort of brew as the SBS stuff here down under. I saw a chap's garden railway in an old "Railway Modeler" magazine that I got at my primary school fete when I was 11-12 yo, it was a HO set up that ran out of his shed into the garden and since then the has been festering away skull. Back then I did a bit of HO, till my bike racing took hold. Now it must be steam and I need one coal fired loco so the atmosphere is fully authentic to one's senses (a bit of smokey Acland coal in the mix) This is a pleasant diversion from my model engineering desires and my full size railway past time, add a garden, and wine and beer and smelly cheese and good friends and that is my vision. It will be next summer when I think we can properly enjoy the POR.

[Peter Butler]

That vision of a combination of garden railway, wine, smelly cheese and good friends makes me wish we were neighbours.
If you have such a thing you are indeed a very lucky man.