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- Yesterday
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Now there is a detail never seen before, and mostly un-noticed in life. The tree stumps from clearance work, and the discoloured patch from beneath the tree or bush.
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Had a bit of a play time over the weekend. There were a few maintenance tasks which needed attending to. The main thrust was to sort out electrical connections that had failed over the winter. One point motor was brought back into service and a couple of sections of track. Trains wise, things were running well. Helped by the servicing of much of my fleet got over the winter ready for last months show. I was pleased that a couple of old Lima Class 66's ran without the need for attention. One longstanding issue I managed to resolve was a coach that kept riding up and derailing. It is part of a permanently coupled set, so it was a pain to un couple to work on, so I had been ignoring it for a year or 3. On close inspection I noticed that busy wasn't siting snug to the under frame. I pulled it all apart and the metal weight was not sitting right. Careful alignment of everything and it all went back together snuggly and the derailing is no longer and issue.
- Last week
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Somehow there comes the desire to have an HST. Greatly staged. 👍
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I have now shown some hobby colleagues the picture and now knows what bell crank etc. in German means. What Google Translator offered as translations was not effective. Because it is also my goal to let one central locking drive make the switching of to points with such a linkage.
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To be honest, I had the tunnel portals up to a long time ago, which I brought back from Italy. I just built them up and gave the mountain a first shape with construction foam.
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Hi Mick, wow, have to agree with bai4eagle, especial the HST train coming out of the tunnel, pure awesome, you station is coming along nicely, look even better with another train waiting on the side loop, are you going to have signals. Tony from down under
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Hi Mick, wow, have to agree with bai4eagle, especial the HST train coming out of the tunnel, pure awesome, you station is coming along nicely, look even better with another train waiting on the side loop, are you going to have signals. Tony from down under
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Modelling a cable stay double deck bridge
aussietmrail replied to aussietmrail's topic in Members Workbench
I bit the dust and decided to add a tower and go cantilever design bridge, I still wanted to use the arches I cut out, turned them over to become a new bridge, hopefully will work this time. I will have redesign the approach to both ends of the bridge so the other half of the arch works in well. May end up lifting the main arch up a n inch will see what happens. I am basing the bridge on the Story Bridge in Brisbane my span may be a bit longer scale wise. the second arch wont be as long as the main arch, going by drawing I stumbled on be about 3 feet long , will work out well, pity the cantilever design is an old design I still need to build a frame that will sit over the bridge join bolting to the arch frame, yep I be able to nail the track down before I screw the road deck in place, will paint the rail deck first. Tony from down under, Easter over for another year -
I believe the ones Ian used are 'GEM Mercontrol' (they're the ones I've used in the past too) but a quick search online appears to show most retailers are out of stock.
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I was about to say 'mindblowing' but Tony's already used that so I'll just agree with Tony! There's me all proud as punch for making a start on my tunnel portals and here's you doing several at once! From the photos your layout appears much longer than I originally thought and so scale length trains at prototypical speeds will just be stunning I'm sure. Very impressive.
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Hello Roddy! Any help and any hint is good. Thank you for your tip, then I'll look for such a shop. Happy Easter! Thomas
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Hi Thomas. These cranks are most commonly used in Radio Controlled models, most often in aeroplanes. That is the sort of shop you need to look for. Sorry for butting into Ian's post.
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Hello Ian! Can you tell me where you got the bell crank and related material from? I do not find such a thing in Germany and have found that the British dealers are much cheaper and deliver faster (!!) than the traders from the continent. (Hattons has delivered my rails I ordered Friday on Tuesday. "Buy in the UK!" I can only say that.) Happy Easter Thomas
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Modelling a cable stay double deck bridge
aussietmrail replied to aussietmrail's topic in Members Workbench
Happy Easter everyone, a slight set back with my bridge, sadly I will have to redesign the arch, I joined the road and rail decks today and it started sagging in the middle, would of done the same with the arch the way I had it. The arch will have to span the middle in one full piece, hopefully that will work, doing a mock-up tomorrow with the arches I have cut out, I may have to have a smaller span of 9 feet with extra piers, disappointing. Tomorrow was planing to get out Camdales modules and make a start on the spiral, still might be able to . Tony from down under -
Totally agree with Andrew, just mind blowing, love your garden plants, and pure awesome indeed, can't wait either, now we are not moving can get stuck into Camdale. Happy Easter, keep the good work up and pics flowing. Tony from down under
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Those are great photos, Thomas. You are doing very well, and are helped by having some nice weather for working outside. Now we can see the full length of your layout - and it looks impressive. I'm looking forward to seeing some high speed trains zooming down that long straight section - so keep up the good work! All the best.
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Since the summer is back in Germany (it has today 28 ° C), I was busy again in the garden. The routing for the high-speed line is done to the other end of the property, a few meters of track and a bridge already finished. Unfortunately, the bridges bought at the fair in Dortmund have not arrived yet. For this I have finished one side of the "mountain in the corner" with construction foam, as soon as it is hard he is still processed with the knife.
