The Potters Orchid Railway

[FWLR]

Great to see so many people having a brilliant time on your line. MAM with her coaching the potter's wheel is good to see. Young people there having some excellent quality time with you and your friends.

I have always wanted to try doing some pottery since we did it at school, but other things took over and it got put way back on the back burner. Think I might look into seeing if there are any classes around that can try and teach me a new skill.

[Peter Butler]

Now that's a gathering! Our local group have started to put dates in our diary and it looks promising for a busy 2023.

[ge_rik]

Atmospheric shots of the railway, Dazza. Looks like a grand event.

Rik

[Andrew]

Looks like a grand event.

Doesn't it?!

Great to see all your hard work paying off!

Andrew

[Hydrostatic Dazza]

Benismmo and Captain Plod said good bye to Mr Specture.
Later this week Mr Specture will be off on to a new railway.
Stay tuned for more reports. He has plenty of material and promises to write more reports up as soon as his head clears. (Crikey he can sink some Aussie Red Wine!)

[Hydrostatic Dazza]

Test Steaming Llewellyn # 1
Fireman Captain Plod, box full of Welsh Beans, two lumps of Gunnedah in the door for the photo charter run past clag effects. Driver B. Gardner . Camerma work by Captain Plod who had a couple of Reds in him. Waiver book

[Hydrostatic Dazza]

Click on the image, it should take you to a short video

MVI_3630 by Darrell McCulloch, on Flickr

MVI_3627 by Darrell McCulloch, on Flickr

[FWLR]

Brilliant videos Dazza. You loco does run smooth and the chuff is just right I think.Also the whistle is better than a lot of the branded types, really realistic I thought.

Are you having to dismantle the loco now to paint it and what colours are you thinking of.

Did Mr In-Spector get slightly drunk on is last day at yours. Knowing about Aussie hospitality he would have..

[ge_rik]

I hadn't realised initially that the still images were also links to the video files. I was about to post a message complimenting you on your terraforming then saw Rod's post. As he said, she does seem to run very sweetly. A great testament to your engineering skills.

Rik

[Andrew]

Fantastic!

Love the voice-activated whistle too...

I'm SO impressed with how your line's looking- THAT's what I'm after next time around!

[Old Man Aaron]

Fantastic!

Love the voice-activated whistle too...

I'm SO impressed with how your line's looking- THAT's what I'm after next time around!

Agreed, the last notion in particular.
Sorry I missed you, Mr. Spectre. Maybe in a decade when I have a line again, you might return to pick nits up here in the canefields.

[Hydrostatic Dazza]

I did not know you are in the queue for Mr Specture. I have the box ready, maybe a quick detour via your neck of the woods.
Email me darrell@llewellynbikesc.com

Fantastic!

Love the voice-activated whistle too...

I'm SO impressed with how your line's looking- THAT's what I'm after next time around!

Agreed, the last notion in particular.
Sorry I missed you, Mr. Spectre. Maybe in a decade when I have a line again, you might return to pick nits up here in the canefields.

[Hydrostatic Dazza]

Slomo in the tender, a zero back lash coupling to the tender. However Terry has stopped making Slomos so I will have to make my own if there is a next time. Next is a 4 1/2" scale Foden Steam Lorry to the REx drawings.
There is no one in the world that can convince me that Slomos are a waste of time. We even shunted with the coal fire loco. For me the realistic movement is vital, more important than the rivet count and such like.
The exhaust beat is a result of a radiant super heater and 1.00mm blast nozzle, it makes that nice beat all by accident. The blast is a bit too much when the fire is new, but not too bad, but better for when the fire is starting to sulk as the bed gets too thick.
I did not make the whistle, it is a Regener one, on its side with the aperture facing down and the plumbing all down hill so that draining of condensate is facilitated. It works well down to 15psi.

My video production techniques are very limited, however thankyou. I promise to make attempts to improve my future efforts of moving pictures.

I have a few other things to attend to before the paint processes take hold. One is our trip to Wales this year with 3 weeks volunteering at Boston Lodge.
Colour, no effing idea yet.

Mr Specture is fair dinkum piss pot now. Mother would be not be impressed. He is also a hit with the ladies down here. He is hard pressed to keep his trousers on.

