Garden Railway Forum

Looking good so far, makes my current build look like a pile of garbage..... (I mean, it is but....)

dudeface wrote: ↑Sat Feb 03, 2024 12:14 am Looking good so far, makes my current build look like a pile of garbage..... (I mean, it is but....)

Don't be so hard on yourself; my early build were rubbish but I learned by my mistakes (there were heaps of them) and tried not to repeat them.
Nobody is a master modeller straight up it takes time.
Plus you have something that nobody else has and its all yours.

GAP wrote: ↑Sat Feb 03, 2024 6:07 am

dudeface wrote: ↑Sat Feb 03, 2024 12:14 am Looking good so far, makes my current build look like a pile of garbage..... (I mean, it is but....)

Don't be so hard on yourself; my early build were rubbish but I learned by my mistakes (there were heaps of them) and tried not to repeat them.
Nobody is a master modeller straight up it takes time.
Plus you have something that nobody else has and its all yours.

I know, I have no experience at all (or money for that matter because everything is money...) so I can't expect it to be anything but a pile of garbage! I'm fine with that.

gregh wrote: ↑Fri Feb 02, 2024 11:44 pm
Time to make the sound board..

You make your own sound boards, now that's impressive

I had a change of plans and put all 6 AA cells on one side tank and the other side will have the sound board and speaker. It will also need about 100g of lead in the other tank to even up the weight on each side. Makes the wiring easier. Receiver and speed controller are in the boiler.
Here’s a pic of all the electronics….
I painted the tanks separately and then glued them to the boiler/baseplate.
The speaker is a ‘ laptop’ type, 40mm x 20mm oval. I mounted it in the side tank facing into the cab. I have decided it will be a wood burner, so part of the side tanks will hold some wood.
I had a piece of curved plastic which was perfect for the cab roof. I made up a frame to support the it from 3mm brass tube.
So it’s getting close to finished. Just need to wire everything up and keep my fingers crossed that it works.
I’m still trying to decide whether to paint the brass cab supports, and/or whether to paint the dome a brass colour.

Coming along fine there Greg should look right at home on the Pottsville Claymine branch

I am in awe of the homemade sound card, nice going!

Looking really good as a whole project

I do like locos with those sorts of open sided cabs.

Rik

ge_rik wrote: ↑Sat Feb 17, 2024 8:49 am I do like locos with those sorts of open sided cabs.

Rik

We have one at the Cane Railway a lot cooler to drive than one with a closed cab in summer.

Thanks for that photo Graeme. I was wondering whether to put some sort of railing behind the driver. Now I have some ideas.

Also the red 'motion'. Also wondering if to paint the con-rod and weights red.

-steves- wrote: ↑Sat Feb 17, 2024 7:37 am I am in awe of the homemade sound card, nice going!

Looking really good as a whole project

Thanks for the compliment Steve.
I have been making sound circuits based on Picaxe microcontrollers for 20+ years now. Both steam and diesel. For my ‘ really good’ locos I use commercial sound cards, but I can make mine sound pretty good, even if I say so myself. The Picaxe is just used to compute the ‘speed’ of the sound from the motor voltage and a ‘white noise’, but the secret to good sound is in the amplifier and ‘shaping’ circuits. I can make very basic ones or quite complicated, depending on how ‘good’ a sound I want.
Here’s links to videos of:
a basic steam sound is the purple loco up to 40 seconds and a ‘good’ steam sound from 1:30 to 2:00 minutes.




A diesel sound - from about 2:40 mins

Wow, they sound fantastic and the components are so inexpensive! I can see why you make the yourself.

That really captures the look of the original! And, I agree, it's going to look great on your clay branch...

Andrew.

This loco is truly CURSED. After all the problems with getting everything cut, I finally have it almost complete. It just needs some numbers.

BUT as I took it for its first run outside, it stopped after 15 minutes. I finally have tracked it down to an intermittent fault in the Hobbyking transmitter. And there are none available in the store!
So I have temporarily bound it to another Tx.
It can now takes it’s place as number 29 on the Sandstone and Termite roster, as the 25th scratchbuilt loco.

So here’s a few pics on the indoor line

First a comparison of the prototype I used as a 'model' and my attempt.








and the video indoors and outdoors …

I think you've perfectly captured the prototype's character.

The lining certainly helps relieve the slablike nature of the side tanks. Not a modelling issue, just a feature of the prototype.

Rik