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Great work Mick
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Today has been one of those days that's perfect for a garden railway. You forget all about those dull, damp winter days and start bringing your overwintered loco's out into the open. There are a number of loco's that I'm keen to see running on Worsley Dale once I get the major works out of the way and this is one of them: - I have two HST's available, the blue/grey one featured regularly on my previous layout, but this InterCity version has to date not been on track. I know they don't fit in with either of the scenarios my layout is supposed to portray but there are times when you just need a good roar and there's nothing better than the sound of an HST or Deltic pulling away from a standing start. Hornby are soon to release the HST in the latest Scotrail 'Inter7City' livery along with matching sliding door MK3 coaches so hopefully we'll see one of those examples on Worsley Dale in the near future.
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I've been sitting outdoors in the sunshine this morning painting the remaining tunnel portals. It will be great to get all three fixed permanently in position but a temporary mock-up for the sake of a photograph will have to suffice for now. The far end of Shieling Bridge station isn't a problem. The bridge needs to be aligned at a slight angle to be at right angles to the running line and the platform end needs sorting in order to allow it to fit. The inner walls of the tunnel will also require some work but it's nothing major. The terminus station at Cattle Leys was the difficult one of the three as the track layout where the tunnel needs to go is too wide for a single tunnel portal and will require a set of points to be housed inside the tunnel in order to use a double track portal. Prior planning would have made things a lot easier! I can perhaps move the portal back slightly towards the end wall backscene but either way I will have to cut a the headshunt shorter by a few inches. I think the point inside the tunnel will be okay so long as nothing ever goes wrong with it but it is accessible without too much trouble should anything ever happen as it's really only the tie-bar end that's hidden and there's the possibility of gaining access from the outside.
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I mentioned about tidying up the inside of the entrance tunnel wall after I'd fixed the tunnel portal in place but what I hadn't considered was the fact that I've altered the opening to include a plywood slide in order to close off the opening when the layout isn't in use. This earlier photo shows the plywood sliding gate in its raised position - it can slide down to close the tunnel entrance. I fixed the tunnel portal in place, mixed up some filler for the tunnel inner wall but then found I needed a clear slot for the gate to slide up and down. Oh well, back to the drawing board! You can see the groove that the plywood slide made in the photo below. Doesn't look too bad I don't suppose, in fact I wouldn't bet against there being similar indentations in some real tunnels.
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Perhaps I'd better take a closer look. It seems some sections of the wall are higher in places than others. The photo of the class 158 above makes the walls look too high and if you imagine a 1/76th scale man stood in the cess alongside he'd need a ladder to be able to see over the top. But it's not a priority at the moment so it gives me time to think. Right, I've made a start on the indoor scenery - brace yourselves! Before I can do too much I need to fix the entrance tunnel portals in position, but before I can do that they really need painting otherwise they'd be less accessible. Here's where I start - with a blank section. It's going to be trial and error but I've seen it done this way before. Not too sure about the yellow colour - perhaps it's too yellow? but I paint the whole section aiming to get paint into the cement lines. And then once it's dried I use a mix of red, brown, and black, taking a little of each on the tip of my brush, wiping on a paper towel to remove excess paint and then dry brushing across the face of the bricks. Here's my first attempt. The tunnel itself was similarly treated with the yellow paint. And finally after going over the pieces until I was satisfied they looked okay, here's what I am left with as the pieces are placed in the location they will eventually take up. I will tidy up the inner walls of the tunnel when it's finally stuck in place. I've used acrylic paint so I need to varnish before they're glued and then perhaps with this out of the way I can start moving forward.
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An awe-inspiring video, as well as the still shots. It shows just how good a OO garden railway can be. I'm not too sure about the height of the walls on the viaduct. I don't think they should be lowered enough for an unfortunate 1:76 p/way man to accidentally topple over. It is nice to see as much of the trains as possible but please don't lower the walls too much.
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Sandpaper! - they sand down easily Roddy. Creates a bit of dust but it will soon vacuum up. Now on my to do list. Thanks Andrew. Yes, the viaduct's pretty long which is more apparent when you see a small DMU crossing. One day I'm going to put a full trainload of 100t coal hoppers across just because I want to see it! Until the layout is more complete there never seems to be a chance to sit back and enjoy it to the full. I have to mess around changing stock, getting things out of boxes and so on and it become a chore rather than a pleasure with empty boxes and other junk around the place. One day it will come. Still haven't done anything with the indoor scenery today......
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What a great video, Mick. It gives a good overview of your line, and there are some shots that show how impressive the full length of your viaduct is - which I hadn't appreciated from the still photos. The indoor secton looks really nice too. With a superb layout like that, I wonder that you don't just spend the time sitting with a drink and watching the trains roll by...