Brilliant videos Dazza. You loco does run smooth and the chuff is just right I think.Also the whistle is better than a lot of the branded types, really realistic I thought.

Are you having to dismantle the loco now to paint it and what colours are you thinking of.

Did Mr In-Spector get slightly drunk on is last day at yours. Knowing about Aussie hospitality he would have..

[FWLR]

That is such a brilliant idea.

(I did not make the whistle, it is a Regener one, on its side with the aperture facing down and the plumbing all down hill so that draining of condensate is facilitated. It works well down to 15psi.)

It works really well anyway and as for your videoing, you did a brilliant job if it was your first time. I have seen however MAM's loco under steam running on the line, so I guess it's not, so again brilliant job on the videoing.

[Old Man Aaron]

I did not know you are in the queue for Mr Specture. I have the box ready, maybe a quick detour via your neck of the woods.
Email me darrell@llewellynbikesc.com

Oh I was in the queue, in fact I was the one responsible for his detour to the Southern Hemisphere! But, I had to delay and later withdraw my spot in the queue, when my line was lifted - Who knows when I'll be in a position to build a new one. Soon as I can drive down your way, I'll happily gate-crash one of your gatherings though.

Three weeks work at Boston Lodge, can't think of much better than that.

[Hydrostatic Dazza]

I did not know you are in the queue for Mr Specture. I have the box ready, maybe a quick detour via your neck of the woods.
Email me darrell@llewellynbikesc.com

Oh I was in the queue, in fact I was the one responsible for his detour to the Southern Hemisphere! But, I had to delay and later withdraw my spot in the queue, when my line was lifted - Who knows when I'll be in a position to build a new one. Soon as I can drive down your way, I'll happily gate-crash one of your gatherings though.

Three weeks work at Boston Lodge, can't think of much better than that.

Heck, I contacted Philipy and asked him who was next and he gave me a UK address. We will get him back one day. You are welcome to come down for an arvo and evening run. Ben Gardner speaks often of collecting you and brining you along for visit. MAM and I welcome tyou to come and visit. Stay the night if you wish. You will be well fed.

[Old Man Aaron]

That's very kind of you. One of these days, I certainly will.

[DafyddElvy]

For anyone who can I would fully recommend speaking with Dazza about an invite to see what is some real inspiration, superb line, nice rolling stock and great company, thank you both for a great afternoon/evening.

Dazza, I plan to follow building a similar track base to yourself, if you were to do it again is their anything different you would do, would you maybe have wood or plastic intermittently inbedded in the concrete base to fix the track down to?

Thanks, David

[Hydrostatic Dazza]

For anyone who can I would fully recommend speaking with Dazza about an invite to see what is some real inspiration, superb line, nice rolling stock and great company, thank you both for a great afternoon/evening.

Dazza, I plan to follow building a similar track base to yourself, if you were to do it again is their anything different you would do, would you maybe have wood or plastic intermittently inbedded in the concrete base to fix the track down to?

Thanks, David

David, it was fun afternoon and evening.Regards the track bed, no changes but maybe a little less deep with concrete. I am happy either drilling the sleepers with a little jig that slips between the rails and the drilling directly through the sleeper hole with a masonary bit and plastic masonary plugs brass, slotted countersunk screws. A drill was twisted to give a counter sink to the Peco sleeper to nestle the screw head in lower. Hides it and a dribble of ballast hides the head. Some times I elongated the sleeper hole side the track sideways a millimetre, it helped where I try to have transitions between straight and curved sections. So nothing I would change but our walls to have 1200mm Min radius, but would require a TARDIS to go back to 2012 when the walls were laid out.

[Hydrostatic Dazza]

Saturday afternoon Captain Plod with a glass of Red in hand was testing MAM's Cranmore with it's recently fitted RC to the regulator. The loco had been running for a while (40 -43min run times) then for the first time there was a derailment in the Orchid House tunnel. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot! Launch the Thunderbirds, out with the Flying Gang...... Cute little fella got his tail caught in the Slomo chain, Plod let him go down the behind the Cabbage Tree Station yard fence. It seemed no harm was done to the little fella. Plod is sure it is a Crown Snake, he has not seen one here for some years so he was pleased to see this one has survived the attention of the hungry Kookaburras. " Now where did I put my glass down............"