The Apple Valley Railway (7 1/4" gauge)

[Nomis]

Will;

Here is a link to a "buy it now" for the motors:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Electric-Motor-25 ... 2561ef6e20

If you want to go for a smaller loco, I would suggest using one motor, with a lower gear ratio (perhaps nearer 20:1).



Mhlr;

Thanks for the offer, all of my G scale stock is fixed at 45mm though. Where do you run your Polly?



Made-in-england;

The wheels are bolted to the drive sprockets, which clamp to the axles using grub screws:



I would definately buy the wheels in. Paul at ride on railways, currently has a stock of 4" diameter wheels for £7 each! (I have already had 16 of them from him



Pauly;

I know what you mean about model engineers
The garden railway scene has had a real resurgence over the last 10 years or so - mostly through the efforts of a few outgoing people, willing to encourage new people and ideas. The bigger stuff doesn't seem to have really had this yet.

There are a few people out there though, have a look here http://www.5inchrail.com/sites.html for a directory of VERY interesting 5" gauge websites, and if you want some proper inspiration, the Akubi Light Railway in Japan http://www.ne.jp/asahi/beat/non/loco/loco0e.html has an excellent website, absolutely full of interesting stuff (cardboard for 5" loco bodywork anyone?!).

P.S.

I take no responsibility for the hours of your life that will be absorbed by clicking in the above links

[Nomis]

This weekends progress;

Ballasting really makes the track look a lot better:



The track has started to strike out onto the loop, the earth that will be dug out from beyond where the straight run ends will be used to construct the embankment.

Selling some of my G scale track allowed me to buy some bogies (£160 on ebay - new). So i built a flat wagon:





The wagon is 4' long and 15" wide.

You know that you are working in a big scale when 9 concrete blocks can be moved as a single wagon load



The "big railway" runs across the top of the garden (in a deep cutting). I noticed today that it's possible to get a shot showing both trackbeds:



The local DMU to Gunnislake passing by:

[Dr. Bond of the DVLR]

ONLY 40ft wide??!?!?!
That means you can easily put in a railway with 15ft radius curves, the minimum being 10ft....

[Nomis]

40' is plenty!

The area where I am building the loop is only just 20' across
in the pic of the new flat wagon above, the track is on a 9' radius.

I have seen pictures of curves down to 6' radius used for 5" gauge, it's not ideal, but with careful choice of rolling stock it can be made to work.

20' radius should allow for most mainline standard gauge loco's to operate ok. If you prefer diesels, even a warship can be made to go around a 10' radius.

[Nomis]

I case you wanted proof, here's a class 66 on a garden railway with 10' radius curves:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8H1lV7v ... ata_player

[mhlr]

Mhlr;

Thanks for the offer, all of my G scale stock is fixed at 45mm though. Where do you run your Polly?

I run it at the Perranporth & District Model Engineers track at Callestick, towards Newquay. It's a raised one with 5" and 3 1/2", plus they have a 32mm and 45mm-electric running line. Seeing as your next to the Gunnislake branch, I guess you're nearer to Plymouth, I think there's a model engineers down there?

I only tend to go to P&DMES when it's quiet, so I have the track to myself (or friends), because my loco isn't the most reliable at the moment, plus you don't get those 'stuck up' types breathing down your neck!

[Nomis]

Class 47 available here

http://www.compass-house.co.uk/frames.htm


I would like to pop over to the perranporth track sometime to see what they get up to. Not sure that my loco will be suitable for an elevated track.

There is a mixed gauge ground level track in Plymouth (near to the airport). I went over to have a look on their last running day of last year. It's a nice setup, but i don't really want to get involved in public club running.

Here's a video I made:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtV0d8fA ... ata_player

[Nomis]

Whoops,

my mistake, compass house do kits for classes 08, 23, 29, 31, 35 & 37.

Model engineers (bexhill) www.model-engineering.co.uk do kits for classes 08, 15, 20, 27, 33, 35, 37, 47, 73, & 90.

[Nomis]

Really?!

The class 47 is 67" long (5 and a half feet), that's a big model to try and move around

4x times the size, and you are looking at large 15" gauge locos...

...then again if you have the room / money

[mhlr]

I would like to pop over to the perranporth track sometime to see what they get up to. Not sure that my loco will be suitable for an elevated track.

There is a mixed gauge ground level track in Plymouth (near to the airport). I went over to have a look on their last running day of last year. It's a nice setup, but i don't really want to get involved in public club running.

What sort of loco is it you have? If you can sit behind it should be fine.

