Thanks for the additional information you posted, I'm sure it will come in handy
Back to the Kotanga Tramway.
Yes I've seen pictures of the IC loco conversion before David. I've never been especially keen on IC locos, but I do agree that it would make an interesting model. Time is an extremely flexible quality in the Kotanga Valley so it's impossible to say exactly what time period my layout will ultimately represent. As my intention is to model those aspects of bush trams and the countryside they worked in according to what I like best this will fit in perfectly with the whole spirit of the Kotanga Valley.
Thanks for the additional information you posted, I'm sure it will come in handy
Thanks for the additional information you posted, I'm sure it will come in handy
What has Reality done for you lately?
Treasure hunt!
It's been a treasure hunting day today with me digging through boxes in search for all my old large scale stuff. And treasures have come to light which will definitely help the Kotanga tramway along.
Perhaps the best and most surprising is finding a Lionel 'G' scale chassis which I thought I'd sold ages ago. My original plan was to build a single Fairlie with this, - an 'R' class, - so perhaps I will get to own an 'R' class Fairlie after all :D
The other thing that turned up was a 'New Ray' battery 0-6-0 steam loco chassis. This originally had a diesel shunter bodyshell on it when i bought it which caused many jokes about it being a steam-electric or a diesel compressed air loco. It certainly looks useful and lacking any certainty about a suitable bush tram protoype I may take the common bush tram approach of a rolling set of frames picked up here and a boiler picked up there and it all being bolted together in the tramway workshop with a helping of sawn timber and corrugated iron thrown in.
Other delights include a Tamiya motor and planetary gearbox set which I purchased almost a decade ago. Something tells me that is going to be very useful when I build the Johnston 'A'.
The next items are a pair of 2 inch gauge archbar bogies which came from a heavily worn battery plastic trainset I picked up some time ago. The loco and a distressed combine coach from this set have yet to come to light. Haven't a clue what I'll do with these bogies, but I thought I show them off in case anybody was interested.
The next items are a pair of Scientific Toys boxcars which used to be four wheelers, but are now running on New Bright archbar bogies. This is a really simple conversion to do and to my mind greatly improves the appearance of these boxcars. Repainted and fitted with a corrugated iron roof they will do very nicely on the Kotanga Tramway. The height of the bodysides is a little low for 16mm, but my excuse is that they are for use on the Kotanga Valley Posthole Mining Co branch which has a much more restricted loading gauge due to some tunnel or another.
I also own several New Bright tender locos which are basically closer to gauge '1' in size than 'G' scale. I want to see about building a 16mm scale wooden cab on one of them to see if it could be a convincing tramway loco if suitably repainted. I have a heavily converted one that's built up with bush tram bits and bobs, Ozark castings and parts from a scrapped HLW tank loco to be a well tank, but I won't show you that one just yet because I'm building a new cab for it.
The only New Bright tender loco I have which must remain untouched is the rare 'Pioneer' version they made which was an attempt at a semi-realistic loco. It's nice, I like it and it runs very sweetly.
Perhaps the best and most surprising is finding a Lionel 'G' scale chassis which I thought I'd sold ages ago. My original plan was to build a single Fairlie with this, - an 'R' class, - so perhaps I will get to own an 'R' class Fairlie after all :D
The other thing that turned up was a 'New Ray' battery 0-6-0 steam loco chassis. This originally had a diesel shunter bodyshell on it when i bought it which caused many jokes about it being a steam-electric or a diesel compressed air loco. It certainly looks useful and lacking any certainty about a suitable bush tram protoype I may take the common bush tram approach of a rolling set of frames picked up here and a boiler picked up there and it all being bolted together in the tramway workshop with a helping of sawn timber and corrugated iron thrown in.
Other delights include a Tamiya motor and planetary gearbox set which I purchased almost a decade ago. Something tells me that is going to be very useful when I build the Johnston 'A'.
