Staple Hill Railway - New Line
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- Trainee Fireman
- Posts: 210
- Joined: Mon Feb 01, 2016 6:58 pm
- Location: Devon
Tiny update! Not much if anything done in the Garden now its colder but plenty happening in the workshop. I have added a new video of the Roundhouse Katie over on the live steam page and here is a little video of Mark and Malcolm's visit to the line last month.... Mark made a better video... I shall try harder!
[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkBEMXJ-oA8[/video]
Enjoy and thanks for looking.
[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkBEMXJ-oA8[/video]
Enjoy and thanks for looking.
Garden railways don't run on steam or electric rather wine and Jedi master level patience
- Peter Butler
- Driver
- Posts: 5245
- Joined: Sun Sep 09, 2012 10:33 pm
- Location: West Wales
-
- Trainee Fireman
- Posts: 210
- Joined: Mon Feb 01, 2016 6:58 pm
- Location: Devon
I can't believe its been 3 months since the last update. Been pretty much confined to the workshop over the winter but with some lovely weather in Devon this weekend I ventured out to awake the garden and railway from their winter slumber.
I am hoping to get the heavy work in the garden more of less done by Easter so I can focus more on the railway.
Hope you like the pictures:
The coal train in Staple Hill station:
New rake of coaches finished off over the winter. They are the IP engineering basic range but with end steps, passengers, Swift Sixteen roof vents and interior lights. I was after some coaches that would run with Accucraft locos and the Shelly Tram and be roughly right scale:
"Mind Your Own Business" planted at the back of platform 2, hopefully, this will finish off this area nicely:
Starting the stonework for the higher level area of the balloon loop, this will form the base for the village:
Overall shot of the lower end of the garden, just a little paving to be completed. The points going to nowhere are for a future extension:
Almost 12 months to the day after I started digging a trench here for the railway foundation and the line is starting to mature nicely and the moss is finally starting to grow:
Last shot of the station:
Thanks for reading my posts and lets hope for good weather this spring. Happy steaming people!
I am hoping to get the heavy work in the garden more of less done by Easter so I can focus more on the railway.
Hope you like the pictures:
The coal train in Staple Hill station:
New rake of coaches finished off over the winter. They are the IP engineering basic range but with end steps, passengers, Swift Sixteen roof vents and interior lights. I was after some coaches that would run with Accucraft locos and the Shelly Tram and be roughly right scale:
"Mind Your Own Business" planted at the back of platform 2, hopefully, this will finish off this area nicely:
Starting the stonework for the higher level area of the balloon loop, this will form the base for the village:
Overall shot of the lower end of the garden, just a little paving to be completed. The points going to nowhere are for a future extension:
Almost 12 months to the day after I started digging a trench here for the railway foundation and the line is starting to mature nicely and the moss is finally starting to grow:
Last shot of the station:
Thanks for reading my posts and lets hope for good weather this spring. Happy steaming people!
Garden railways don't run on steam or electric rather wine and Jedi master level patience
- Peter Butler
- Driver
- Posts: 5245
- Joined: Sun Sep 09, 2012 10:33 pm
- Location: West Wales
- Soar Valley Light
- Driver
- Posts: 1451
- Joined: Sun Dec 08, 2013 5:18 pm
- Location: North West Leicestershire
Well done James. Your line is looking good. There's is some clear evidence of it settling into the landscape. I take great encouragement from it. I've been out in the garden myself today working on construction but I'm still very much at the civil engineering stage. Tracklaying is still a little way off for me yet.
Keep us posted on your line. It looks great.
Andrew
Keep us posted on your line. It looks great.
Andrew
"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!"
-
- Trainee Fireman
- Posts: 210
- Joined: Mon Feb 01, 2016 6:58 pm
- Location: Devon
-
- Trainee Fireman
- Posts: 210
- Joined: Mon Feb 01, 2016 6:58 pm
- Location: Devon
I decided to have a run of a couple of trains today:
Video for anyone who's interested:
[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHDIQzs ... e=youtu.be[/video]
Happy steaming
Video for anyone who's interested:
[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHDIQzs ... e=youtu.be[/video]
Happy steaming
Garden railways don't run on steam or electric rather wine and Jedi master level patience
- Peter Butler
- Driver
- Posts: 5245
- Joined: Sun Sep 09, 2012 10:33 pm
- Location: West Wales
-
- Trainee Fireman
- Posts: 210
- Joined: Mon Feb 01, 2016 6:58 pm
- Location: Devon
So hello people! Welcome to spring.
In the time since the last update, not much has happened. It seems to rain every time I have a day off. I did make it outside today but a lot of my update is workshop based for now. Fingers crossed for some good weather.
I decided I needed a medium sized brake van. I had a few wheels around and some other bits as well as a couple of shady looking figures so I made this one...here it is with weathering almost finished.
Also wanted some flat wagons so these are made with my own design resin cast bogie, wood frame with good old coffee stirrers for planking. The loads are an old feather duster handle cut up and painted red and a broken coat hanger which had a nice profile, again, painted and weathered.
