Garden Railway Forum

The wind started to drop this afternoon and the sun came out, so it seemed a good time for a first run with steam, now that the first stage of construction is complete. Well that was the excuse....

It seemed appropriate to give Omeo a run, as it was my first loco and in the TVT story it was used to build the line, so a work train seemed appropriate.

The first photo shows the old girl sitting in the Autumn sun, with the needle on the gauge just starting to lift off the stop.


A photo of the work train waiting in the wye for the loco to come off shed. From the left, a water gin, three ballast trucks and a guards van.


Next photo is the train trundling along the long straight heading south just before entering the big curve.


The last photo shows the works train crossing the bridge on a later run.


By this stage the wind had died down further, so since the Hunslet was my second loco, it was brought out for a run as well and the next photo shows it basking in the late afternoon sun waiting for pressure to build.


The Hunslet is a wetter engine than Omeo and even on a warm sunny afternoon is showing some exhaust as it rolls it's train along under the Pittosporums along the back fence.


The last photo for the day shows the Hunslet running it's train across the bridge.


Regards,
Graeme

Nice.

It's been a long time in gestation, but now well worth all of your hard work. Congratulations.

Wonderful stuff! I've been wanting to see your lovely locos and stock in action for yonks - as I'm sure you have! Thanks for sharing it with us all...

All the best,

Andrew.

Well done. Lovely photographs and write up of the first trains.

VERY nice Graeme! I've admired your line without trains and the one we now see is every bit as worthy of equal admiration!

Andrew

Great to see the line up and running and some of your wonderful rllong stock on show.

Rik

Thank you. Since the first photos in this thread appear to have been of interest.......

Yesterday afternoon was sunny with very little wind, so I gave the Hunslet another couple of runs to get a bit more practice driving it on the new line.

When the Hunslet was built, it was intended to be one of the locos owned by the Mt. Delusion Timber Co., which connects to the TVT, although for a long while it was only seen with TVT rollingstock. Since I now have a rake of timber bogies, it seemed a good idea to show it running on the timber tram.

The first photo shows it proceeding south on the timber tram with a load of sawn timber for transfer to the TVT.


The second photo shows it on another run further south on the long straight, just before heading west around the big curve. This time I was keeping track of running details and the loco made it around the track 22 times before the gas ran out. That calculates out to it travelling 2640ft (exactly half a real mile), or 10 scale miles at a scale speed of 20-25mph.


During the first run a a couple of days ago a soft solder joint gave way on Omeo and now that I have a workbench again (after a tidy up this morning), the repair was made and that was as good a reason as any to give Omeo a light engine test run this afternoon. Having a much smaller boiler and gas tank it managed 11 trips around the track at the same sort of speed running light.

The first photo shows Omeo running chimney first, just entering the small curve at the north end.


The second photo shows it a bit later running bunker first, heading south along the long straight on it's way back to the workshop.


As is the way of machinery, Omeo always comes to a halt somewhere fairly inaccessible at the back of the mainline loop. The Hunslet is more obliging and usually stops on the bridge.........

Regards,
Graeme

Track commissioning work continues, in spite of the local climate........

The weekend was wet and miserable, so the time was spent in the workshop making some new parts for the point levers. The original design worked fine, but didn't have enough throw and a few wheel sets that were slightly narrow back to back were hitting the open point blade, with a risk of derailment.

Monday was overcast, but dry, so the new point levers were installed and testing of rollingstock commenced. The First photo shows the old Motor Mule running a train with all the TVT 4-wheel open wagons on test.


This loco had major problems running through the turnouts when they were first installed, as the driving wheels have narrow flanges and tyres and the width available between the frames means the back to back is a little narrow for 45mm gauge. It looked like it was going to need a chassis rebuild and new driving wheels, which would be a pain. Luckily the modified point levers gave it enough clearance at the point blades and it now runs reliably.

I now use it for all test running. As others have found, a battery powered loco is perfect for this sort of thing, as it can run at a moments notice, can be set running at a nice even speed and I can then concentrate on what the rollingstock is doing as it runs around. Steam loco running is on hold until the track and rollingstock is running reliably.


The next photo shows the Mule trundling along the back straight with all the 4-wheel wagons the line possesses. This train is 18 vehicles for 36 axles and I was surprised the Mule could handle it, until I did some test measurements.


The train of 4-wheelers has a rolling resistance of 350g on the curves, 250g on the straights. The Motor Mule has a maximum drawbar pull of 475g on dry rail, so surprisingly (to me at least) this train is well within it's capabilities on a flat line like mine. It should also be enough for rescuing the smaller steam locos, but I think I'll need to build something bigger for bringing the Garratt and a train back to the steaming bay.

Out of interest, I did the power calculations and it takes only 0.8 watts to keep this train moving at a scale speed of approx. 15 mph. If memory serves, at that speed the motor draws about 5 watts, so the drive system of a Como motor/gearbox and mitre gear final drive isn't particularly efficient with only 15% of the input power getting to the wheels. Might account for why the motor gets warm even on a cold day.........


Tuesday warmed up and the sun came out in the afternoon, so it was the turn of the bogie goods stock to be tested. The photo shows the Mule hauling all 10 bogie wagons for 40 axles along the back straight under the Pittosporums.


Interestingly, to me anyway, the longer and heavier bogie train has a lower rolling resistance than the train of 4-wheelers, requiring inly 250g on curves and 150g on straights to keep it moving at a scale speed of approx. 15 mph.


That now leaves the passenger stock, the timber bogies and the v-tippers to test run. If the weather co-operates I can get it done before the school holidays start and I get visitors.....

Regards,
Graeme