The next items are a pair of 2 inch gauge archbar bogies which came from a heavily worn battery plastic trainset I picked up some time ago. The loco and a distressed combine coach from this set have yet to come to light. Haven't a clue what I'll do with these bogies, but I thought I show them off in case anybody was interested.
The next items are a pair of Scientific Toys boxcars which used to be four wheelers, but are now running on New Bright archbar bogies. This is a really simple conversion to do and to my mind greatly improves the appearance of these boxcars. Repainted and fitted with a corrugated iron roof they will do very nicely on the Kotanga Tramway. The height of the bodysides is a little low for 16mm, but my excuse is that they are for use on the Kotanga Valley Posthole Mining Co branch which has a much more restricted loading gauge due to some tunnel or another.
I also own several New Bright tender locos which are basically closer to gauge '1' in size than 'G' scale. I want to see about building a 16mm scale wooden cab on one of them to see if it could be a convincing tramway loco if suitably repainted. I have a heavily converted one that's built up with bush tram bits and bobs, Ozark castings and parts from a scrapped HLW tank loco to be a well tank, but I won't show you that one just yet because I'm building a new cab for it.
The only New Bright tender loco I have which must remain untouched is the rare 'Pioneer' version they made which was an attempt at a semi-realistic loco. It's nice, I like it and it runs very sweetly.
What has Reality done for you lately?
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Peter Butler
- Driver
- Posts: 5253
- Joined: Sun Sep 09, 2012 10:33 pm
- Location: West Wales
I hope so Peter
I'm presently working on one of my original Kotanga Tramway locos that I built up some time ago in 1/2 inch scale, - old Baldwin No:2. I kit bashed this loco from a modified New Bright 2-6-0 chassis, Ozarks castings and parts salvaged from a HLW loco I'd scrapped for its motorblock. It's a good runner, slow and steady and surprising heavy since the boiler still has the original HLW shaped lead weight in it.
Here in New Zealand a lot of folk seem to use track power for their garden railways which I think is a bit odd because it rains a lot. On layout visits back when I still belonged to a G scale club folk would be much surprised when I would run old No:2 in the rain when everybody else was running around rescuing their faltering locos and bringing them in under shelter. I like battery power with hand in the cab control and old No:2 never minded getting wet. She even got her photo in the club magazine despite her cheap and cheerful audacity.
No:2's cab is being rebuilt to 16mm scale and in a more tramway workshop style than the old one. I'm investigating building the cab from planks (ice lolly sticks, tongue depressors and coffee stirrers) rather than plywood and if the idea works out I'm thinking of building a tramway coach by the same method. The lovely corrugated iron in the photos is some I made from tinplate using a roller press I made a good few years ago now. I no longer have it unfortunately which is a pity because you can see how good that naturally weathered cab roof looks.
The other thing that really needs to be done is to shorten the rear frames because No:2 is a bit of a tail wagger which isn't a good thing on tight curves. I'm considering building a typical tramway tender for her which at least would get the batteries out of the cab as well as well as created more space for them.
No:2's job is heavy haulage, - mostly sawn timber away from the mill so I'm thinking that I'll put her on the tracks with her smoke box pointing to the mill and bunker/tender pointing towards the town (no turntable available on the tramway).
I'm presently working on one of my original Kotanga Tramway locos that I built up some time ago in 1/2 inch scale, - old Baldwin No:2. I kit bashed this loco from a modified New Bright 2-6-0 chassis, Ozarks castings and parts salvaged from a HLW loco I'd scrapped for its motorblock. It's a good runner, slow and steady and surprising heavy since the boiler still has the original HLW shaped lead weight in it.
Here in New Zealand a lot of folk seem to use track power for their garden railways which I think is a bit odd because it rains a lot. On layout visits back when I still belonged to a G scale club folk would be much surprised when I would run old No:2 in the rain when everybody else was running around rescuing their faltering locos and bringing them in under shelter. I like battery power with hand in the cab control and old No:2 never minded getting wet. She even got her photo in the club magazine despite her cheap and cheerful audacity.
