Garden Railway Forum

Very nice Sam

Absolutely nothing wrong with a freight only line. A lot more interesting to run than passenger services to my mind.

Good to see the line coming along.

Rik

Today, the first passengers were waiting for the train in WalnutLane Station !!

Great! Good to see a video of a garden railway with a storyline.

Rik

Hello all,

During our rainy winter in france, I try my first loco build. It is a model found on thingiverse

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6183902

It is battery powered and still controlled with my arduino remote control solution.

I still have to make a hook to try to pull wagons.

Here is a quick video


I also have the project to extend the circuit this spring....


A quick question, I saw many of you are using small chains to connect loco and wagons. Could you give me more detail or amazon link for that kind of chains ?

I've used fishing swivels in the past.
https://tackleworld.com.au/collections/ ... ack-barrel
A couple of advantages over chain they are more rigid and work well in shunting, if a wagon tips over they do mot tend to take the others with it.
I have used these with a piece of split shot to simulate screw link couplers, to try to give a bit of realism.
https://www.bcf.com.au/p/pryml-black-cr ... =BCF034530
https://www.bcf.com.au/p/gillies-split- ... 09293.html

I can't find it on Amazon, but I get brass plated steel chain by the foot from the local hardware store. The links on mine measure 10mm x 4.5mm with 1mm diameter wire. If I were to order something I'd go with a darker color like antique bronze, the gold sticks out like a sore thumb and paint doesn't stick to it very well.
I started with 3-link chains and as I built wider and longer stock I switched to 5 links to cope with tight curves. I'm going to have to steal that fishing swivel idea though!

Ps, love the diesel and the tunnel.

Thanks for the idea concenring the chains.

As I am now member of a collaborative laboratoy I have an access to a big laser cutting/engraving machine; so I will make new tunnel entrance in plywood.

I have installed a plugin on my blog to autotranslate the publication.

So if you want to have a look onit in english now you can select English on the top right corner

https://sam95.fr/blog/category/modelism ... de-jardin/

It is automatic translation but you will have a general idea of what I am writing.

Sam95 wrote: Sun Feb 23, 2025 5:19 pm Hello all,

During our rainy winter in france, I try my first loco build. It is a model found on thingiverse

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6183902

It is battery powered and still controlled with my arduino remote control solution.

I still have to make a hook to try to pull wagons.

Here is a quick video


I also have the project to extend the circuit this spring....


A quick question, I saw many of you are using small chains to connect loco and wagons. Could you give me more detail or amazon link for that kind of chains ?

What happened at 0:10 of the video?

The loco seems to jump backwards at full speed.

Is that an error on the video or did that really happen?

Indeed I saw that on the video but I don't remember if it happens.

I will pay attention during the next rolling session.

Scrat wrote: Mon Feb 24, 2025 3:42 pm

Sam95 wrote: Sun Feb 23, 2025 5:19 pm Hello all,

During our rainy winter in france, I try my first loco build. It is a model found on thingiverse

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6183902

It is battery powered and still controlled with my arduino remote control solution.

I still have to make a hook to try to pull wagons.

Here is a quick video


I also have the project to extend the circuit this spring....


A quick question, I saw many of you are using small chains to connect loco and wagons. Could you give me more detail or amazon link for that kind of chains ?

What happened at 0:10 of the video?

The loco seems to jump backwards at full speed.

Is that an error on the video or did that really happen?

I noticed that too. My guess was that the front buffer beam fouled on the rock on the tunnel approach, and bounced back slightly before continuing on. But your guess is as good as mine!

This is how I made my tunel entrance :

As I have access to a laser cutter in a FabLab, I decided to engrave the tunel entrance on 5mm plywood. So after few hours spent on Inkscape to draw the stones; I engraved and cut the wood. I also cut a second set of tunel entrance not engraved to glue 2 layers to have 10mm plywood.





Then I painted them with 1 layer of acrylic white and after that with a sponge I painted the stones with brown, yellow and green. Finally applied 2 layers of clear varnish :





In place :

Very nicely done.

Rik

Thanks,

Yesterday I installed some stones on the tunel :

Thanks for the step-by-step on the tunnel, building one like that has been on my list for some time now. The finished product looks very effective! Hopefully I'll get to it when the snow and ice goes away (again).

Thanks for the comment

As spring seems to arrived in France now, I plan to make the extension within few weeks.

To start here is the general idea of it:

The layout as it is now (except the turntable) :


The left part of the layout will be modified to transform the simple loop into a return loop :


Then the rails will go under and between the cedars :


Finally a second return loop will take place under the trampoline


This will add about 12meters of rails.

I still have one obstacle : my wife :she wants to keep possibility to have plants in this area. So I have to convince here that we can add many plants around the rails !

Sam95 wrote: Thu Mar 20, 2025 8:58 pm I still have one obstacle : my wife :she wants to keep possibility to have plants in this area. So I have to convince here that we can add many plants around the rails !

Oh yes, plants and trains go very well together. Rik

Sam95 wrote: Thu Mar 20, 2025 8:58 pm I still have one obstacle : my wife :she wants to keep possibility to have plants in this area. So I have to convince here that we can add many plants around the rails !

Plants in pots is my suggestion. We have many (Many!!) plants in pots so that my wife can move them around as the fancy takes her.

The garden not looking good at the end of winter, but this gives a flavour.

Tell your wife that the railway is yours but the landscaping around it is hers that way she will take an interest. Mine certainly has.
Plus it will test her plant selection if you suggest a scene like a forest or a meadow with hedges for the trains to run through.