This is really good work Rich. All the time you spent carefully planning, pre-fabing, setting out and formation preparing has really paid off.
Your turnout is a real credit to you. The alignment into and out of it is as sweet as a nut. I've seen far worse results in standard gauge, sometimes in running lines too!
Achieving cant must have been a real challenge. I may have mentioned previously that laying 15" gauge track is the hardest job I've ever had and that was entirely down to trying to get one rail above the other, particularly in the transitions. Out of interest how much cant did you apply? I can't imagine went to the bother of calculating them (I'm not sure I'd know where to start with that!).
It's a very professionally constructed railway and looks a million dollars even without a train on it.
Keep up the good work (and the updates).
Andrew
Construction of the MQR
-
Soar Valley Light
- Driver
- Posts: 1451
- Joined: Sun Dec 08, 2013 5:18 pm
- Location: North West Leicestershire
Thanks for the encouraging comments!
Andrew, the cant was determined by the complex and sophisticated engineering practice of squinting along the track and packing things until it looked about right. Actually I think your comments about difficulties in smaller gauges do apply right down to 5 inch. I don't think the properties of materials scale. a 3m length of aluminium (16mm high) rail is actually quite stiff. you can hold it by one end and it doesn't bend much in the vertical plane. That would be a 45ft length in 2ft gauge and I suspect if you could lift that by one end it would be quite bendy. The result is that my track panels are rather stiff and getting them to twist isn't easy.
At last this is starting to look like a railway.
This is looking like I hoped it would
There is still a lot of landscaping to do, I'm trying not to create too many awkward bits of grass that need to be mowed. Outside the circuit I can use the big tractor mower for the orchard, inside it is going to be the regular rotary mower. Already it is obvious that the edges against the formation are going to need edge clipping - best part of 200m counting both sides (what have I done
Drivers eye view
All I need now is trains - coming soon!
Andrew, the cant was determined by the complex and sophisticated engineering practice of squinting along the track and packing things until it looked about right. Actually I think your comments about difficulties in smaller gauges do apply right down to 5 inch. I don't think the properties of materials scale. a 3m length of aluminium (16mm high) rail is actually quite stiff. you can hold it by one end and it doesn't bend much in the vertical plane. That would be a 45ft length in 2ft gauge and I suspect if you could lift that by one end it would be quite bendy. The result is that my track panels are rather stiff and getting them to twist isn't easy.
At last this is starting to look like a railway.
This is looking like I hoped it would
There is still a lot of landscaping to do, I'm trying not to create too many awkward bits of grass that need to be mowed. Outside the circuit I can use the big tractor mower for the orchard, inside it is going to be the regular rotary mower. Already it is obvious that the edges against the formation are going to need edge clipping - best part of 200m counting both sides (what have I done
Drivers eye view
All I need now is trains - coming soon!
Well, it has been a while since I posted an update here. The construction was close to complete at the time of my previous post. Just some packing and alignment to get the gradients as smooth as I could and get the cross levels right.
Now it is time to reveal why I have been doing all this in the first place. My plan was never to operate with a battery electric locomotive, however much fun it is to drive. It was always going to be steam. I was very lucky to be able to acquire a quarry Hunslet built by a respected builder (Keith Massey) in 1979. Amazingly the twin locomotive, he often built more than one at a time, is also featured on this forum (http://gardenrails.myfreeforum.org/about7960.html). Mine is called Alice, and here she is.
With the blower on, and steam just starting to drift from the safety valves. I have never driven a 5 inch steam locomotive before. My experience with quarry Hunslets has been strictly 12" to the foot and extremely limited at that. It turns out that Alice is easy to fire and raises steam in about 40 minutes from cold with an electric blower in place.
She is surprisingly powerful, will pull four people around the line. Not sure is that is the limit, but it is all the people and rolling stock available! She is also much faster than I was expecting. You rarely need to open the regulator more than half way and can notch back a little from full gear.
It is hard to see the water level in the gauge glasses even when stationary and almost impossible on the move. I'm going to try a diagonal striped card behind the glass to see if that helps. She is equipped with four methods of getting water into the boiler. The axle pump, that is the turn valve in the left) is adjustable and is definitely the easiest way of keeping the boiler topped up as with a bit of fiddling I can set it to fill at much the same rate as water is used. The injector (valve on the right) is the most fun and of course authentic. I love the hissing/singing noise when it is working. I can generally get this to catch when stationary, but haven't yet managed it on the move. There is also a thoroughly non prototypical steam operated donkey pump on the running plate. I was going to remove it, but it is actually so much fun to operate I think I'll keep it. You can see it in this view. It is a 2 cylinder pump driven using steam from the main boiler.
finally, there is a hand pump under the tank filler lid if all else fails!
As you can imagine, this is great fun, and the burnt tips of your fingers recover surprisingly quickly.
I have got some video of a circuit of the line, but so far haven't successfully compressed the enormous file for posting. The one tool I tried compressed it and turned it upside down too. Have to make do with pictures for now.
