The Potters Orchid Railway

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Hydrostatic Dazza
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The Potters Orchid Railway

Post by Hydrostatic Dazza » Sat Oct 14, 2017 11:21 pm

In a small back yard in Queensland the first sod is turned for the "POR"
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the firing shovel has not been used for a while

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First time with form work and concrete

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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.

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Mainline and station loop under way

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Last edited by Hydrostatic Dazza on Mon Jul 23, 2018 10:15 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: The Potters Orchid Railway

Post by Hydrostatic Dazza » Sat Oct 14, 2017 11:36 pm

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

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Me being cut in half with the LASER

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

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

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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.

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

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more of that here

https://www.flickr.com/photos/llewellyn ... 508699542/
Last edited by Hydrostatic Dazza on Sun Oct 15, 2017 9:43 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: The Potters Orchid Railway

Post by Big Jim » Sun Oct 15, 2017 7:18 am

Wow, a very good start.
Keep us posted on the build.
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Peter Butler
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Re: The Potters Orchid Railway

Post by Peter Butler » Sun Oct 15, 2017 9:01 am

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.
Last edited by Peter Butler on Sun Oct 15, 2017 5:45 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: The Potters Orchid Railway

Post by tom_tom_go » Sun Oct 15, 2017 9:33 am

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?

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Re: The Potters Orchid Railway

Post by bazzer42 » Sun Oct 15, 2017 11:34 am

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.

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Re: The Potters Orchid Railway

Post by Soar Valley Light » Sun Oct 15, 2017 8:58 pm

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

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Re: The Potters Orchid Railway

Post by invicta280 » Sun Oct 15, 2017 9:28 pm

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!

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Re: The Potters Orchid Railway

Post by Hydrostatic Dazza » Sun Oct 15, 2017 9:46 pm

Peter Butler wrote: Sun Oct 15, 2017 9:01 am 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.
Cheers from Dazza, The Hydrostatic Lubricator 8)
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Re: The Potters Orchid Railway

Post by Hydrostatic Dazza » Sun Oct 15, 2017 9:51 pm

tom_tom_go wrote: Sun Oct 15, 2017 9:33 am 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
Cheers from Dazza, The Hydrostatic Lubricator 8)
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Re: The Potters Orchid Railway

Post by Hydrostatic Dazza » Sun Oct 15, 2017 10:07 pm

invicta280 wrote: Sun Oct 15, 2017 9:28 pm 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.
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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
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also Rosewood Railway's RM64 "The Bug" (Commissioner's inspection RM)
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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.
Cheers from Dazza, The Hydrostatic Lubricator 8)
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Re: The Potters Orchid Railway

Post by Peter Butler » Sun Oct 15, 2017 10:33 pm

Some great interesting items, I particularly like 'Red Fred' who is a handsome boy! Plenty of scope for modellers there!
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Re: The Potters Orchid Railway

Post by daan » Mon Oct 16, 2017 8:06 pm

Wow, what a workshop you have.. :shock: :shock: I whished we would have these amount of tools at work, let alone for my own workshop. Very nice.. :P
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Re: The Potters Orchid Railway

Post by Hydrostatic Dazza » Mon Oct 16, 2017 10:24 pm

daan wrote: Mon Oct 16, 2017 8:06 pm Wow, what a workshop you have.. :shock: :shock: I whished we would have these amount of tools at work, let alone for my own workshop. Very nice.. :P
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.
Last edited by Hydrostatic Dazza on Tue Nov 07, 2017 8:58 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Cheers from Dazza, The Hydrostatic Lubricator 8)
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Re: The Potters Orchid Railway

Post by Hydrostatic Dazza » Mon Oct 16, 2017 11:23 pm

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

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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 :-)

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Cheers from Dazza, The Hydrostatic Lubricator 8)
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Re: The Potters Orchid Railway