My son's IP tram needed to come in for a little maintenance and a repaint. I modified the cowcatcher to fit Accucraft couplers much lower (at the right height from the rail) than they were previously. I also removed the erroneous buffer beam and replaced it with a chunky piece of wood.
Front end before:
During:
And here it is out on the track - oh, he also asked me to fit lights to the engine and its matching carriages, so, here is the train all lit up and with its shiny new buffer beam and cow catcher arrangement:
Not railway related but I have finished off the herb garden which is in the centre of the railway. The spikes are bamboo skewers and are an attempt to deter the neighbourhood cat which seems to have a love of digging multiple holes before deciding to cr*p in one of them. I'll update if its successful!!
One more video to watch if you want to, this is night running with the illuminated train:
https://youtu.be/a1LUlUN3HRY
Hope you enjoy the update and more very soon.
Thanks as always for the nice comments and advice, it really makes a difference to me.
Happy steaming!
In the time since the last update, not much has happened. It seems to rain every time I have a day off. I did make it outside today but a lot of my update is workshop based for now. Fingers crossed for some good weather.
I decided I needed a medium sized brake van. I had a few wheels around and some other bits as well as a couple of shady looking figures so I made this one...here it is with weathering almost finished.
Also wanted some flat wagons so these are made with my own design resin cast bogie, wood frame with good old coffee stirrers for planking. The loads are an old feather duster handle cut up and painted red and a broken coat hanger which had a nice profile, again, painted and weathered.
My son's IP tram needed to come in for a little maintenance and a repaint. I modified the cowcatcher to fit Accucraft couplers much lower (at the right height from the rail) than they were previously. I also removed the erroneous buffer beam and replaced it with a chunky piece of wood.
Front end before:
During:
And here it is out on the track - oh, he also asked me to fit lights to the engine and its matching carriages, so, here is the train all lit up and with its shiny new buffer beam and cow catcher arrangement:
Not railway related but I have finished off the herb garden which is in the centre of the railway. The spikes are bamboo skewers and are an attempt to deter the neighbourhood cat which seems to have a love of digging multiple holes before deciding to cr*p in one of them. I'll update if its successful!!
One more video to watch if you want to, this is night running with the illuminated train:
https://youtu.be/a1LUlUN3HRY
Hope you enjoy the update and more very soon.
Thanks as always for the nice comments and advice, it really makes a difference to me.
Happy steaming!
Garden railways don't run on steam or electric rather wine and Jedi master level patience
- Peter Butler
- Driver
- Posts: 5245
- Joined: Sun Sep 09, 2012 10:33 pm
- Location: West Wales
-
- Trainee Fireman
- Posts: 210
- Joined: Mon Feb 01, 2016 6:58 pm
- Location: Devon
Hi, thanks for the comment and hope you are well Mark. I will try and take some pictures for you next time I have a roof off but in short, get a piece of 5mm dia tube...plastic / brass / ali and then drill a 5mm hole in the corner of the coach (you may have to drill through a seat ) - make sure its right in the corner. Stick the tube through the hole in the floor and glue in place in the cornner. Cut it off about 5mm shorter than the side of the coach.markoteal wrote:Love the lighting - be good to see how you set up in a carriage - I have tried but never seem to be able to hide the wire running from the battery under chassis to the lights under the roof
Glue 10mm wide strips of 3mm wood strip from one end of the coach to the other (or one across each compartment) being sure to leave 5mm clearance between the top of this strip and the roof. Drill 5mm holes for the LEDs and use either 1 LED for each compartment or 3 spread over the coach. Glue the LEDs in place sparingly!
Pass the wires through the tube and then solder to the first LED, then wire the rest in parallel through the coach making sure to use sticky cable clamps or glue to keep the wires above the LED holding strip.
Connect up the battery and check they work then paint the tube the same colour(s) as the inside of the coach....job done....no visible wires.
TIP: Get a bit of card, fold in half to make a 90 degree angle and glue over the strip of wood over the back of the LED - this will stop the light glowing through a plastic roof! - guess how I know that!!!???
Glue a switched 2 x AAA battery holder under the carriage and use the self adhesive cable clamps to keep the wires tidy and out of sight - if you can see the battery box sticking out from under the solebar then put it between the axles / bogies and make a fake air / vacuum tank to glue on the outside of the solebar which will hide it.
Last tip...NEVER use white LEDs - they give a blue/whit light and just look wrong...use WARM WHITE - you can get bags of 20 from Ebay for about a quid.
Hope that's helpful
Last edited by James from Devon on Mon Mar 27, 2017 8:51 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Garden railways don't run on steam or electric rather wine and Jedi master level patience
-
- Trainee Fireman
- Posts: 210
- Joined: Mon Feb 01, 2016 6:58 pm
- Location: Devon
Hey Grant, hope you are well. I am not so certain about the patronage, I think we just have a few regular customers. It's odd, but I see the same people on the train day after dayLNR wrote:Enjoyed that, nice subtle lighting in the carriages. Your railway obviously enjoys good passenger patronage.
Grant.