Now it is time to reveal why I have been doing all this in the first place. My plan was never to operate with a battery electric locomotive, however much fun it is to drive. It was always going to be steam. I was very lucky to be able to acquire a quarry Hunslet built by a respected builder (Keith Massey) in 1979. Amazingly the twin locomotive, he often built more than one at a time, is also featured on this forum (http://gardenrails.myfreeforum.org/about7960.html). Mine is called Alice, and here she is.
With the blower on, and steam just starting to drift from the safety valves. I have never driven a 5 inch steam locomotive before. My experience with quarry Hunslets has been strictly 12" to the foot and extremely limited at that. It turns out that Alice is easy to fire and raises steam in about 40 minutes from cold with an electric blower in place.
She is surprisingly powerful, will pull four people around the line. Not sure is that is the limit, but it is all the people and rolling stock available! She is also much faster than I was expecting. You rarely need to open the regulator more than half way and can notch back a little from full gear.
It is hard to see the water level in the gauge glasses even when stationary and almost impossible on the move. I'm going to try a diagonal striped card behind the glass to see if that helps. She is equipped with four methods of getting water into the boiler. The axle pump, that is the turn valve in the left) is adjustable and is definitely the easiest way of keeping the boiler topped up as with a bit of fiddling I can set it to fill at much the same rate as water is used. The injector (valve on the right) is the most fun and of course authentic. I love the hissing/singing noise when it is working. I can generally get this to catch when stationary, but haven't yet managed it on the move. There is also a thoroughly non prototypical steam operated donkey pump on the running plate. I was going to remove it, but it is actually so much fun to operate I think I'll keep it. You can see it in this view. It is a 2 cylinder pump driven using steam from the main boiler.
finally, there is a hand pump under the tank filler lid if all else fails!
As you can imagine, this is great fun, and the burnt tips of your fingers recover surprisingly quickly.
I have got some video of a circuit of the line, but so far haven't successfully compressed the enormous file for posting. The one tool I tried compressed it and turned it upside down too. Have to make do with pictures for now.
-
Soar Valley Light
- Driver
- Posts: 1451
- Joined: Sun Dec 08, 2013 5:18 pm
- Location: North West Leicestershire
That's uncanny Rich,
I've come on here just now specifically to post on this thread asking if there is any progress, as we hadn't heard from you recently!
Well the progress is excellent and that is a really beautiful loco. The effort in constructing the line was clearly all worthwhile. It looks so much fun running a 'proper' engine on it. Well done, thanks for posting the update and keep them coming!
All the best,
Andrew
I've come on here just now specifically to post on this thread asking if there is any progress, as we hadn't heard from you recently!
Well the progress is excellent and that is a really beautiful loco. The effort in constructing the line was clearly all worthwhile. It looks so much fun running a 'proper' engine on it. Well done, thanks for posting the update and keep them coming!
All the best,
Andrew
Last edited by Soar Valley Light on Sat Jun 20, 2015 9:08 pm, edited 1 time in total.
"Smith! Why do you only come to work four days a week?
"'cause I can't manage on three gaffer!"
"'cause I can't manage on three gaffer!"
-
invicta280
- Trainee Driver
- Posts: 668
- Joined: Wed Sep 21, 2011 9:24 pm
- Location: kent england
Joe, think through the all the costs before you decide that 5 inch is too expensive. There are some costs for track earlier in this thread, it is cheaper than 32mm if you cut wooden sleepers yourself. Alice cost about the same as 3 mid range Accucraft steamers and there are plenty of people on this forum with more than 3 of them! There is a first class Meter Maid 0-6-0 up for sale right now at Maxitrak for less than the price of 2. I think the larger the scale the less tempted you are to accumulate stock. I very much doubt if I will buy another steam locomotive, I can only drive one at a time. People working indoors in 4mm scale seem to need dozens of locos and hundreds or coaches and trucks ...
Andrew - scary, I've been meaning to write this for a couple of weeks - glad you like the result.
Andrew - scary, I've been meaning to write this for a couple of weeks - glad you like the result.
A very nice loco to top off a lovely railway. Me and my uncle own a Ride on Railways Trojan, alas whilst my garden has a reasonable length 32mm line the shape and slope of it (and the fire engine living in it) make a 5 inch gauge line impossible. The Trojan runs on the Joys of Life Railway in Wales instead. A Don Young design Quarry Hunslet (which I'd guess yours is?) runs there virtually every open day and has taken 5 people including driver up the 1 in thirty-something gradient, I expect yours will pull more then 4 people!
"What the hell is that?"
"It's a model icebreaker sir."
"It's a bit big isn't it?"
"It's a full scale model sir....."
"It's a model icebreaker sir."
"It's a bit big isn't it?"
"It's a full scale model sir....."
-
DaveWatkins
- Cleaner
- Posts: 86
- Joined: Wed Nov 10, 2010 1:06 am
- Location: UK Midlands
- Contact:
Your railway looks great and it is nice to see the other Keith Massey Quarry Hunslet has a good home. These locos can certainly pull. The only time I have stalled mine (Linda - in blue) is when I have forgotten to take the brake off. It takes four people up a 1 in 50 readily. I don't have the rolling stock to try pulling any more.
Dave
Who is online
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 15 guests