No:2's cab is being rebuilt to 16mm scale and in a more tramway workshop style than the old one. I'm investigating building the cab from planks (ice lolly sticks, tongue depressors and coffee stirrers) rather than plywood and if the idea works out I'm thinking of building a tramway coach by the same method. The lovely corrugated iron in the photos is some I made from tinplate using a roller press I made a good few years ago now. I no longer have it unfortunately which is a pity because you can see how good that naturally weathered cab roof looks.
The other thing that really needs to be done is to shorten the rear frames because No:2 is a bit of a tail wagger which isn't a good thing on tight curves. I'm considering building a typical tramway tender for her which at least would get the batteries out of the cab as well as well as created more space for them.
No:2's job is heavy haulage, - mostly sawn timber away from the mill so I'm thinking that I'll put her on the tracks with her smoke box pointing to the mill and bunker/tender pointing towards the town (no turntable available on the tramway).
What has Reality done for you lately?
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invicta280
- Trainee Driver
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I like that wriggly tin roof Annie! I remember when I lived in NZ just about everything from woolsheds to garden fences was made of corrugated iron. I think it started to go out of fashion.
It is not so common here . When I wanted to put a galvanised corrugated roof on my workshop I could only find one place that supplied it locally.
It is not so common here . When I wanted to put a galvanised corrugated roof on my workshop I could only find one place that supplied it locally.
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tom_tom_go
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That's a good tip about the cat food tins Tom Tom, - I'll have to look into that.
Invicta, apparently back at the turn of the 20th century there was such a shortage of corrugated iron in the district where I live that teams of workmen would go into the abandoned mining towns (of which there were several in the district) and strip all the usable corrugated iron from the buildings.
As a building material it's not used so much now, but the 1930's cottage where I live still proudly wears a wriggly tin roof. One of the local shops has a craft section with packets of very nice corrugated light card which I will be using a fair bit of once I start to build Kotanga township, the wharf storage sheds & etc.
Invicta, apparently back at the turn of the 20th century there was such a shortage of corrugated iron in the district where I live that teams of workmen would go into the abandoned mining towns (of which there were several in the district) and strip all the usable corrugated iron from the buildings.
As a building material it's not used so much now, but the 1930's cottage where I live still proudly wears a wriggly tin roof. One of the local shops has a craft section with packets of very nice corrugated light card which I will be using a fair bit of once I start to build Kotanga township, the wharf storage sheds & etc.
What has Reality done for you lately?
In Britain we had pre-fabricated iron churches popularly known as "Tin Tabernacles". Here's St Saviour's Anglican Church, our rather fine rescue specimen, now at Swanwick Junction, but erected at nearby Westhouses to serve the often spectacularly Godless railway community:
There are links to the pinewood interior views at:
Its sturdy iron roof is a practical Victorian extension of St Paul's logic to a wet climate:
"How can people trust a God they don't believe in?
And how can they believe in a God they haven't heard of?
And how shall they hear about God without a preacher?"
We do a good trade in Funeral Trains on the narrow gauge Golden Valley Light Railway which passes close to the church.
David
There are links to the pinewood interior views at:
Its sturdy iron roof is a practical Victorian extension of St Paul's logic to a wet climate:
"How can people trust a God they don't believe in?
And how can they believe in a God they haven't heard of?
And how shall they hear about God without a preacher?"
We do a good trade in Funeral Trains on the narrow gauge Golden Valley Light Railway which passes close to the church.
David
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Peter Butler
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- Joined: Sun Sep 09, 2012 10:33 pm
- Location: West Wales
And near here, in Rosebush, Pembrokeshire, we have the 'Tafarn Sinc', which is located next to a disused railway line and has a station in its grounds. It is the highest licensed pub in Pembrokeshire. Local quarrying ensured its survival in the 19th and early 20thC.
