Garden Railway Forum

Having been smitten with the vintage garden railway of the late Peter Strange and the Duck End videos featuring it. I have started a change over to more of a vintage gauge one look. Finding and shipping classic gauge one buildings to the states is problematic at the least. So I will have to find my own style in the spirit of what Peter did with his railway. Since I was lacking a station on my railway, that is the first vintage building in the form of a Lionel std gauge metal 124 station that looks to have come from a heavy smokers house or was in a house fire as its stained pretty good and the price was right. All the lighting works with new bulbs and is now wired into the railway's lighting circuit and the building is fastened down to the layout. I have had high winds blow them off before, the headhouse and warehouse of my Piko Beck's Brewery are now in kit form again thanks to a spring storm earlier this year. I also have a glass canopy on its way, something today's travelers would appreciate here today. My first vintage locomotive arrives later this week, a live steam Bing for Bassett Lowke Midland Railway Compound.

Next on my list are rolling stock, both passenger coaches and freight wagons and either a Clockwork engine that is functional that will remain CW or a broken CW that I can install a modern can motor in along with onboard batteries. My railway is dead rail, so powering a vintage high current electric motor really isnt something I want to try. I will stick with live steam, CW or battery electric drive. I know BL did the Tilburry tank 4-4-2t and the MR/LMS 2P in gauge one. Both in MR/LMS colors or even LNWR would work as I could model the year after the grouping when things got mixed up a bit till it was painted in LMS colors.

Its a wet and dreary day in Duck End West, travelers wishing the railway would get the platform canopy installed


My first vintage gauge one loco in live steam. Bing for Bassett Lowke MR/LMS Compound.

Very nice. The Duck End videos are wonderful — they’ve fired my enthusiasm too. Love the loco.

The loco arrived today, she tested great on air, burner works great on the bench, so a test run on steam here shortly.

Nice!

Phil.P wrote: ↑Tue Jul 19, 2022 9:28 am Nice!

Very ......

Rik

Here is the video of her running on the railway.

Loving the new direction your line is taking. (and the Duck End videos)

That Compound is gorgeous. How old is it?

Very nice. Seems to run at a sedate and leisurely pace as well. Have you tried her with a load yet?

Rik

I dont have any gauge one cars for her to pull, just LGB stuff. A friend does have some cars, and I will get to pull them at a steam up at a museum our local steam group is setting up the portable layout at on the 30th of July. I did replace the perished seals on the safety valve, it was leaking like crazy, that helped gain some speed at full throttle, which will equil more power at slower speeds. Fresh fuel also helped. Next up is a new riser wick in the vaproizer burner, getting a bit more yellow in the flames than I like. Still want to get more out of her yet. I am still figuring out the oiler control lever. Tried one method I read to run the model on air fed thru the oiler fill hole, and just crack open the oiler till the wheels just start to turn when on blocks. But this really restricted the speed on the railway under steam. If the oiler is opened to get more speed, it gulps the oil very very quickly leaving little for the rest of the run. I will mess with the oiler control more tomorrow. Also the runs are clearing out the congeled old steam oil from the lines form years of sitting on a shelf. So I expect power to further improve as she is run. Chuffs are very nicely pronounced with just the tender, so she seems to have very little if any blow by in the cylinders. I can only compare its performance to my O scale Corgi Bassett Lowke mogul when it had its alcohol burner. That little guy now has a ceramic gas burner in it, which really improved its operation and steam generation. I am not sure that can be done to this old girl, I am trying to keep it all original as best I can.