Amberwood light Railway

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Maple
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Post by Maple » Fri Aug 21, 2015 12:07 pm

'making the best of a bad job' is more me i think.

Has anyone got any advice on two things, 1) working lever frames and 2) a regner Vincent ?( run time etc )
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Chris Cairns
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Post by Chris Cairns » Fri Aug 21, 2015 12:36 pm

Your home made Hunslet looks very good.

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Post by Gralyn » Fri Aug 21, 2015 3:12 pm

Maple:112810 wrote:'making the best of a bad job'  is more me  i think.

Has anyone got any advice on two things, 1) working lever frames and 2) a regner Vincent ?( run time etc )
I regularly get thirty five mins plus from my Vincent. You have to watch the water levels though as the gas lasts longer than "one fill"of water.
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Post by Dr. Bond of the DVLR » Fri Aug 21, 2015 9:02 pm

Working lever frames : MODRATEC seem to make nice brass lever frames with working inter locking to your design. Their software "Sigscribe" is great fun to play around with if you like interlocking...

On a cheaper note. GEM make nice white metal lever frames with brass levers. No interlocking but quite sturdy. I have experimented with some very fine white metal "ground frame" kits (can't remember who from) but they can't put up with the abuse of actually working.

Vincent - 35 to 40 minutes on a warm day but as above, water little and often!
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Post by Soar Valley Light » Fri Aug 21, 2015 10:12 pm

I believe Model Signal Engineering also make a frame. I don't think it is capable of being locked in itself but you can always make a locking tray through which the drive from the levers can be taken. I'm always mildly amazed that no one has produced a realistic working frame on a commercial scale before now. Pitch it right sizewise and it would be suitable for use with railways of most scales.
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Post by Maple » Sat Aug 22, 2015 1:42 pm

i would like a lever frame for definate, being able to operate them from one place would be great. But if going through so much trouble to rod them all in with signals etc, would you not be better investing the little extra and putting servos on? radio control point, although none of my locos are radio control atm. thats the next issue, cheap (really cheap) RC
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Post by Dr. Bond of the DVLR » Sat Aug 22, 2015 3:12 pm

I personally don't find the point rodding too much hassle. Just lengths of garden wire running in eyes screwed in at the edge of the sleepers. The bell cranks are just bits of K and S brass cut to shape with some holes drilled - the wire is simply hooked into these.
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IrishPeter
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Post by IrishPeter » Sat Aug 22, 2015 4:50 pm

Visually, that looks "about right" for the sort of pipe based point rodding used before the turn of the 20th century.  I remember Douglas, IOM, as still having gas pipe rodding when I was a kid in the 1970s, so it did not disappear overnight.  

Douglas was installed in 1892 by Dutton & Co. in the midst of the feud between Sam Dutton and J P O'Donnell that leads to J P O'D starting up shop with a chap called Evans as Evans-O'Donnell in 1894.  If you look at it, the Douglas Box has a Dutton/GNRI top, with a custom locking room, and by all accounts some of the other arrangements were a bit Irish too thanks to JPO'D.  e.g. the Outer Homes were repeaters for the home signals not separately worked, as would be usual.

By 1977, some of Douglas' frame was disconnected, but they still had to open 'the points box' in order to shunt stock to and from roads 6-11 and the carriage shed.  I can't remember the status of the main to main crossover and the access to road 1 (works head shunt), so I am not sure whether they had to open up the Box then too.  The whole thing was disconnected when roads 6-11 were torn out in 1979.

IIRC, the modern channel section is the result of learning the hard way that gas pipe rodding rusts from the inside out, and came in somewhere around 1900 - earlier or later depending on the individual contractor.

I'll have to have a look at St John's Box later on and see if it had pipe or square rodding. In any case, it was rather unique in having a distant lever painted red, but then it was installed in 1879 and not much messed with thereafter. In later years, George Crellin, the stationmaster, used to bike down the platform on his dreadnought to set the road as there was no separate signalman the last few seasons the Peel Line was open.

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Peter in AZ
Traffic Pattern? What pattern? Spuds out; grain in, but cattle, sheep and passengers are a lot less predictable.

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Post by andymctractor » Sat Aug 22, 2015 11:23 pm

IrishPeter:112799 wrote:-but then the North is conservative about language, tha knaws!
Appen it might be eye.  
Of course I come originally from the black country where a 'special' version of English is spoken, aye it? I moved to Norfolk in 1966 but will probably always be considered something of a heathen git with my Midland origns. :shock:
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Post by Alan P » Sun Aug 23, 2015 8:25 am

Gralyn:112813 wrote:
Maple:112810 wrote:'making the best of a bad job'  is more me  i think.

Has anyone got any advice on two things, 1) working lever frames and 2) a regner Vincent ?( run time etc )
I regularly get  thirty five mins plus from my Vincent. You have to watch the water levels though as the gas lasts longer than "one fill"of water.
I agree with Graham, i get 35 to 40 minutes easily with one fill of the gas tank.
Alan.