The best things in life are free.... so why am I doing this?
Thanks for the interesting pictures Peter Because of the sawmilling industry all the historic churches I know of around the district are or were wooden, - but of course with a corrugated iron roof. I'm not so sure about the hotels and pubs though. Some very old photographs of the now disappeared late 19th century mining towns seem to indicate that most buildings were built of corrugated iron, though this was more rare in the permanent townships like the one where I live now.
The interior of the restored 'tin tabernacle' looks very much like the interiors of the surviving historic wooden churches in the local area. Unfortunately in the 1970s many of the old churches were demolished to make way larger and more modern churches. Being examples of 1970s architecture though they are far from being in any way attractive to the eye.
I shall have to do some research to see what examples of corrugated irom buildings there were around here because it would be interesting to have at least one on the mainstreet.
I found a nice picture of a miner's hut which I'm certainly going to make at least one model of. Our Dept. of Conservation looks to the preservation of such buildings which certainly is a good thing.
The corrugated iron chimney is very much typical of small rural dwellings during the steam era by the way.
Because of the sawmilling industry all the historic churches I know of around the district are or were wooden, - but of course with a corrugated iron roof. I'm not so sure about the hotels and pubs though. Some very old photographs of the now disappeared late 19th century mining towns seem to indicate that most buildings were built of corrugated iron, though this was more rare in the permanent townships like the one where I live now.The interior of the restored 'tin tabernacle' looks very much like the interiors of the surviving historic wooden churches in the local area. Unfortunately in the 1970s many of the old churches were demolished to make way larger and more modern churches. Being examples of 1970s architecture though they are far from being in any way attractive to the eye.
I shall have to do some research to see what examples of corrugated irom buildings there were around here because it would be interesting to have at least one on the mainstreet.
I found a nice picture of a miner's hut which I'm certainly going to make at least one model of. Our Dept. of Conservation looks to the preservation of such buildings which certainly is a good thing.
The corrugated iron chimney is very much typical of small rural dwellings during the steam era by the way.
What has Reality done for you lately?
Um..... It looks like the only corrugated iron churches are all in New Zealand's South Island, - but I'm quite willing to be proved wrong about that.
St Alban of the Martyr Church in St. Bathans, Otago. Apparently it was imported from Britain as a prefab building sometime around 1883.
St Alban of the Martyr Church in St. Bathans, Otago. Apparently it was imported from Britain as a prefab building sometime around 1883.
What has Reality done for you lately?
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Peter Butler
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- Location: West Wales
Yes whatever the thing is Peter it's impressive :D
Found a nice wriggly tin cottage so now I just need to impatiently await the arrival of the 2mm sheets of card I ordered.
And I think this old Public Works Dept shed here in town will make a fine wharf shed.
So that's certainly enough buildings to be going on with which means that I can start to plan out the town layout board.
Found a nice wriggly tin cottage so now I just need to impatiently await the arrival of the 2mm sheets of card I ordered.
And I think this old Public Works Dept shed here in town will make a fine wharf shed.
So that's certainly enough buildings to be going on with which means that I can start to plan out the town layout board.
What has Reality done for you lately?
In the next town over from us a timber yard has some repurposed railway buildings in their yard and they have ventilators like that one on the roof. I think they look really corker, but possibly not so easy to reproduce in model form.
I was thinking about trackwork today. Something I do have is a huge quantity of Lego and clone/compatible systems track which is so close to being 1&1/2 inch gauge it doesn't matter. I built a lot of Lego railway models as therapy, but was ultimately frustrated by the difficulty of creating enough space inside the late 19th century locomotives I wanted to build for enough batteries to actually make them able to pull a reasonable amount of rolling stock. I tried building in 16mm scale with Lego as a way around this, but the resulting locomotives ended up absorbing a huge amount of bricks and other parts just to make them strong enough to support themselves. Often they still lacked for battery space and they were heavy. Coaches and wagons built in this size are also heavy which gets back to the problem of trying to find enough room for batteries so it's possible for the resulting models to actually move.
