Nolwyn Valley Tramway

[philipy]

Thanks Drew, it could be useful. I've seen a couple of other comments on the subject so it could be of wider interest. I tried using Giphy when I did a fly-round of my Gmeinder loco drawings, but I wasn't sure if you gif-ised a video or did it directly using stills.

[Lonsdaler]

I would be a +1 for the gif tutorial, even for uses outside the forum.

[FWLR]

+2 also.

[drewzero1]

Spring snow caught the NVT off-guard last night, and a pair of slate wagons wait at the halt for the melt.

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The wagons are full of slate chips from the local landscaping supplier. I was there this week getting some info on stones for the front wall... Next I need to do some measuring and math. (And digging, always digging!)

I started working on the GIF tutorial last night... It's pretty simple, but I wanted to put in some screenshots so I'll try and finish it over the weekend.

[FWLR]

Wow, that's a bit of a shock. Looks nice though.

Looking forward to the tutorial, I tried to make one using giphy, I got a trial clip and it works on my laptop, but it won't load onto the forum. Tried 'Add Files' and 'Link' but it just doesn't like it, must be doing something not right...

[drewzero1]

A bit surprising, but not unheard of around here. We often have overnight snow showers through April so I could see us getting one or two more by the end of the season. The small controller was beyond excited, asking me to hook up the sled train (both kids' sleds coupled together) and make tracks and switches all over the yard.

[dudeface]

Yay, things are happening! Can't say that about my railway.

[drewzero1]

Yay, things are happening! Can't say that about my railway.

Yeah, and it only took me a year and, what, six pages of spinning my wheels and overthinking everything?

I try not to compare projects though... Everybody's got different goals and different circumstances!

[dudeface]

Yeah, and it only took me a year and, what, six pages of spinning my wheels and overthinking everything?

Hopefully I don't make it to six...

[drewzero1]

What a wild week it's been! The snow melted enough over the weekend that I was able to dig in some big stones for footers under most of the front wall on Monday...

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But then throughout Tuesday and Wednesday we had freezing rain turning to 5-6 inches of snow on top. Roads were slick, shoveling was heavy, and progress on any groundworks was out of the question.

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(Gee, this looks familiar from a couple of posts ago, but it's all new snow!)

While unable to progress outside I've been trying to fettle some stock to make sure I'll have something to run when the line is eventually complete. I needed to add some buffer beams to lower the couplings on my Southwold short van, and with the printer still on break I fashioned a set out of popsicle (lolly?) sticks, cup hooks, and roofing nails for the buffers.

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It still could use some tweaking but I'm happy enough with the result for now.

[drewzero1]

Thanks Drew, it could be useful. I've seen a couple of other comments on the subject so it could be of wider interest. I tried using Giphy when I did a fly-round of my Gmeinder loco drawings, but I wasn't sure if you gif-ised a video or did it directly using stills.

I would be a +1 for the gif tutorial, even for uses outside the forum.

+2 also.

Sorry for the delay! I've finished it- see HOW TO: Gif-izing a video

[philipy]

Sorry for the delay! I've finished it- see HOW TO: Gif-izing a video

Thanks Drew.
Although I managed to do a very simple version for my coupling gif, I never managed to work out how to get the resizing etc to work, so this looks very helpful.

[Old Man Aaron]

Hard to beat those hooks for couplings. I use 'em on everything.

[drewzero1]

Hard to beat those hooks for couplings. I use 'em on everything.

I've seen them used for couplings before but never tried them for myself. My local hardware store is closing them out at eight for a dollar so I think I'd better stock up while they're still there, and the nails were a few cents for a handful (priced by the pound--0.05lb).

I do anticipate moving away from chain coupling at some point for ease of operation, but since phase 1 is just a simple loop I probably won't be doing enough shunting to make it tedious yet.

[drewzero1]

Small milestone achieved tonight as the waterfall operates successfully! A new spillway was needed as the first time I tried starting the pump all of the water was flowing out between the ponds. Protective mesh has also been cut and awaits edging.

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No news on the track unfortunately. The front half of the raised bed can't be properly graded until the front wall is complete. I still have to go buy that box of rocks I must've been dumber than to start this project in the first place!

[FWLR]

Well I think it's going to be brilliant Drew. It's a long journey sometimes to get to something we are happy with, and then I don't think we are all of us, happy are we with want we end up with, there is always something or another that we think needs doing to improve it.

Carry on Drew and in the end it will be something to be proud of I am certain of that...

[drewzero1]

Experiments in tracklaying:

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Roughly the same location as the first image in this thread. Finally feels like we're getting somewhere!

[philipy]

Experiments in tracklaying:


Roughly the same location as the first image in this thread. Finally feels like we're getting somewhere!

Thats a nice picture Drew. Its always a good feeling when you realise that you are actually getting to where you want to be.

[FWLR]

Brilliant Drew. It's worth all the effort when you see a scene like this. Wont be that long before you have the line complete, but then comes the rest of it, buildings, rolling stock, people....etc etc.

Looking forward to more photos and updates.

[drewzero1]

Thanks Rod and Philip, I appreciate the encouragement! Really helps keep me going when things don't go as planned, or as quickly as planned...

After a few rains, the ballast has settled in a bit and the track seems stable. I'm still trying to decide how best to pin it down to keep it from getting ripped up by kids and squirrels, but still allow for maintenance and modification.

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Somehow I felt I didn't have quite enough stock for the six feet of track I've laid so far, so I knocked together a three-plank wagon out of popsicle sticks. This is larger than the two quarry wagons, which look a bit silly behind the big diesel I've been working on...

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Speaking of that project, here is that diesel. Meet Rhydderch/Roderick, printed in October and built in fits and spurts since then.

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He was originally planned around a scavenged 14v cordless drill motor and gearbox, but that turned out to be a poor match for the 12v drill battery (scavenged from a different drill). I've since taken the 25mm 6v gear motor out of Thornas for the diesel, and I'll be replacing it with something smaller for Thornas-- more on that later.