Post by Hydrostatic Dazza » Tue Oct 17, 2017 12:14 am

HELP Any one out there that knows a good source for Peco SM32 track in Australia ?
£79.40 postage for one Left hand medium radius SM32 turnout # SLE696 of £35.42 cost is a bit silly, I can send 500 grams in a satchel from OZ to the UK for $26.00 (£16.00)
I need one more LH medium turnout and later I may need some more flex track.
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Re: The Potters Orchid Railway

Post by GTB » Tue Oct 17, 2017 8:07 am

Hydrostatic Dazza wrote: Tue Oct 17, 2017 12:14 am HELP Any one out there that knows a good source for Peco SM32 track in Australia ?
I haven't done a hobby shop crawl in Brisbane for many years. Shops come and go and move around, but I know there are still several model railway shops in the Brisbane area.

45mm gauge is more common in Aust and while a shop may not stock SM32 track, it is available here, so they can get it in to order and I think one of Peco's Aust. distributors is in Brisbane.

Otherwise, the AMRA Queensland Branch have a garden scale group who will know the best sources locally. Their clubrooms and track are in Zillmere, backing on to the railway line near the station. http://amra.asn.au/queensland/

Graeme

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Re: The Potters Orchid Railway

Post by markoteal » Tue Oct 17, 2017 10:10 am

Very impressive groundworks - great to see some good engineering being used - puts me to shame!
Where did I put that uncoupler?

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Re: The Potters Orchid Railway

Post by ge_rik » Tue Oct 17, 2017 4:56 pm

Just been catching up with this thread and I must say your trackbed is very well engineered. I like the way you used threaded rods in plastic tubing as spacers for the shuttering - presumably, you could now thread cables through the tubes if you want lighting etc around the railway.

As others have said, your workshop not only looks well stocked, it looks very well organised - certainly beats my converted dressing-table workbench in the corner of the conservatory ......

Looking forward to developments as the line progresses.

Rik
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Re: The Potters Orchid Railway

Post by Hydrostatic Dazza » Wed Oct 18, 2017 11:15 pm

ge_rik wrote: Tue Oct 17, 2017 4:56 pm Just been catching up with this thread and I must say your trackbed is very well engineered. I like the way you used threaded rods in plastic tubing as spacers for the shuttering - presumably, you could now thread cables through the tubes if you want lighting etc around the railway.

As others have said, your workshop not only looks well stocked, it looks very well organised - certainly beats my converted dressing-table workbench in the corner of the conservatory ......

Looking forward to developments as the line progresses.

Rik
Thanks Rik. The track bed construction was inspired by an article in Australian Model Engineer magazine. I will not always be a dedicated garden railway tragic due to be involved tragically with full size heritage railways and I must sate my model engineering urges. The plastic spacers/drainage tubes are so rain events like the current one have a hope of draining away. 300mm in a few days recently, after a very dry and hot winter. Using the drains for conduit for lights is a good idea, thanks for that. That is what the plastic was to start with, electrical conduit :-) I lived in a hovel for many years and my bike making workshop has been temporary for nearly 20 years , met MAM 10 years ago and we got entangled, (we both have no children) so when we pressed the go button for the extension in 2012 and with the rebuild I wanted a nice room to escape and enjoy, and with skylights and a girder trolley over head that goes out into the car port along side the house. I rather this than a new car because cars are buckets of nuts and bolts that just deteriorate. (unless your restore old cars and then it is fun) We use S/H but good cars. Many visitors comment on the workshop and they imagine and comment on the cost, which irritates me because they do not think it out, their life etc, however my reply is that it cost less then your new $50,000 car and I get to have a lifetime of enjoyment in there. I also can claim it all on my business, which is a win. The rain should ease today so tonight I finish leveling the form work tonight on the second loop and we pour tomorrow if all goes well.
Last edited by Hydrostatic Dazza on Sat Oct 21, 2017 8:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Cheers from Dazza, The Hydrostatic Lubricator 8)
The chances of finding out what’s really going on in the universe are so remote, the only thing to do is hang the sense of it and keep yourself occupied. Douglas Adams

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