Lego was fun and it served a purpose, but now I want to get back to building wood and card models again.
I do own quite a few Lego railway motor blocks though which started to make me think about using Lego track and building conventional NG models on the Lego motor blocks and wheelsets I own already. Most of the track on the town and wharf boards will be buried so it will be difficult to tell its origins anyway and I have clone/compatible track of normal appearance for those places where the track will be conventionally ballasted. Wooden rail experiments will still continue by the way.
Nearly all of my existing rolling stock can be re-gauged without too much trouble and should work just as well on the narrower gauge. Emily and old Baldwin No:2 aren't really convertible, but they are also quite large and are most probably more suitable for use as visiting locos which is me having a positive outlook for the future over being able to get out and about again.
I was thinking about trackwork today. Something I do have is a huge quantity of Lego and clone/compatible systems track which is so close to being 1&1/2 inch gauge it doesn't matter. I built a lot of Lego railway models as therapy, but was ultimately frustrated by the difficulty of creating enough space inside the late 19th century locomotives I wanted to build for enough batteries to actually make them able to pull a reasonable amount of rolling stock. I tried building in 16mm scale with Lego as a way around this, but the resulting locomotives ended up absorbing a huge amount of bricks and other parts just to make them strong enough to support themselves. Often they still lacked for battery space and they were heavy. Coaches and wagons built in this size are also heavy which gets back to the problem of trying to find enough room for batteries so it's possible for the resulting models to actually move.
Lego was fun and it served a purpose, but now I want to get back to building wood and card models again.
I do own quite a few Lego railway motor blocks though which started to make me think about using Lego track and building conventional NG models on the Lego motor blocks and wheelsets I own already. Most of the track on the town and wharf boards will be buried so it will be difficult to tell its origins anyway and I have clone/compatible track of normal appearance for those places where the track will be conventionally ballasted. Wooden rail experiments will still continue by the way.
Nearly all of my existing rolling stock can be re-gauged without too much trouble and should work just as well on the narrower gauge. Emily and old Baldwin No:2 aren't really convertible, but they are also quite large and are most probably more suitable for use as visiting locos which is me having a positive outlook for the future over being able to get out and about again.
What has Reality done for you lately?
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steam Technology
- Cleaner
- Posts: 20
- Joined: Thu Mar 05, 2015 10:18 pm
- Location: Victoria Australia
You could creatively use both gauges in your town/layout say one for the wharf area and another for the town area, or use the optical illusion of distance to make the gauges look the same.
Have a look at this
http://www.carendt.com/small-layout-scr ... june-2002/
the upper rail is a different gauge to the main.
Have a look at this
http://www.carendt.com/small-layout-scr ... june-2002/
the upper rail is a different gauge to the main.
The only thing worth Training for.
Funny you should suggest that I have been considering having the tramway line running through the main street laid in dual gauge which would solve the problem. It would be the Kotanga Valley (Posthole) Mining Co tracks which would be laid to Lego gauge and the Kotanga Tramway tracks would be laid to 45mm. This does actually reflect the real historic situation in the district where I live, though I would be adapting it with much modeller's licence to my own situation. Many years ago as a teenager I built an 00 gauge layout that had 12mm gauge NG trackwork as well, - including some dual gauge trackwork, - and it was a lot of fun to do.
I have been considering having the tramway line running through the main street laid in dual gauge which would solve the problem. It would be the Kotanga Valley (Posthole) Mining Co tracks which would be laid to Lego gauge and the Kotanga Tramway tracks would be laid to 45mm. This does actually reflect the real historic situation in the district where I live, though I would be adapting it with much modeller's licence to my own situation. Many years ago as a teenager I built an 00 gauge layout that had 12mm gauge NG trackwork as well, - including some dual gauge trackwork, - and it was a lot of fun to do.What has Reality done for you lately?
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