Garden Railway Forum

As promised to Andrew of WH(WHR), here begins a thread dedicated to rolling stock of the Greta & Wenningdale Light Railway.
I enjoy scratch building stuff, particularly where I can repurpose something, So I have been somewhat surprised to realise how much of my stock is actually kitbuilt. However, I (like many others I suspect) nearly always add my own embellishments to kits, and being a railway not particularly based on any prototype, I can get away with quite a lot applying rule 8 - it's my railway, so what I say goes So this thread will also include kit purchases and the modifications I made to them.
Early on in the life of the GWLR (it actually began as the Bogg Bridge & Breastfield Light Railway - BaBBLR) I needed a guards van scaled to suit Binnie tipper wagons, and so I decided to make my own, using a Binnie flat bed waggon as the base for it. The body work was built from thin plasticard, and embellished with Hornby track pinheads as rivets on the framework.
As it is a guards brake van, I felt it needed brake gear, so I 'cobbled' together something with plastic strip, brass wire and Cambrian bolts and added the brake wheel to the vestibule end, rather than in the van, on the basis that it was small enough without having the brake wheel there too.
With the addition of running boards, handrails and a tail lamp, I thought that the model was finished.
But then, with so much detail outside, I thought I had better detail the inside and make the lights work too. So a bench was added, a small stove and a dim interior light, just because I'm a glutton for punishment Unfortunately, because I have placed the battery box in the roof (no room underneath, you see - someone put brake detail there ) there is no better view of the interior than from the vestibule end
The final touch was to provide a crew, and so the GWLR employed Garry Oretrain as a guard, and he has faithfully carried out that role ever since 2014.

Very nice too!.... small but beautifully formed.

Peter Butler wrote: ↑Sat Jul 31, 2021 12:29 pm Very nice too!.... small but beautifully formed.

Yes, indeed.

Very nice, I like that a lot! A lovely overall design that looks just right, and satisfyingly chunky detail...

Andrew.

Thank you for your kind comments. More to come, of course.

Great looking model. Really like the touches such as the glimpse of the brake gear beneath....

Rik

That's a canny wee thing. I love it.

That's absolutely superb. Love your attention to detail.

Prompted by Simon-m, https://gardenrails.org/forum/viewtopic ... 60#p168225 I decided I needed to do something to reduce my backlog of rainy day projects.
I purchased a Gravity griff kit from Locoremote in January, when they announced they would be ending production of the 3d printed kit. Being on a short break before Easter in the South Lakes, I decided to take along the kit to try and construct it in the evenings. I'm so glad I did - the parts went together really well, like a very satisfactory Airfix kit, and with some well designed features to enable maintenance of working parts. Photo credit: Chris Rennie, Locoremote
At the time of purchase, I opted for the prewired Rx and soundcard, and it was literally a case of putting it in place, adding batteries and then turning it on. Photo credit: Chris Rennie, Locoremote
It worked! And I was able to construct not only the powered waggon, but also the 3 accompanying slate waggons in one evening.
With a steam up planned for Easter Saturday at a friend's line, when we returned home on Good Friday, I managed to prime and paint the slate loads to give some contrast to the model. Together with the Clavey Models brakeman, already painted, this produced a useable interesting model.
With as much painting done as I wished to do for the steam up, I decided to 'just do a test run' on that morning, and it was at this point that Murphy and his legislation took a hand in proceedings
Well, heh heh, - I tested it on my line just to ensure all was working. It trundled along my track, onto the bridge over the pond, it passed the end of the bridge railings and... promptly derailed, plunging into the pond - and it was still running!. I plucked it out and switched it off, then did a rapid disassemble and got the hair dryer on it. Fortunately, after a bit of a false start, all was well
So, I was able to visit my friend's railway and run the first Gravity train to grace that line. Photo credit: Ian Midgeley
And because a fun part of the model is the sound, here's a short video of it running - sound on!
GWLR Gravity Griff at SLR(N).
When the weather turns wet again, I shall see what I can do to weather the waggons satisfactorily.

Well done Phil. I love the running and the bugle sounds magic. I've never heard the original but that sounds very plausible.

Lonsdaler wrote: ↑Wed Apr 20, 2022 12:01 pm “…Murphy and his legislation took a hand…”

You don’t have video of it “plunging into the pond”? I’m sorry, I laughed out loud.

Across the UK this Easter, it appears, hapless hobbyists were doing their best to sabotage their own garden railways!

(It looks — and sounds! — very neat, of course)

philipy wrote: ↑Wed Apr 20, 2022 12:59 pm Well done Phil. I love the running and the bugle sounds magic. I've never heard the original but that sounds very plausible.

Thanks Philip. I believe the sound files (2 bugle 'calls' and track running noise) are from the recreated Gravity Griff that the Ffestiniog occasionally run. The credit should all go to Chris Rennie; it is the most fun I've had making and running a kit in a long time.

BertieB wrote: ↑Wed Apr 20, 2022 2:58 pm

Lonsdaler wrote: ↑Wed Apr 20, 2022 12:01 pm “…Murphy and his legislation took a hand…”

You don’t have video of it “plunging into the pond”? I’m sorry, I laughed out loud.

Across the UK this Easter, it appears, hapless hobbyists were doing their best to sabotage their own garden railways!

(It looks — and sounds! — very neat, of course)

No video Bertie, because it was going to be a literal 6 foot run out and back! I'd quickly checked the line was clear, but must have missed a small piece of debris or something. The bridge parapet where it came off has no wall or rails, a job that has been on the round tuit list since it was built I can confirm that I did not laugh out loud - there may even have been some profane language, but it made a good story to share at the steam up that afternoon

Seeing the complete kit laid out, I can finally better understand why they're so popular. Brilliant bit of work, that.

Old Man Aaron wrote: ↑Fri Apr 22, 2022 11:53 am Seeing the complete kit laid out, I can finally better understand why they're so popular. Brilliant bit of work, that.

It's a real 'novelty' item and I'm not yet sure how to best make use of it, but I have some ideas in mind. The credit for it should really go to Locoremote - my role was just as assembler/fitter