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Post by Soar Valley Light » Sun Aug 23, 2015 9:15 pm

Round rodding is certainly of an earlier vintage that channel rodding. That said, it's not entirely unheard of even these days. There is still a minuscule amount left in work on the Bluebell (there was miles of it when I started there twenty five years ago) and the Lynton & Barnstaple have installed some at Woody Bay.

One of the downsides to round rodding (in the good old days) was the need to have a blacksmith on site when installing or modifying rodding runs as all the swaged ends and bends were site made to suit the location. The later channel rodding uses factory made 'sets' which come ready made with the pinned connection to the crank at one end and a forged end to bolt into the channel at the other. Just out of interest the original ones used a 1" pin and the more modern ones use a 7/8th inch pin and are about half the length.

When installing rodding on the full sized railway compensators are used at the theoretical mid position of the rodding to take up expansion and contraction. In the 16mm world we can probably get away with the flex in thin gauge wire to take up any minor variations due to temperature. However, in situations that are exposed to a lot of direct sunlight, or if heavy gauge or very stiff material is used for the rodding, consideration may need to be given to including a compensator. This can be as simple as two cranks with unequal arms joined by a short connection. The long arms being connected to the rodding and the short arms linked by the short rod.

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Post by Peter Butler » Sun Aug 23, 2015 9:44 pm

andymctractor:112857 wrote: I come originally from the black country where a 'special' version of English is spoken, aye it?  :
Ditto!!!! The Black Country may as well be an island as it does have a unique version of English which can be totally baffling to some outsiders. I think it is becoming watered down with time and will probably be totally swallowed up by the terrible Brummie accent eventually.
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Post by Lonsdaler » Mon Aug 24, 2015 7:47 am

Peter Butler:112903 wrote:
andymctractor:112857 wrote: I come originally from the black country where a 'special' version of English is spoken, aye it?  :
Ditto!!!!   The Black Country may as well be an island as it does have a unique version of English which can be totally baffling to some outsiders.  I think it is becoming watered down with time and will probably be totally swallowed up by the terrible Brummie accent eventually.
Moy fust job were in Dudlay. Yo 'ad to learn the lingo, or yow'd no chance :roll:
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Post by Peter Butler » Tue Aug 25, 2015 11:09 am

When my colleagues and I were building the 16mm exhibition layout, but before it went out on the circuit, somehow the local press got to hear about it and sent their 'roving reporter'. His name was Harry Harrison, and a very nice old boy he was too! His regular piece in the 'Black Country Bugle' was to report local interest activities written (as best he could manage) in the typical dialect of the area. This was the Walsall/Wednesbury side of the Black Country which did vary slightly from the Dudley area dialect.
There is still some dispute as to how the area got its name and which local towns are included but there is no doubt the above named are in there!
I have copied a small section of his article to show how this was written and leave it to you to make every effort to try to understand the meaning. Unless you have some idea of the 'twang' it still won't become clear as to how it sounds but at least you can get the feel.
The report was written in 1988.......

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Alan P
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Post by Alan P » Tue Aug 25, 2015 12:13 pm

Brilliant Peter.

Unfortunately being a Southerner I have no idea what he's talking about ;)
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Post by Maple » Tue Aug 25, 2015 12:19 pm

agreed alan, i can make out the odd word, also that clipping was written the year after i was born!
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Post by IrishPeter » Tue Aug 25, 2015 4:44 pm

That wasn't too horrible, but then I am used to dialect. Certainly no trip up words like yat, teem, sile, or barf. ;)

Peter in AZ
Traffic Pattern? What pattern? Spuds out; grain in, but cattle, sheep and passengers are a lot less predictable.

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Post by Lonsdaler » Tue Aug 25, 2015 5:14 pm

Peter Butler:112959 wrote:When my colleagues and I were building the 16mm exhibition layout, but before it went out on the circuit, somehow the local press got to hear about it and sent their 'roving reporter'.   His name was Harry Harrison, and a very nice old boy he was too!  His regular piece in the 'Black Country Bugle' was to report local interest activities written (as best he could manage) in the typical dialect of the area.   This was the Walsall/Wednesbury side of the Black Country which did vary slightly from the Dudley area dialect.
There is still some dispute as to how the area got its name and which local towns are included but there is no doubt the above named are in there!
I have copied a small section of his article to show how this was written and leave it to you to make every effort to try to understand the meaning.  Unless you have some idea of the 'twang' it still won't become clear as to how it sounds but at least you can get the feel.
The report was written in 1988.......

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Love it! :lol:
Should we provide an English translation Peter, or shall we leave them in a tiswas??
Phil

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My Line - https://gardenrails.org/forum/viewtopic ... 41&t=11077

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Peter Butler
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Post by Peter Butler » Tue Aug 25, 2015 7:05 pm

Phil, lets gee um sum toime ta baffle it aart. Its onnie roite ta lettum so so we cun avva loff learta. Bostin fun ay it?
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IrishPeter
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Post by IrishPeter » Tue Aug 25, 2015 7:12 pm

A just hope they've got t'gorm t'realise wi' jus' laiking abaht wi' 'em!

Peter in AZ
Traffic Pattern? What pattern? Spuds out; grain in, but cattle, sheep and passengers are a lot less predictable.

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