Garden railways don't run on steam or electric rather wine and Jedi master level patience
-
- Trainee Fireman
- Posts: 210
- Joined: Mon Feb 01, 2016 6:58 pm
- Location: Devon
Thanks Peter and I'd love to see a video of your railway. I just use my phone camera on one of those little tripods. My buddy Mark (Ace engineering) uses a super smart digital video camera and edits properly so I always aspire to make videos like his or Rik's from PeckfortonPeter Butler wrote:Nice work again James, your video work is most impressive... I really must make the effort one day.
Garden railways don't run on steam or electric rather wine and Jedi master level patience
Re:
Thanks James - when I get my next coach set up, I'll definitely follow these stepsJames from Devon wrote: ↑Mon Mar 27, 2017 8:44 pmHi, thanks for the comment and hope you are well Mark. I will try and take some pictures for you next time I have a roof off but in short, get a piece of 5mm dia tube...plastic / brass / ali and then drill a 5mm hole in the corner of the coach (you may have to drill through a seat ) - make sure its right in the corner. Stick the tube through the hole in the floor and glue in place in the cornner. Cut it off about 5mm shorter than the side of the coach.markoteal wrote:Love the lighting - be good to see how you set up in a carriage - I have tried but never seem to be able to hide the wire running from the battery under chassis to the lights under the roof
Glue 10mm wide strips of 3mm wood strip from one end of the coach to the other (or one across each compartment) being sure to leave 5mm clearance between the top of this strip and the roof. Drill 5mm holes for the LEDs and use either 1 LED for each compartment or 3 spread over the coach. Glue the LEDs in place sparingly!
Pass the wires through the tube and then solder to the first LED, then wire the rest in parallel through the coach making sure to use sticky cable clamps or glue to keep the wires above the LED holding strip.
Connect up the battery and check they work then paint the tube the same colour(s) as the inside of the coach....job done....no visible wires.
TIP: Get a bit of card, fold in half to make a 90 degree angle and glue over the strip of wood over the back of the LED - this will stop the light glowing through a plastic roof! - guess how I know that!!!???
Glue a switched 2 x AAA battery holder under the carriage and use the self adhesive cable clamps to keep the wires tidy and out of sight - if you can see the battery box sticking out from under the solebar then put it between the axles / bogies and make a fake air / vacuum tank to glue on the outside of the solebar which will hide it.
Last tip...NEVER use white LEDs - they give a blue/whit light and just look wrong...use WARM WHITE - you can get bags of 20 from Ebay for about a quid.
Hope that's helpful
And the momentum wagon had a trip out at the weekend - still awaiting its steam buddy - the trip to Peterborough or soon afterwards should get that sorted!
Cheers
Mark
Where did I put that uncoupler?
-
- Trainee Fireman
- Posts: 210
- Joined: Mon Feb 01, 2016 6:58 pm
- Location: Devon
Re: Staple Hill Railway - New Line
Hi Everyone. Time for another little update from Devon. As usual, I have not had as much time to work on the line as I would have liked but things are progressing a little and planning for the last stage of the extension is underway, in fact, blockwork has also started:
A little line side hut has appeared at Staple Hill - graffiti courtesy of my step son and his girlfriend
The route of the extension. The line will cross the path to the house (where I am standing to take the picture) I need to make a hinged bridge (somehow) for the double track route and find a new area to store the building materials This will finish off this end of the garden:
Turning 180 degrees, there will be a block built track bed behind my wife's seating area! Double track with a passing loop for storage of a long train here. I can't finish off the new fence until this track bed is built:
And the route up the far side of the garden next to our patio and raised beds (under construction) the track on this curve will be on a block faced block wall and the patio will be fitted around the curve (I hope):
A little more rubble compacted in the area for the village:
This area had become problematic with the plants doing so well they were overhanging the track and causing a derailment or 2! I have cut back plants and concreted in rock to form a border and keep vegetation further from the track. Not an issue for the miniature ferns in the foreground, they just look nice and cause no running problems:
That's it for now. other than to say that I have some items of rolling stock plus a Bulldog loco listed in the for sale section if anyone is interested.
Happy steaming
A little line side hut has appeared at Staple Hill - graffiti courtesy of my step son and his girlfriend
The route of the extension. The line will cross the path to the house (where I am standing to take the picture) I need to make a hinged bridge (somehow) for the double track route and find a new area to store the building materials This will finish off this end of the garden:
Turning 180 degrees, there will be a block built track bed behind my wife's seating area! Double track with a passing loop for storage of a long train here. I can't finish off the new fence until this track bed is built:
And the route up the far side of the garden next to our patio and raised beds (under construction) the track on this curve will be on a block faced block wall and the patio will be fitted around the curve (I hope):
A little more rubble compacted in the area for the village:
This area had become problematic with the plants doing so well they were overhanging the track and causing a derailment or 2! I have cut back plants and concreted in rock to form a border and keep vegetation further from the track. Not an issue for the miniature ferns in the foreground, they just look nice and cause no running problems:
That's it for now. other than to say that I have some items of rolling stock plus a Bulldog loco listed in the for sale section if anyone is interested.
Happy steaming
Garden railways don't run on steam or electric rather wine and Jedi master level patience
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