And do you know if I'd be able to visit Plymouth track for just a run with my Polly? Or is it only for public running days?

[andysleigh]

brilliant stuff

[Nomis]

My loco is pretty chunky (18" wide & 24" tall) it might be a bit precarious on a raised track!

It also has no suspension, more designed for low speed garden trundling than high speed club running.

I'm not sure if you can just run for the day at Plymouth. They seemed to be very keen for people to sign up as members...

Thier next running day is on the first Sunday of April - I might pop over to see what's running.

(I also know of a very nice private track near Tavistock that might get finished this year )

[Nomis]

Lovely sunny day today - time for some painting

My high tech spray booth:




And the nest of sprockets and chains that the drive train has become:




I also now have a speed controller (an esc50), bought from dawnmist http://www.dawnmist.demon.co.uk/rcm.htm it is rated to handle 50A continuously, and 100A for short bursts - all at 24V. A bit of a bargain at £25!

That means that it would be able to handle 1200W continuous load (approx 2hp). For comparison, i think that the small maxitrak locos use a single motor under 150W.

I have ordered the version with a potentiometer for the control input, but they also do units that plug into a standard RC reciever (and reversible units for lower current ratings). I quite like the idea of complete hands off control.

I will report back when testing begins.....

[mhlr]

Looking great Nomis. As for a spray booth, get a big old cardboard box and cut the top and front off, then you've got a 'proper' spray booth so you don't get any dust or whatever blown into the wet paint.

As for club running, it's never high speed when I'm up there on my own as my loco won't do it Might have to come down and see whats doing at Plymouth.

[bessytractor]

excellent stuff, your a man after my own heart, make it massively overpowered, I put 1200 watts of motor power in my 7 1/4 tram  :lol:

the stub points good, nice effective method of doing it. If you have a problem with the speed controller side of things, I recommend 4QD. Price is, ummm, quite high , but they are very well built things and all mine have never given problems.

[Steven.T]

Il'l second 4QD speed controllers, I've got one in my 5" gauge railbus and I think they are great!

[Nomis]

A busy weekend of railway building (my wife was away on a hen weekend ).

First up some "proper" engineering!

As I mentioned before, I bought a number of small diameter (approx 3.5") wheels from ride on railways for the bargain price of £7 each.

They came with a fairly small bore axle hole drilled through, 10mm if i remember right.

So an evening spent in my Dad's workshop....

Firstly, the bore holes were opened out to 14.75mm on the big bench drill:



I had already cut the axles from some 15mm rod. A little experimentation showed that an interference fit was possible.

A 15mm reamer was used (by hand) to gently open out the hole in the wheel, until the axle could be driven in (using a copper faced mallet).



(far anyone who has not come across a reamer before, it is sort of like a drill bit. There are a number of cutting edges around the perimeter, that very gently taper from about 14.7mm at the tip, to 15mm. By working the tool through to the same point on each wheel a very accurate, and slightly tapered hole is made - perfect to make a tight fit)

Some more ebay sourced bearings were slid into place, and the second wheel added:



We have prepared 4 of these wheelsets now.
They are inside bearings for a reason - these bogies will be used for a sit astride passenger car. This arrangement makes the bogie extra narrow so that it can still swing without hitting the footrests.



Most of my weekend has been spent digging.

This was the progress at the end of Saturday:



Very slow going as the ground was full or roots (up to 3" diameter )

How to move dirt on 5" gauge:



The route to be dug is laid out with stones:



And after a lot of work, another 8' of track is down:



The cutting here is about 2' wide & 2' deep. A bit of calculation tells me that I have shifted about a ton of dirt today! Which has been used to build up the embankment.

A view up the line:



This is a "before" view of the other end of the cutting:



Hopefully, I will have some extra labour help next weekend (one of my old university friends has volunteered to come and help with some spade work - not sure he realises what he is getting in to!


I really must get on with finishing the loco so I can go for a powered ride at last.....

[Dr. Bond of the DVLR]

Looks excellent, I hear your pain over the roots having tackled some monsters on my railway! Is your railway 5 inch of 7.25 now then?

[Nomis]

It's 5" now.

I re-gauged a while back when i realised that there was little chance that I was going to be able to afford a 7 1/4" steamer in this lifetime!


Also, I forgot to mention earlier, in the pic of the wheelset you can see a number written on the back of the wheel. This is the back to back measurement, that will allow me to check if the wheels are moving on the axles once they have had some proper running time.

[Nomis]

Seems that the HSE have got wind of what I am up to......


....I caught one of their inspectors on a surprise visit: